[General Discussion] The Death of the Game Review

I think reviews can be a pretty useful resource when determining whether you'd like a game or not. Demos of course can give pretty decent ideas of what the basic gameplay is like, but often are too little to base a final impression off of. They don't tell you anything of how long the game is, how varied the gameplay is throughout the game, the pacing or the story, the optional features, etc. It's sort of the equivalent of a movie trailer: you might be able to tell how exciting a movie's action sequences look from it and the general theme of the movie, but you won't really know of anything else until you watch the whole thing.

Some demos do a better job than others, for something like Battlefield 2 where you essentially get the full game but limited to one level, you'll know without question whether or not you'll enjoy the full version. But for something like Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders, where the only demo showcases the most basic aspect of the gameplay and the real fun comes in later on in the game when you're given options on upgrading and commanding a variety of troops, a demo can be quite worthless and you're practically better off just looking at a review.

The more resources you have for determining whether or not you'd like a game, the better decision you can make from it. I generally tend to look up reviews, videos, and if available a demo of a game if I'm debating whether or not to buy it. But sometimes it's easy enough to tell whether or not a game appeals to you just from the basic concept and look of it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.