Game Criticism vs. Game Reviews

Greg Costikyan, founder of Manifesto Games, and resident cynic at PlayThisThing! offers an interesting and thought provoking post on the topic of "game criticism." If I had to pull a headline out of this story to get your attention it would be that Greg draws a distinction between game reviews and game criticism by saying that game reviews aren't criticism in the traditional sense. You'll have to go and read the whole thing to get the crux of his argument on the subject.

My short answer on this story is that I agree with him on much of what he says but I disagree that there are no writers out there that are real "critics." If you want an example of this, check out Tom Chick's review of No More Heroes, which is more than just a "buy this or don't buy it for reason X." Sure, there’s a score at the top of the page, but simply ignore that and read the article. You will see Tom doesn’t just jaw about mechanics and gameplay.

There are plenty of writers out there like Tom (though I'll freely admit I have Tom Chick trading cards) that don't just gloss over the feature set and give you a rating. I do get what Greg is saying, and he's mostly right - but there are a few exceptions.

And while we are on the subject, if you want to see game criticism in practice you owe it to yourself to go visit Playthisthing.com. These fine writers aren't pumping out product reviews, they are putting a critical eye on the products they highlight. For an excellent example of this, check out Greg's critique of ICED.


Game Criticism, Why We Need It, and Why Reviews Aren't It

Put up your Iron Dukes

After playing the demo of Iron Dukes, it is easy to see why One Ton Ghost' fabulous flash game won the Best Web Browser Game award at this year's IGF Awards. What at first glance seems like an action role-playing game is actually a cleverly disguised shooting game that focuses on item collection using a highly disposable crew.

The crew, comprised of three underwear clad men, is high generic and easily replaced. The idea behind the game is to collect treasure and items to aid your crew. But your crew members don't really matter; it's all about the items and treasure you collect that serve as the growth of your characters and not the characters themselves. If you kill off one or all of them, don't worry: you can buy more.

Besides the slight cosplay with these items that you'll find, the game focuses on twitch-based combat that you'll encounter on the high seas. Combat consist of first-person gunplay where the player tries to hit weak spots as they flash red on the screen, while avoiding having your hit points peeled away by the enemies. The action is goods, quick and occasionally bloody and the animation is simple, crisp and very funny.

When you're not fighting, you'll be diving into the deep blue sea for treasures. The dive mechanic is also twitch based. As you descend into the depths you'll click your button in arcade fashion to avoid enemies and collect treasure. Making it all the way to the bottom will net you some phat loot or a special treasure. There's also a silly little mini-game where you navigate your boat through the sea while avoiding icebergs for small bits of treasure or an item to slap on your highly disposable crew.

Iron Dukes really is something special and I hope the IGF award will motivate One Ton Ghost to finish would they started.