How Pocket Verdict reviews a game

People ask how we decide what score a game gets, so here's the honest answer: slowly, and with a lot of arguing.

First, one editor installs the game on their own phone and plays it for real. Not a demo, not a trailer, the actual thing. We take notes as we go, including the first-impression stuff that fades after an hour, because that matters for new players too.

If the first editor has a strong reaction, good or bad, the rest of us play it as well. Disagreements are where the interesting conversations happen. A game I found tedious might click for someone who plays differently, and that goes straight into the review.

Only after all that does anyone write a word. The score comes last, not first. It's a summary of a real experience, never a number we picked and then justified.