Conflict between reviews and personal opinion?

I get that reviews are only one person's take on a game, and that they're entirely subjective, but I feel there's almost something 'wrong' with me or my tastes when game reviews are exceedingly positive and effusively praising a game, but I can't see the same game they're talking about. Is this something anyone else feels? The most recent example for me is Marvel's Midnight Suns - so many positive reviews that are very glowing, and I don't feel I'm seeing the complexity/depth those reviews talk, and instead only see a not-roguelite CCG with AAA-polish and some exploration elements between fights. I don't know what I'm missing, and it kind of bugs me, as I know peeps worked hell of hard on this thing, and it's fun enough, but with the number of games coming and older games I haven't touched, 'fun enough' isn't cutting it... Am I the only one who feels this way?

I...often disagree with the critical consensus. I think that's normal. Some stuff is for you and some stuff isn't. Midnight Suns also got an 82% on Metacritic. That's good but it's not universal acclaim. Destructoid gave it a 7.5, which is pretty much a "fun enough" rating and others gave it lower.

I also don't really know who praised it for its complexity and depth beyond reviewers who don't play a lot of tactics game. Yes it's complicated and deep compared to a standard turn based RPG or like Animal Crossing but it's not exactly up there with the deepest tactics games. It's a Marvel game. It has to appeal to a 12 year old who says "Oh, Mom, look, they finally put out a game with Spider-Man for the Xbox! Please can I have it? Please? Please?"

I don't really understand why you would question your tastes over not liking a Metacritic 82. I've not liked LOTS of Metacritic 82s (and LOVED some 60s) and the 82 alone shows that some critics didn't really love the game.

Hell I've bounced off games that actually WERE universally praised because they just weren't for me for whatever reason. Shovel Knight has a 90 and I LIKE a lot of retro style platformers but that game just doesn't do it for me. Oh well. Moving on.

It's not uncommon for people to overlook the rough parts of a game if its genre or niche they're into.

You also have to remember reviewers also play a lot more games compared to the average person, games like Far Cry will get a knock on Metacritic from fatigue by being another open-world shooter but for most it's a game they buy every other year or so.

It's funny how initial reviews are generally positive but go out and search a retrospective for a beloved game and they are constantly nitpicking everything. I think once the newness wears off and people have had more experience they have more to critique.

to add on to this, humans are naturally inclined to give more focus to unique experiences. For a critic that is going to be playing far far more games than a lot of their audience even has time to tackle, what they see as unique and worthy of that attention is naturally going to be different than the audience.

the way i figure with critics is that it makes more sense to find someone who's style or thoughts are interesting or readable (listenable) and follow them. for example, any game dan recommends i know i'm unlikely to have much interest in because our interests are wildly different. That said, he explains why he likes a game in a way that also informs me why i wouldn't, which is valuable in its own way.

The context in which some games are reviewed (in secrecy and under deadlines) probably doesn't help. I can see a reviewer understanding that a game they didn't personally enjoy may still be a good time for someone else outside of the bubble of a games media review schedule.

@tlchwi02: The annoying part is that, the people whose opinions I 'trust' more, don't really write anymore lol. Brad & Jeff both elucidated what makes a game great, and their enthusiasm for a game says a lot qualitatively, but sadly, I missed anything they said about it MMS. I'm finding PC Gamer and Rock Paper Shotgun pretty reliable, but they were both effusive about MMS too...

there's not

@lab392: Logically, I know this. It is but a part of the ol' anxiety/depression stuff that swirls around the noggin, just comparing of opinions and thinking that it can't possibly be a difference of opinion - it's me being just that little bit broken :)

I stopped paying attention to reviews. There are a lot of voices out there with no real perspective on gaming as a whole and only play what the hype or the algorithms make trending at that moment. It makes reviews really difficult to listen to or read. Long-form gameplay videos is a far better way to see if a game is right for you.

speaking personally- i usually don't have an issue with reviews contradicting my own opinions if they're presented in a well-reasoned fashion. i really enjoy stepping into someone else's perspective, and if they're skillful in their task, they're able to get me on their level- even if i really don't agree.

for me the frustration and cognitive dissonance kicks in with the 'take economy.' it feels like most of the opinions i consume these days are either via video or podcast- and they just aren't conducive to the self reflexive analysis i enjoy most. i recognize not everyone is looking for the same thing in their critiques- but being on the opposite side of what feels like a bandwagon critique can be a uniquely frustrating experience- especially if you're not getting an analysis beyond 'omg cringe.'

but also- there's peace of mind in knowing there's no accounting for taste. people actually bought and admitted to enjoying Sonic Frontiers- that should be all the reassurance you need.

