The New 1UP Vault Review System
Outlining my new (and hopefully permanent) review system
Reviews have been my weakest point in this newsletter. I never seemed to find my groove when doing them because my scoring methods kept evolving. Now, I am in agreement with people who have issues with scoring art. I myself have a history of not having the greatest view of movie critics (ironically enough, my twin brother is one). However, my issues with movie critics have always been that, on the whole, they tend to disagree too many times with general audiences, and some of them deserve the “snob” moniker. Video game critics tend to be much closer to the user and gamer reviews of games when you weed out the usual console warrior or “anti-woke” people and while in a perfect world a review without a score would be the way to go, a score does a good job of explaining in a simple way how the reviewer felt overall about the experience they had. I made a decision before this new year that I was going to be get more serious about 1UP Vault, not that I think I’m going to get money out of this or become “internet popular”, but that I would take 1UP Vault more seriously and see where it goes as I try to focus on both being an amatuer video game historian and a critic of the games I play. So I had to finally sit down and come up with a permanent review system I would be happy to use, potentially for years and years to come.
Past Review Systems
I have experimented with several review systems since I started this newsletter back in late 2022. I tried a simple review system, with the typical 5-point scale. I also implemented a review system with letter grades, mostly in 2024. Last year, I tried something new, creating a system based on recommendations rather than scoring a game. I really did like the recommendation system, as it helped me address my slight gripes with grading art while still giving it a score of some type. However, the system did have some flaws for me personally.
Three great examples are South of Midnight, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. These three games I had a very strong reaction to my personal enjoyment of them, and it sort of messed with what was supposed to be a more objective recommendation. South of Midnight and Metroid Prime 4 in particular are games I was higher on than the critics, but I should’ve given them just a recommend, rather than essential, because both of those games have issues that aren’t going to be easily ignored by everyone. There’s also Silksong, a game I had a love-hate relationship with that was really hard for me to put down in a recommendation system, so I gave it both a recommend and a not recommend.
I also just straight up kind of missed giving final scores to my reviews. Sure, I get where anti-review score people come from, but since a review is subjective most of the time, I missed really telling my side of the story about how I felt about a game rather than focusing on how much I would recommend it overall. It has a place and I’ve seen others use the recommendation system well, but I ultimately concluded last year I wanted to move on from it.
The 100 Point System
For those who have followed the newsletter, the review system I’m going to use is familiar because I've already been using it in my project to rank Walt Disney animated films as part of my Pop Vault side series. Here’s a link to the latest part of that series (the Disney Bronze Age) that gives you a small example. Also, for those who have followed it, I am going to continue it soon, once I get a couple of things out, so stay tuned. If you’re reading this and are interested, use the search and archive feature on the 1UP Vault Substack homepage to find past series, as I’m still working on making it easier to discover certain series of articles.
All this to say, I have come up with 10 categories, and each will receive a rating of up to 10 points. The final tally for each category will then have a score capped at 100. Similar to my Disney rankings system, but the categories are different. This way, I have several categories that range from subjective to objective, and I end up with a score that tells how I felt about it as a whole.
The 10 categories will be:
Gameplay & Mechanics - Overall gameplay and mechanics, such as controls, combat, the loop, and interactions between the player and the playing.
Story & Lore - How good or engaging is the story, and even if it’s on the more basic side, does the lore and setting still keep you hooked?
Art Direction & Graphics - Looking at the visual identity from the graphics to the art style and direction the game is presenting.
Audio & Sound Design - The soundtrack and music, as well as the audio design and mechanics, as you experience the game.
World & Level Design - The world the game puts you in and how the levels or areas you play in immerse you, or are designed to be understood and played through.
Characters & Writing - Are the characters memorable, have great arcs, and do they hook you emotionally or in a fun way? How is the writing of these characters?
Direction and Performances - Looking at the game direction and the potential performances from the more narrative-driven titles.
Replay Value - How easy is it to jump back in, and can this be played all over again?
User Experience - Looking at the user interface, game performance, accessibility, and difficulty, and whether they interfere with the user’s ability to enjoy it.
Recommendation - How much I would recommend this game if asked.
I want to point out that since the point of these scores is to tackle my reviews similar to how I tackled the Disney rankings, when I do my end of the year favorite games, just because a game has a higher score doesn’t mean it’ll be higher on my list, as my personal enjoyment will be what that list is more about. Just like the Disney rankings are going to have several movies in the final list ahead of my favorite Disney film, Sleeping Beauty.
A way to see the final score is best seen this way:
0-49 - Not Recommended / Bad
50-59 - Medicore
60-69 - Average
70-79 - Good
80-89 - Great
90-99 - Incredible
100 - Masterpiece
My first review using this system will be my upcoming review of Resident Evil: Requiem, which I’m aiming to release on Friday, March 13th. I’m pretty excited about this new way I’m going to do these, and I’m busy playing between three games to get ready to do more of them in the future. In the end, reviews are subjective, and there are so many to pick from. I just hope I provide something a little different, convey how I felt about a game, and maybe determine whether you, the reader, have any interest in picking it up. With hope and a little luck, this will be the official way 1UP Vault reviews games.