play save repeat review policy

The aim of Play Save Repeat is to deliver analytical, honest and insightful critiques of the most interesting video games released. All content is produced with years of writing experience, and a deep knowledge of all things video games.

The goal is to provide an unbiased evaluation of every title selected for review, to provide information to help Play Save Repeat’s community choose how best to spend their gaming time.

As someone who dabbles in every genre, I examine what the developers are trying to achieve with their creative vision and evaluate key areas: from visuals, gameplay, narrative, sound, accessibility etc. This baseline accessment highlights the strengths and weaknesses of a game. But reviewing games doesn’t have an exact formula. We can assess the technical parts each time, but games are art and tech coalesced; each player and reviewer is going to have a different emotional response to themes, stories, music etc. It’s what makes us human.

Naturally, I reward games that achieve exemplary results in those areas. But I also look for innovation and originality, whether a unique story, gameplay mechanic or something else. As I keep playing and reviewing games, the industry doesn’t stop evolving, and each year, continues to surprise players around the world.

How Play Save Repeat Reviews Games

I choose games to review based on my interest and how appealing they will be for my readers and viewers. However, due to being a modest publication, I cannot possibly review every game. Luckily, I play games in most genres, so I can critique a wide-range of games. I will unfortunately end up missing some titles that deserve to be reviewed for their ingenuity and appeal, but that’s where the Late to the Game review series comes in - a video series to catch up and articulate my thoughts on a backlog of titles.

subjectivity and integrity

By their very nature, all critiques are subjective. Every reviewer strives to use their writing expertise to analyse every facet of a video game to form a fair and researched opinion.

This journalistic integrity is the cornerstone of Play Save Repeat’s critiques. But ultimately, reviewing games doesn’t have a perfect formula; it’s in large parts a personal rating as games can’t be accessed identically each time. Everyone has and should form their own opinions. Despite the differences that will inevitably occur, I still hope my critiques will be informative and helpful - a valuable tool to help make an informed purchasing decision.

Our review scale

We use a 20 point review scale system at Play Save Repeat, that goes up in increments of half a point up to 10. This was decided upon, to give some nuance between ratings when a game doesn't quite feel like it fits the higher or lower score - to create a fairer, more balanced system.

This matches up to most review scales used by review aggregation websites like Opencritic and Metacritic, so that our reviews align for when we can be accredited.

I also feel the half point increments help present the many differences in reviewing the very unique medium of video games - a creative construct that relies upon technical performance as much as artistic endeavour. In this modern era of gaming, where patches can transform a game's performance, a wider breadth of available scores are necessary.

It’s also vital to recognise what a score means, as simply looking at a review aggregator and seeing a video game being given 6/10 grades, doesn’t mean a game is bad on the Play Save Repeat scale. A 6 means a game is okay, but will have some issues or room for improvement. Which is why I value the content of a review over any score. But I also understand how important it is to see a score and instantly understand if a game is worth playing. However, I do implore people to read the articles and watch the videos in full to get the whole critique.