8.1 The Review

Professional reviewing usually requires a high degree of familiarity with the medium of your chosen subject. If you are reviewing a particular video game, for example, it is helpful to whoever sees or reads your review if you know the previous versions of the game, when the game was first created, perhaps some information about why certain decisions were made, and who worked on the game. It is also helpful if you know about other, similar games and can rank this one based on your familiarity with this type of game. Someone might be looking to buy a first-person shooter game and wondering if the one she saw advertised is as good as it appears in the ad, or if it’s merely being hyped as the next big thing in order to sell it.

Reviews also typically demand a high level of familiarity with the wider world of your work of art, whether it’s gaming, dance, or music. You’ll need to know approximately how many games are out there (hundreds? Thousands? Millions?) and what technical specifications do or don’t make certain things possible, as well as when they arrived on the scene. How old is motion capture, and what did it change in the gaming world?

Usually, a work is helmed or wholly created by a single person or entity, whether it’s a game developer, a famous choreographer, or a known movie director. You’ll want to know about the developer’s previous track record. Is this the first such game the company has created, or the latest in a long line of them? Were other games popular and successful? What type of game is this company known to produce, and how does the new game fit in? Depending on the scope of your review, you may also want to be familiar with the social world around your chosen piece of art. In gaming, for example, you may find it relevant to reference “Gamergate,” or the harassment of women gamers.

Typically, we only find out this much about a subject if it really interests us. So when you write a review, pick a work and medium you really like. You might have to play the game a number of times, see the movie twice, read what others have to say about the book or the author—in other words, really immerse yourself in the work.

Finally, reviewing requires a balance of praise and criticism. Reviews can praise creators for what they did (“This work succeeds in …”), what they tried to do (“Although ultimately unsuccessful, so-and-so made a notable attempt to …”) and what they did not do (“So-and-so resists the almost universal urge to sentimentalize the dying”). You are trying both to understand the work of art in light of the creator’s intentions, and to judge whether it is worth an audience’s time and attention.

Thus, just as with praise, your criticism can bring to light drawbacks (“I can’t help feeling the piece would have been better if …”), missing elements (“The addition of a tuba would have really …”) or unnecessary ones (“So-and-so’s lighting scheme, although dramatic, overshadowed …”). While you’re judging the work, the reader or viewer is judging you. How sound is your judgment? Should the reader rely on your view when deciding whether to devote money and attention to the work? Just as with other forms of writing, the review requires you to demonstrate that you are a trustworthy guide and that the reader is justified in relying on you.