Games Aren't Numbers

My Waxworks review posted on videolamer.com yesterday is the first real game review I've written. If you haven't already, go check it out and let me know what you think. While writing it there were a few rules and guidelines I followed. Since I believe the theory behind writing can be just as important as the writing itself I'm listing them below.

I chose Waxworks to review because I found it to be an interesting game, and also it seems to be very underrepresented by the gaming community. I enjoy talking about and would rather promote games not everyone has heard of.

I deliberately made sure not to say if the reader will like it or not. How should I know if you'll like it? The reason I'm reviewing it is to say how much I liked it, and if I'm a good writer and if you're a good critical reader you can make your own judgment.

I kept technical criticism separate from creative criticism. The strengths and weaknesses of the puzzle mechanics and combat system are kept separate from the designs and themes. I did this less deliberately and more because this is how I think about games. I also gave more weight to the creativity because that aspect is more important to me.

I didn't try to objectively cover every specific aspect of the game. I'm not going to assign a score to the music, controls, replay value, and so on, so I'm not going to model my review after that style. That kind of writing also comes off as extremely stilted (see: IGN).

Now that I think about it, the music was really awful. I don't have high standards for old midi tracks but Waxworks was just inexcusable. I guess I didn't think about it while writing the review because I just muted my speakers while I played the game.

I'm not sure whether or not the story should be liked or not. It was a pretty neutral video game story that existed just to frame the gameplay and give the player a motivation. Its lack of substance made it neither bad nor good. I just ignored it in the review.

One of the hardest things for me was deciding what standard I should use to judge Waxworks. It's an old game being played in a modern time, and on top of that it mixes lots of different genres. I wasn't sure whether I should excuse certain flaws in the technology or designs. It could either be judged too harshly or too leniently. I eventually just tried not thinking too hard about it and wrote how I felt.

I don't want my review to be used as a buying guide, but if you really want my recommendation on whether you should buy it or not my response is "no," only because I'm sure 90% of people reading this won't enjoy the game.