by Michael Strauss

Created on: December 30, 2010   Last Updated: December 31, 2010

In general, there are two types of people who write video game reviews.  The first type of person is someone who plays a video game and thinks to themselves, “I should let people know about this game.”  The second type of person is someone who reads a video game review and thinks to themselves, “This review sucks.  The reviewer has no clue what they are talking about.”  If you are the first type of person, you probably should be writing video game reviews.  If you are the second type of person, you almost definitely shouldn’t.

Writing a video game review can be tricky for many reasons.  Most video games take hours or even days to complete and you basically need to complete a game before you can review it.  In addition, because you actually interacting with a video game, it is easy to miss something important and often difficult to impossible to go back to what you missed.  Finally, even more than most other types of media, you are much more likely to have strong feelings about the game that will color your perceptions of the game.

Assuming you can deal with all of those hurdles, there are two common formats for writing a video game review.  The first format involves breaking the review into sections based on specific features of the game like audio, video, game play, and story.  Then each element of the game is reviewed separately, often with individual ratings for those elements. This format is most common in magazines and rarely used for online or video reviews.  The second, more common format is generally a free-flow discussion of the most and least impressive features of the game.  Gamespot uses this method of video game reviews.  Finally, it is possible to combine the two methods, as IGN does, by writing a free-flow review, but also giving individual ratings to the various elements of the game.

When writing a video game review, one of the most important decisions is what voice you write the review in.  Many first time reviewers make the mistake of writing the review in the first person.  They are anxious to share their experiences and instinctively write something like, “I enjoyed this game because…”  While there is a place for first person reviews in the marketplace, it is rarely the best way to write a review and should be reserved for special reviews.  Oddly, the third person is also a weak voice to write a review in. 

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