Reviews: expectations and what attention will you pay them

[Meinhard1]

With the reviews coming next week, I've been deliberating internally as to if I'll check the reviews or not.

While I have a healthy amount of personal confidence in this game, it's in many ways deliberately retro and in a genre dominated by Nintendos polished, skillful AAA platformers. I do wonder if this may ultimately play into the review scores.

While I normally enjoy reading the varying opinions in a games critical reception, I feel substantially removed from the mainstream regarding my hopes for Yooka. Grabbed by the Ghoulies, DKC Tropical Freeze, and re-releases of DKC 2 and Banjo-Kazooie all recieved much lower review scores than I would give them. These are games that I connect with personally and probably appreciate in a different way than the average gamer.

Ultimately, I think I'd like to go into this game without having my expectations influenced either way by the evaluations I've read.

What are your thoughts in regards to reviews next week?

[Yoshi]

I'll look at them but I won't care. Toybox showed me it plays like Banjo and if the leveldesign is great, I'll be super happy. Since many reviewers have no clue about good platformers nowadays, I'll not spend any thoughts on negative reviews. Also, as a backer, I have payed for the game in full anyway, so not like I could do anything about it, even if I was trusting mainstream reviewers.

[Taylor]

From little bits and pieces I've been hearing recently, I imagine most of the reviews from mainstream media will:

I also imagine there will be a few angry fans giving unfair player reviews to spite Playtonic.

I personally won't pay much attention to reviews. I'll find it hard not to read them and spoil myself before release, but I cannot wait to play the game and form my own opinions.

[Tek]

While I may see some of the scores or grades that reviews give the game at a glance, I won't be reading any of them before I play the game. The Toybox and a handful of trailers & gameplay videos are enough to prove that this will be an enjoyable and somewhat retro-flavored game for me.

[BanjoThreeie]

I don't see this kind of game being a huge critical success, but I still think it has the potential to get generally favorable reviews. If it manages to get 75 or over on Metacritic I'd consider it a success, and as long as the game has the same genius level design as Banjo Kazooie, I think that's a given. The game plays great and the art and music are fantastic, so it all just comes down to how much fun the levels are.

[FangztheWolf]

So the GameXplain 50 Questions Q&A brought up issues with performance (both consoles and PC have frame drops from time to time) and the camera being "straight out of the Nintendo 64 era".

I wonder if other people will have these issues.

[Taylor]

[Piet]

[GigiFusc]

I'll read the reviews after I play the game as I don't like spoilers of any kind (even characters and mechanics). I've pre-ordered on PS4 already so reviews won't stop me playing it.

I've read in other posts that some people are saying the frame rate suffers, so that might be a killer if it gets too bad. But then,. lets not forget that the new Zelda apparently grinds to single frame rate numbers in certain places.

For me, I've played the toybox and thought it was exactly what I expected and what I wanted. If the game is more of the same with loads of BK goodness sprinkled all over it, I think I'll be happy with that.

Player reviews are a real problem these days because everyone has their own agenda - as mentioned above, the JonTron fans will instantly mark it down right?

We'll see anyway. Not long to go now.

[Piet]

+/- 7,5.

[Yavga]

I expect (based on current trends) the game will be somewhere around a 7.8

Critics will enjoy the throwback and call is a succesful one but will not be forgiving of flaws that this throwback to past times brought along (camera and certain gameplay elements) while other critics think they are nice touches that add to the enjoyment.

Critics will perhaps call Yooka Laylee a weird mix between quality assets and retro (dated) gameplay that does not really manage to choose a side, leading to some identity crisis that doesn't hold up on its own.

Everybody will love the quirky jokes, except for Jontron fans as they take offence to all political indoctrination.

Meanwhile I will laugh away all of this and find all the secret worlds in 64-bit mode and the fire key and cube eggs and Shurt (Trowsers lost brother) that critics managed to miss because they didn't have enough time to enjoy the game the way it was intended because they are already reviewing the next game anyway.

[Pokemaniac Dan]

In the grand scheme of things Yooka Laylee, the reviews honestly mean nothing to me. It's not like I'm going to read them, and if they are negative, just not play the game. I backed it and will get it, so why let it sit there because of possible unfavorable reviews? I'll make up my own mind if I enjoy the game or the mechanics. I'm one who personally hated Conker, yet that seems to be hugely favored by the community. Doesn't mean the reviews are wrong, or my view is wrong; they are just unrelated and have no weight on my feelings. Same will be said for YL...reviews will not influence me.

I'm not entirely sure I'll even read them until after I've played the game. Kind of on the fence since I really don't want to be too spoiled, but also can't keep myself away from YL news.

[Traveller]

Hopefully reviewers aren't too harsh on Y-L, I'd be annoyed if they call it out because it uses an older design as its basis.

With all the 8bit retro throwbacks that get love heaped upon them, calling Y-L out for doing the same might seem a bit unfair.

Some may not find that design fun, but that shouldn't discount it on a quality basis. Some reviewers called out the collect-a-thon styled games back in the day too, so its bound to happen again now.

[DarkTone]

Also, how reliable are reviews these days? Especially with that scandal years ago...

[Piet]

[Rueckkoppler]

I'm always interested in reviews. But for most games nowadays, I watch them after I started playing the game (since I was decided to buy them anyway), as a form of entertainment. I trust many game series to do well, so I'm almost buying them blind, like Zelda, Mario Kart, 3D Mario games or this one (although the circumstances are very very different from a AAA game). I just find it interesting to hear about the observations the author made and getting this delivered in a nicely done review video or article.

[dotEXE]

I really don't care what the reviews end up saying. I'm going to like this game anyway. And I've disagreed with reviews plenty of times. I'll read them, but in no way will I internalize the reviews as what I should expect from the game myself.

[smashbro596]

i refuse to let what has happened ruin my experience.
on april 11th i'm gonna wake up, eat breakfast, boot up computer, keep a tab open for my e-mail, kiss my girlfriend, get e-mail, get code, open steam, put code in, download game, play game and get my socks blown off at how my 2-3 years of waiting paid off!! in that order!!!

[Yoshi]

There's definitely some time while downloading the game to sneak in some more kisses for your girlfriend!

[ShanPen]

Just wondering, how much of a game does a professional reviewer generally play? Do they usually get through the whole game, or just play for a certain amount of hours/first few levels?