How much do review scores influence your spending decisions?

[Safav Hamon]

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Curious to know?

 

[Melcar]

100% Codex.

 

[abnaxus]

steam review scores

 

[Mustawd]

I’d say quite a bit. If the review score goes to negative, I don’t even look at it. If it goes to mediocre I’ll take a look and read the reviews themselves.

For me the reviews are usually a good indication if the game is super buggy or jist completely broken.

 

[Safav Hamon]

If a game is below 70%, it has more problems than just bugs. I've seen super buggy games with high review scores.

 

[Tehdagah]

I'm cautious with extremely well received games (90%+). Always question these.

 

[Egosphere]

I've been burned again and again with games that were apparently the second coming of christ, only to turn out to be utter bollocks once I got to play them. Now I don't pay any attention to reviews, unless they're done by people whose interests align with my own.

 

[Valky]

Zero percent. I look at gameplay videos online to see what the actual game it like to determine if I would consider it high enough quality to play.

 

[Gregz]

Poll is invalid.

By making votes public you're forcing the sheep to check the KODEX KOOL KID option.

 

[ultra loser]

Why would anyone care about opinions of people who play mostly popamoles/indie shit/battle royale?

Zero percent. I look at gameplay videos online to see what the actual game it like to determine if I would consider it high enough quality to play.

This

 

[Taurist]

They almost never do. Frequently hightly rated games are some indie multiplayer early access crafting trash, while great games can have mixed reviews because they dont support Ultrawide resolutions or some shit.

If I see poor reviews I do check out why though.

 

[Luckmann]

I think the choices are fucked.

Reviews *do* influence my spending decisions in that bad reviews make me think twice about something I might otherwise have gotten based on sales-pitch/trailers/screenshots more or less alone, prompting me to inform myself why the reviews are shit.

But in general, they affect my decisions very little. I'd never get a game *because* it has high ratings. That'd be retarded.

 

[Tigranes]

I wouldn't know, I don't ever really look at them. Am I going to spend any of my time watching retards on youtube? Go to eurogamer or rock paper shitprose? When I could waste that time playing video games?

Half the people here have played RPGs for 20+ years, you'd think we know what we like when we see it.

 

[luj1]

Never.

 

[otsego]

I've relied on community reviews such as the Codex to give me insight into purchases. Especially a place like here where I can form my opinion based on blatant fanboyism against blatant oldschool views that refuse to adapt. Not that I've used that as a 100% guide (I liked POE 1 and 2, bros).
Games Media Reviews(tm) often have little effect on me, ESPECIALLY if they are 90+. It should be obvious that newer TES and Fallout games are 60%'s at best.

My favorite games of all time have often fallen into the 65-80% range. (Vampire TM:BL, STALKER, Hitman, etc).

My favorite RPGs from the 90's often scored higher scores, but that was a much, much different time....

 

[Monk]

Same as Valky. I check out any gameplay videos.

 

[Valky]

I make an exception for Codex reviews on occasion. I can trust my fellows here.

 

[Belegarsson]

High review scores don't matter much, low review scores do. Since review scores for games are highly inflated, there's an extremely low number of negatively reviewed games (i.e Underworld Ascendant) that you gotta be wary once you see one since games sitting at below 50/100 on metacritic tend to be fundamentally broken.

Meanwhile, high review scores usually display high level of production or polished value. Looking at my purchase history on Steam, I've bought over 10 games at launch, all of them are sitting above 65 and most of them are pretty in line with what I'd give them, the 4 exceptions are Vampyr (no way it's a 72, more like a 3/10), AC Odyssey (84, more like 3/10), Where The Water Tastes Like Wine (74, worth a 2/10 at best thanks to soundtrack) and Hitman 2 (it gets a 83 which is very good score but to me it deserves a 9+). The former 3 games share one thing in common: they're not outright unplayable games and have a degree of polish put into them, but I rate them low because they're mechanically boring and shallow.

Remember that you might like reviews or agree with criticisms towards a game and still like it. Treat reviews as a source of information, not what ultimately decides your purchases.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I don't buy anything I don't "demo" first.

Review scores are usually determined by "best game ever" or "worst game ever" retards, so they're completely useless.

 

[J_C]

 

[Watser]

Look at gameplay videos. If I like what I see I do a search for ">>insert game<< rpgcodex" to see if there is a discussion about the game here. Continue to gloss over a couple of the steam reviews and if the game still has my interest it'll go on my wishlist to then maybe buy it once it's 50-75% off.

 

[Rahdulan]

You can always look up gameplay videos. Or if you're desperate enough Let's Plays for that RAW footage.

Scores were always arbitrary and as such subject to shit like external influences. If you're going to put any stock in reviews just go by the written word where you can always read into nuance which goes beyond that hard number at the end. But really, only opinions that really hold any importance and you should take into consideration would be those coming from enthusiasts themselves or where people can openly discuss without fear of censorship or some perceived image they must uphold. Provided you're willing to sift through shit and become acclimated to the culture a bit that probably leaves you RPG Codex for RPGs and the likes of, I don't know, 4Chan for more general purpose opinions.

 

[Turjan]

Didn't find any answer to choose, so didn't vote. Positive Steam reviews are meaningless. Negative Steam reviews make me read the comments so I can see what the fuzz is about. That's about it.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Reviews scores are barely more important than your threads, Safav Hamon

It's not the scores that's important but some other factors

• Is it turn-based ?
• Is it going to run smoothly ?
• Did the dev limit loading time enough for me to enjoy the game ?
• Are they retarded useless features which are going to ruin the fun ? (like sailing + loading in Deadfire or the retarded traveling + camping = fatigued party members in Pathfinder )

 

[Tse Tse Fly]

If it's a game I actually care about, then I do read reviews, impressions, etc to know why exactly it's so good or bad. Sometimes I'm so confident I'll like the game that I buy it not paying attention to what others say. But if the game raises only mild interest for me, then it's quite possible I will disregard it if has bad/mixed ratings.