When I write a review I try to be fair and consider all elements of a game. I can't say that I'm perfect, but I try my best not to miss or overlook positives or negatives because of bias, one way or the other. One thing does still bother me, though:
If I start playing a game and I don't like it, will my review be fair if I force my way through that game?
Most recently this has come up with Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2. I picked it up for $2.50 during a Steam sale, and eventually got around to trying it. I played through the first mission and realized I don't really like the game. There's some cool stuff there - having a real time overhead of the mission area is pretty neat, and being able to use it to issue squad commands is even better. I wanted to be fair so I continued playing, but I didn't like the second mission either.
So what should I do at this point? Do I write a review of what I did play and explain that the game didn't hook me enough to keep going? Should I not write anything at all, to avoid being unfair towards a game that seems well put together but that I just don't like? I have done the former once or twice, most recently with Dark Void, a game that I wanted to like but couldn't finish due to completely game breaking bugs.
What do you think? Is there a minimum amount of game a critic should play before posting a review? How much game would that be?
