GameTrailers Review Policy

At GameTrailers, we know you take our reviews very seriously, and we strive to be worthy of this faith. Likewise, we also take your purchase decisions to heart and strive to help you spend your money on worthy games.

Reality dictates that we're simply not able to review every single release. While many of our review scores tend to fall into the 5-10 score range, there are hundreds of terrible games we choose not to review that would fill out the bottom of our 100-point scale. The games we do select to review are the ones we most feel you should be paying attention to. You can be sure that we'll always weigh in on the biggest releases, but we also aim to alert you to hidden gems and potential traps.

Review Categories

GameTrailers final review scores are not an average of the category scores. We do not use a "one size fits all" formula to calculate them. Rather, depending on the game, certain categories are weighted more heavily than others in the final score. Since the vast majority of games are judged based on whether they succeed as interactive products, our ratings in the Design and Gameplay categories are generally weighted more heavily.

Story
This rating reflects both the quality of a game's story as well as how well it's told. A good story is more important for certain kinds of games, and the amount of weight this category has on the overall score reflects this. For instance, the story is weighted more heavily in the final score of reviews for role-playing games. In the case of games that lack stories (or where stories are irrelevant to a game's enjoyment), we omit this rating entirely.

Design
In the design section we discuss a game's structure and comment on the quality and breadth of its feature set. Questions pertaining to a game's structure--whether it's free-roaming or level-based, open-ended or linear--are answered here. A high design rating also equals a solid value. If we score a game highly in this category, expect to still be playing it long after you've purchased it.

Gameplay
The gameplay rating is a reflection of how well a game functions on a mechanical level. The games with the highest gameplay scores are responsive, intuitive, and fun to interact with. Games with low marks in gameplay feel sluggish, hard to grasp, or just plain broken.

Presentation
Presentation speaks to a game's graphics and sound. A high presentation rating usually means technically impressive graphics, inspired art design, a moving score, or even convincing voice acting. Likewise, if a game's technical performance is such that it diminishes your enjoyment of the experience, expect it to be scored lower in this category.