@himsteveo: I figure it's like 80%, in that 80% of the time you show the game to someone, 8/10 will like it, the other 2 will hate it. Your that 2. Also, the things you describe as average...all sound pretty good together. Like making a pot of soup with all that in it makes a decent game that appeals to a large crowd.

The fanciest restaurants are usually well reviewed not cause the food is that much better than your local mom and pop, but because they market as exactly what you're getting (spicy food restaurant sells spicy food, etc) and the people coming in expect that. Come in wanting some bland food, because you have sensitive taste buds and you'll come home angry at the amount of salt and spices on that 5 star restaurant. WHY does everyone think that restaurant is so good. I was so hyped up, overrated i say...go online to ask if anyone else thinks 5-star chef is bad...get told yes...notice you're the 20%, and 80% love them.

The game is just right for the audience, not too complex, not too crazy. It's why people hate marvel but they make movies that sell, the general audience isn't looking for everyhting everywhere all at once levels of complex from multiverse of madness even if reviewers and critics claim it would have been better with EEAAO storyline. The 30% that hate marvel and their generally 7/10 movies are loud minorities. Mostly also, if you look at most games or movies, the highest get around 8.5 after general time and hype wares off. If you want a game that's definitely for you it's rare for it to be new. Only ancient games get that nostalgia boost with games like mario 64 at 9.5 and up. So about 5% of people will think it's bad by my weird logic. Mostly the beloved games are 6.5-8/10 but i like to rate out of 9 since people hate giving or approving of 10s cause this dumb idea nothing's perfect (so why use the 10). SO any game with 8/9 or so is pretty good. Midnight suns typically gets the take it's 7-8/9 by my scale, very people pleasing, but if it doesnt hit for you you'll be that outliner and hate it. Same with say elden ring, it's so well catered to people into that specific thing, if you dont like it you will hate it. Something general for everyone, is usually bland and just fine...sells well cause ehh, not a good example but avatar 2 way of water. Nothing awful about it or extremely mindblowing (besides visuals), hate mostly comes from it not being mindblowing after so much hype/sales…it's expectations and reality colliding. (PS i like avatar but get the criticisms)

@skullomania: This is an important point people need to take into consideration with all mainstream reviews. They are on a deadline. They need to finish the game, and have enough time left to write a review before release day. This doesn't mean they can't form any objective analysis, but there are aspects in certain games that hit different when you're not in a rush, or after you spend months/years with them.

It's also up to us readers to develop some understanding of our own personal taste. Once you have a handle on that, you can get a sense if you will like a game even if you don't agree with the reviewer's opinion. For example, Mirror's Edge Catalyst had a lukewarm reception, but breakdowns of the game's strengths and weaknesses had me thinking I would still enjoy it overall. Turned out to be true, Catalyst is great.

@judaspete: Agreed. A writer can't lay out all their preferences ahead of, or in the body of a review. The most I've managed is to slide some of that stuff into an early paragraph.

And the grind is real. I almost certainly play games differently for review (unless I have a really generous embargo/know the series like the back of my hand). There's also things like the reviewer's personal review scale to think about. I have an idea in my head of how to use a 10-point scale but that'll differ between writers.

It's kinda scary to think about how your review can hinge on your closing statement and a number.

I take some issue with your title because reviews are personal opinion, but I see what you're getting at with your post.

Short answer is that there's nothing wrong with you. There are plenty of people with tastes that don't line up with "the consensus," whether it's on an individual game or generally. For me it has often gone the opposite way, where I have liked a particular game or movie a lot more than my fellow critics (I think I liked Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 more than most, for example, and I was in the correct half of professional critics that gave the 2017 Power Rangers movie a positive score), but that's fine. Tastes are different.

It does get almost frustrating when you can't see the "fun" in something though, I admit that. Despite being seemingly universally beloved, I have started Undertale twice and have never managed to get more than a few hours into it, feeling like it's "fine" but not mind-blowing. There might be something later that I'm missing, and it's on my list of games to go back and finish one day, but I do feel like I'm missing out sometimes.

If you’ve ever enjoyed a game in spite of a low review, and you still care or worry about reviews, you got some personal stuff you might need to work on ;) It’s all meta commentary that is sometimes useful and fun to read, but it shouldn’t be something you have a strong opinion about in either direction.

