HermitGamer Review and Rate Process

The game review process is not easy, but it is one of the most important parts of our job. Based on reviews, people make preferences about whether to buy a game and spend time on it, which is not unlimited. That's why our team at HermitGamer approaches video game reviews seriously and responsibly.

We work only with proven experts in the industry to test the game qualitatively, cover all its aspects as widely as possible, rate it objectively, and form the results into a text review. All this is done so that our readers can be sure that they will definitely like the game.

Below you can read more about the game review process, as well as the scoring policy and what influences it.

Approach to Reviewing Video Games

Our main task during the game review is to reveal all its aspects and give an objective assessment for the reader. For this purpose, we have prepared a few main rules, which our team follows during the game review.

First of all, behind every one of our video game reviews, there is always a live person who actually played the game and gives his observations and live emotions from the game. This rule may sound silly, but with the popularity of AI, it is more relevant than ever.

Secondly, we trust a game review based on its genre. A person reviewing a video game should know the genre, understand its peculiarities, and have enough experience.

These requirements must be adhered to to maintain a high standard and provide objective criticism of the game.

How We Review

We have highlighted a few basic aspects of video games that we make sure to pay attention to when reviewing a game. Some of the items may have a greater or lesser impact on the final score, as different game genres may emphasize different aspects of the game.

So, here are the main points we pay attention and give our score for each of them:

Graphics quality: we evaluate the overall picture, individual textures, and the quality of light in the game
Story development: we look at whether the game has an overall story, how many storylines there are, and how interesting they are. We also pay attention to the elaboration of the history of characters, dialogs, game lore, and so on.
World richness: we evaluate how much the world feels alive and full, and how the developers took care of the details.
Voice acting and sound effects: we evaluate the quality of character voice acting, musical accompaniment, and accompanying sounds.
Gameplay: we evaluate the overall gameplay, available and missing game mechanics, and how relevant and interesting they are.
Technical performance: we check the game for bugs, technical problems, fps drops, and other game bugs.
Replayability: we look at how replayable the game is, whether there is a new game+ mode, the number of endings, and ways to complete the game.
Game availability: we evaluate the availability of the game on different platforms, countries, prices, and technical specifications.
Game support: we look at how much the developers support the game after release, whether there are new DLC, updates, bug fixes, and so on. We also look at the availability of the game for mods and support from the community.

How We Rate

We have tested several game rating systems and decided to settle on a 5-point rating system, where 5 is the highest score and 1 is the lowest.

The final rating of the game is not the average of the sum of all scores. In different game genres, some categories may be more important than others, so they may affect the final rating more.

Below can check the gradation of scores that a game can receive from the HermitGamer team.

5

Excellent

This is the highest score a video game can get from HermitGamer. It's difficult to achieve this score, but it indicates that the game is one of the best in its genre and can be an example to follow. The game may have performance issues or technical errors, but its strengths are so good that they overshadow everything else.
4

Good

A video game with a rating 4 will be memorable, may have a good story, graphics, and interesting gameplay. Most likely this game has high support from the developers or a high degree of replayability. However, such game may have minor disadvantages, but they are insignificant. You will not regret your time and money on this game.
3

Average

The average rating speaks for itself. A classic game in its genre, not bad to spend some time in it, but it's probably for once. This game probably doesn't have a very strong story, good graphics, basic mechanics, and gameplay. Overall unremarkable, but at the same time you can spend some time in it with pleasure.
2

Bad

A game with a 2 rating can make you regret wasting your money and time for a number of reasons. Most likely, such a game is boring, has a weak story, and no strong points. We recommend you play a demo before buying a game with such a rating.
1

Awful

Awful's rating is hard to get, however, it means that the game is better to pass right by. Most likely it has severe technical problems, bugs, extremely weak graphics, and boring gameplay. Such a game can cause more negative emotions than positive ones, and it does not attract anything at all. You should not waste your time on it.