RPG Land Review Criteria
So that you, the reader, can know why things are scored the way they are, and why we don’t hand out 10’s like Halloween candy (which too many places are guilty of), we’ve made this page to state the reasoning behind our review scores.
1 – Offensive. Makes you wonder how this thing got printed without initial protest.
2 – Horrible Better than a 1, but not for any reasons that make it worth buying. Mainly, anything scored 2 or below was only written to warn you.
3 – Bad Maybe a couple things are of good report, but this represents an overall very bad game. Often times, 3’s and 4’s had much potential that no one capitalized on, leading to disappointment.
4 – Below Average Has some good perks, but the game overall falls a bit short of the “average” mark. It might be an okay trip, especially for the most die hard niche/series enthusiests, but isn’t one of the best titles on its respective system.
5 – AVERAGE. This is the center of the 1-10 scale, and therefore, the sum of games for a given system balance out to about this level of quality. Keep that part in mind: the game’s primary competition in our scoring is on the same system, not other systems. While the number may reflect some missed expectations, a 5 is not a “bad” score. Most places list 7/10 as their average, and others still look upon the number negatively. Not us. We respect math. Things above 5 are, by logic, above average. We use the whole scale here, not just half of it.
6 – Good Has one large or numerous small flaws, but provides an above-average RPG experience.
7 – Very good. It’s like a 6 (Good, above average), but significantly stronger in certain key areas.
8 – Great. Not without flaws, but a very well-done and memorable game. A bragging point for developers.
9 – Excellent. All things considered, this is a top-notch game. May have one or two minor problems, but they are crushed under the game’s overwhelming qualities. It will be remembered for a long time. At other review outlets, a lot of these games will be marked 9.5 or 10/10.
10 – Legendary. This is almost impossible to obtain. This kind of game only comes around once in a great while. It may even be a couple of years between releases of games like this.
And there you have it. You see, we’ve found that a few too many media sources place 7 as their average without even realizing it. It’s like any game that some sites/mags describe as “very good” gets at least a 9, which slants the review scale to more of a 5-10 scale, rather than the 1-10 it claims to be. Not us. We use every number as a different representation of quality, the way it should be.