I always think back to my time with Fantasy Life... absolutely one of the best games I’ve ever played but it’s like a 70 on Metacritic, with a lot of 6/10’s. Didn’t let the commentary around that thing affect my time with it, I was having too good a time to care if someones opinion lines up with my own.

While I'll pay attention to a review, just to see what the mainstream gaming industry is saying about a game, I don't solely count on them to decide whether I would enjoy a video game or not. There have been games reviewers praised that I thought were overrated or simply not good. And there have been games that reviewers bashed and I found to be good or even great. Going back, if I listened to Gamepro's review of Xenogears, I would've missed out on one of the greatest JRPGs of all time. And you mentioned about over praising a game, I also noticed the opposite of them going out of their way to talk down about a game, when its really not warranted, case in point Forspoken. So it goes both ways and is the reason you need to play the game you're interested in and decide for yourself. You should never want to be in a place where you let other people tell you how you should think, especially when it comes to whether you should like or dislike something.

Interesting enough, your post kind of confirms a point I was making on another thread, but I'll like that go.

Reviews have less value to me these days, probably no value at all. I relied on them lot as a kid/teenager when I had to get the most bang for my buck - but as an adult I have money, and I dont have time. The value proposition has changed - young me would probably rate an AC Valhalla quite high where as adult me just shakes his head and falls asleep.

I find as I get older too my tastes and what interests me or holds my attention becomes more and more niche and I intersect with less and less reviewers to even follow any longer so I've largely given up.

These days I just check in to see if the game is shipping broken or shadily marketed like a Cyberpunk.

I also really liked Midnight Suns! Feels like every time I get to play that game I'm playing through an episode of a 90's Cartoon like Gargoyles or Xmen or something.

TLDR; its all meaningless you just gotta go with what you think you like and hope for the best. I do enjoy that a lot of games I never took a chance on are ending up on Gamepass for Xbox or Playstation. Even so lots of games end up on sale for pennies on the dollar eventually.

i think its important to find reviewers that generally align with your tastes honestly. don't get me wrong hearing ppl's opinions can help but if they aren't likely to align with yours then everything is pretty hit or miss if you really care about said game more than a curiousity of perspective. years ago phil kollar was the RPG guy (usually) at gi and my tatses were pretty similar most of the time , fst forward to him leaving tho and joe juba when he reviewed the same types of games his tastes just flat out weren't like mine to the point i'd think he's nuts for liking /disliking whatever said game was. when they brought in kim n while my tastes didn't agree with her either i at least could see her perspective of how she got there. everyones tastes are different so don't think its you for not being hype on something alot of ppl are or aren't. as for midnight suns i've heard plenty of mixed opinions of that one so its not like your alone.

I feel like I rarely line up with mainstream reviewers because a lot of them are tired of a lot of game genres, but I don't play a ton of them as a job so I'm not in that headspace.

Like everyone's shitting on Forspoken but I'm probably going to buy it anyway because it's reminding me of everyone shitting on Days Gone for similar reasons and I played that and had a grand ol' time.

I live in a post-review world myself. I don't entirely know when it happened, but unless I am bored and want to try something new and sort metaritic by score I don't really care what reviews say. Most games are so available to look at and form a somewhat coherent understanding of what the game is and whether or not it's for me that I don't really need anyone else telling me if the game is for me or not. And looking at the games I have enjoyed the most these last few years, few of them have been the most praised games and the most praised games have rarely been my favorites.

@himsteveo: The key is finding critics that have similar tastes to you. I'm with you on Midnight Suns. Everything about that game says I should love it. I'm just... not having fun. It feels like instead of being part of the world, my character is just interacting with the world like playing with action figures or something. The best comparison I came up with, is that it is the Dr. Thunder version of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Like, all of the pieces seem to be there, but it's just not as good.

Pretty much this. You tend to ignore a lot of issues while game is fresh and you're on 1st and 2nd playthroughs. But if you stick around a lot more annoying parts or questionable design decisions become more apparent. It also depends who reviews it ofc, for you it can be first or second game in the genre so you simply don't know if something is underwhelming compared to "X or Y game", meanwhile someone who played dozens of titles can easily find those things at the first sight. And it's not only about video games: I've had bad experiences with other stuff(mostly footwear and camping gear from nearby outdoors store). It's not one size fits all after all, something other people dislike might work for you, something other people adore might not.