Getting down to brass tacks

There's always been a lot of debate over video game review scores. Over the years, various outlets have tried different methods of getting their opinions across without having to boil it all down to a number. I've always been of the opinion that the text of a review is far more important than the score, which is the reason I don't assign one when reviewing games. I can understand the frustration of spending a lot of time carefully constructing an analysis of a recent title, only to have people skip right to the end. Did it score more than 9.5? That's all some folks seem to care about.

But I've come to realize something: There is absolutely nothing wrong with jumping to the end of a review, or even avoiding the text altogether. I came to this epiphany a few days ago when thinking about Epic's new XBLA title, Shadow Complex. Ever since they showed off this game at E3, I knew I wanted it. Therefore, I decided not to read too much about it or watch any gameplay videos - I'd rather be surprised, and experience everything firsthand. After a busy week, I finally had a day off and intended on buying Shadow Complex immediately. But wait! Just because the game looked awesome in previews doesn't mean the final product turned out as expected. What if they fell short at the final hurdle?

There was a simple solution to this problem - just read a review and see how the finished game turned out. But since I'd managed to keep myself sheltered from details for so long, I didn't want to blow it all at the last minute; I just had one simple question: Should I buy it or not? I accept the fact that a score alone could never tell you whether or not you'll like a game - you have to know if it's even a genre you enjoy, for a start. However, I love the Metroidvania-style platforming of Shadow Complex, so knew that I would enjoy the game, as long as it turned out half decent. Therefore, I didn't need to read anything other than the score of a review; if a couple of sites gave it an 8 or higher, I was in. Lets see..... B+ on 1up; 94% on IGN - that's all I needed to know.

Over time, I've been aware of my increasing hatred towards spoilers, in both games and movies. And I don't just mean finding out story elements or twists ahead of time, but rather having any cool aspect revealed before I get a chance to discover it myself. Try as they might, it's impossible for reviewers to give their opinions of a game without spoiling some elements, so there's really only one way to avoid this and still get an idea of whether it's recommended or not - just skip to the score, or in the case of my reviews, jump down to the final paragraph. I promise I won't take offence if you do this, and I hope other, professional reviewers will feel the same. Just do us all a favor, though - Once you've played the game and formed an opinion of your own, come back and read the rest!