@bodhi: You make a fantastic point. When I think about other art-forms I see something similar to what you propose. I'm watching The Imitation Game right now and while that film has a reputation for being extremely good (which it is), it doesn't do anything overtly "film"-y. That is, it doesn't use traditionally artistic visual communication strategies of film (ie, pretty much everything that Citizen Kane invented) to tell it's story. It's just...a good story.
The same can be said for basically every other form of art. Just because a novel doesn't immerse inside a character's head, use long passages of sensory description, or do other "novel"-y things it's not necessarily bad, or even mediocre. Harry Potter is a great example.
My point is, I completely agree with your point. A good story alone should be enough of a merit to carry some games on its own.
However, I'm not sure it should carry this one. The above only applies when the rest of the game at least does nothing to decrease the value of the story. From what I've read (I haven't played the game), Mafia 3's gameplay elements are usually mediocre, but often actively bad. That's not something that you can close your eyes to; if Imitation Game did something actively bad, like switching to a neon filter every twenty seconds, it would be considered a bad movie despite the good story.
Hello, fellow GameSpot user scrolling past this comment! I hope you're having a pleasant day, and I hope that this review didn't ruin it for you.
In fact it really shouldn't ruin it for you. Why? Because, and before you get angry at the critic this is a very important thing to understand, Gears 4 just received a solid, positive review.
That's what 7 means, and that's what it says right underneath the number at the bottom of the review. Not "bad," not "mediocre," but "good." A 7/10 is more or less the equivalent of 3/4 stars for a film review, and I doubt that anyone would come to the conclusion that a film is "bad" or "mediocre" because some outlet or another gave it a 3-star score. On Rotten Tomatoes, that would be counted as positive towards the overall percentage.
So when the people in the comments below say that this game cements the PlayStation dominance, or sinks Microsoft's exclusive lineup, or is an indication that this entire generation is pure trash, I have a strong feeling they read that 7 as closer to a 4 than to what it actually is.
@CaptainBerserk: You said it. Too many people forget that a review is a single person's opinion meant to be taken into consideration when making a purchase. It's not meant to be a medium through which to reinforce whatever person X wants to hear.
@erictaylor1978: It's not so much hypocrisy as it is that game reviews are written by different people. What's a serious issue for one may not be so much of a problem for another.
On top of that it all depends on the context of the game. If The Witcher 3 has long loading times, I don't really care, because I'm rewarded with some of the most beautiful vistas in gaming and I can play for hours without encountering another loading screen. For Game X on the other hand (not specifying Recore, because I haven't played it), load times of the same length may be an issue. They may be more frequent, or the visuals they're loading in may seem underwhelming for the time investment.
In any case, that's all just personal taste. And that's all that reviewers can purport to give: an account of a game based on personal taste. There is no objective measure for the quality of art. All we can trust is an "expert" opinion, however we decide to define "expert."
@Smith7010: I almost forgot about that! Yeah it's good to see he still keeps his toes dipped into the field of games writing. He really does have a talent for it.
@fedor: This in an opinion piece. It never tries to be or is disguised as a news article. That should have been apparent from the headline; news never starts with "On X topic..."
The opinions herein are never presented as fact. People who disagree are never demonized or portrayed as blatantly wrong.
Does this have an agenda? If saying, "I like the fact that this game has a strong female character," is having an agenda, then it has one. But every subjective opinion is inherently intermixed with personal goals, agendas, and worldviews. This is true of every single opinion piece.
If you don't agree with her opinion, then that is perfectly fine, of course. But that isn't an excuse to simply write off the entire piece as "bad journalism" just because it doesn't line up with how you see the world. I'm a Democrat, but I don't say that political opinion pieces written by Republicans are inherently bad because I disagree with them.
For example, I would say that an opinion article written by person X against gay marriage is creating an issue out of a non-issue. But that's just my opinion, just as that article is just X's opinion. X's article is not inherently bad because of that.
Edit: I forgot to say thank you. I asked you for your opinion and you provided it calmly and politely. That's not as common as it should be, so kudos to you, sir.
@fedor: There's an enormous difference between people who become actively offended by a lack of female characters and who campaign aggressively for their inclusion and between people who would simply like to see their group better represented. This article falls into the latter, not the former, group.
For example:
Former: I don't see many men in ballet. Ballet is sexist and the culture must be completely changed so that I can see more men.
Latter: I see a prominent man doing ballet. That's cool. Good job, man-doing-ballet.
That's all this article is doing. It's saying, "Great female characters are not that common, and FF15 has a good one. Thumbs up, FF15."
It's not saying, "I am terribly offended by how women are portrayed in games and the systematic sexism portrayed therein. I think a concerted, concentrate effort must be made to change things to my worldview."
This isn't some SJW hit piece. It's a woman saying, "good job with that woman character." Nothing more.
@RogerioFM: The issue: Despite making up half of humanity and being a huge potential market for games, women as a group are still not at all that well represented in mainstream gaming.
The point: The issue is slowly being resolved. With Luna, Final Fantasy 15 is helping to resolve it.
As for the bias? This is an opinion piece, not a news article. All opinions are inherently biased and push the agendas of the people who believe in them. An unbiased, non-committal opinion piece is hardly an opinion piece at all.
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