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Why is RDR2's Online not factored into its reviews?

spad3

spad3

Member
Oct 30, 2017
7,122
California
This is a strange omission from almost all reviews of this game, yet other games that have online functionality have their campaigns AND online ranked together. Should RDR2's reviews be revisited and re-tweaked after Online comes out next month? And why does this game's online functionality not affect its review score?

Edit:

It has been acknowledged that the online portion of this game hasn't released yet. However, seeing as some games get reviews weeks or days in advance and their reviews include the online portion of the game seems to break the reviewing system as a whole when games like RDR2 treat online components separately.

The thing is, should the online components for all games that have both an online mode and a single-player mode be treated separately in reviews? Should SP games that have MP components incorporated into their scores or MP games with SP incorporated into their scores be revisited and reviewed? Should MP components be entirely disregarded when reviewing a game?
 
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ASleepingMonkey

ASleepingMonkey

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
4,496
Iowa
How are we supposed to review something we can't play? Our outlet plans on doing a separate piece because Rockstar has referred to it as a second game.
 
sambills

sambills

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Nov 14, 2017
686
probably because it has not been released yet

theres nothing that says reviews wont be updated or a seperate review of read dead online wont pop up
 
bluexy

bluexy

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Oct 25, 2017
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Red Dead Online doesn't launch until November.
 
Cess007

Cess007

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Oct 27, 2017
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B.C., Mexico
Most reviews are based on the campaign side of the game. I guess when the online mode is actually launched, it will be reviewed as well.
 
Kolx

Kolx

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Oct 25, 2017
8,505
Because it's not released yet and it'll have its own review. Critics think the SP alone is worthy of the scores the game got so I don't see the problem.
 
JeffGubb

JeffGubb

Giant Bomb
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Oct 25, 2017
842
The same reason that future updates aren't factored into any launch review: game reviewers have not yet mastered the technology of time travel.

Honestly, this is why I don't trust game reviewers.
 
tommy7154

tommy7154

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,370
The online simply isn't released yet. How are you going to review it? It'd be worse if they included it and it wasnt ready. Then you could review it and give it whatever it deserves.

You may as well think of it as 2 games with the single player being one that's available now, and then the online releasing later. They should be reviewed separately imo. If the online is trash, what do you do? You can't really give the game overall a '5' with the online being a 1 and the main campaign being a 10. It just needs to be done separately.
 
MillionIII

MillionIII

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Sep 11, 2018
6,816
Because rockstar wants them to review the single player game. The online is a separate mode that will be updated to the game.
 
Kyuuji

Kyuuji

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Nov 8, 2017
32,040
Unsure how it's a strange omission when there's nothing there to review.
 
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spad3

spad3

Member
Oct 30, 2017
7,122
California
"it's not out yet, duh" cmon guys. Reviewers should have to hold their reviews/edit their reviews for the online portion of the game OR should be given access to by R* to properly review. Because if that's the case, R* is kinda cheating the review system.
 
Kyoufu

Kyoufu

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Oct 26, 2017
16,582
What an odd question. They reviewed what the game contains, in this case the story campaign. What are they supposed to do, time travel?
 
Heromanz

Heromanz

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Oct 25, 2017
20,202
spad3 said:
"it's not out yet, duh" cmon guys. Reviewers should have to hold their reviews/edit their reviews for the online portion of the game OR should be given access to by R* to properly review. Because if that's the case, R* is kinda cheating the review system.
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Why would they hold reviews for the biggest game of the year?

They'll do what they did in GTa review the online portion when it comes out
 
ASleepingMonkey

ASleepingMonkey

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
4,496
Iowa
spad3 said:
"it's not out yet, duh" cmon guys. Reviewers should have to hold their reviews/edit their reviews for the online portion of the game OR should be given access to by R* to properly review. Because if that's the case, R* is kinda cheating the review system.
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It ain't even done yet. It's launching in beta. People will still cover it, I know outlets did some form of coverage on GTA Online when it launched.
 
JeffGubb

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spad3 said:
"it's not out yet, duh" cmon guys. Reviewers should have to hold their reviews/edit their reviews for the online portion of the game OR should be given access to by R* to properly review. Because if that's the case, R* is kinda cheating the review system.
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Yes. We need a law! I think you would be a great Games Review Czar to oversee the Games Review System, which is a real thing that exists.
 
FelipeMGM

FelipeMGM

#Skate4
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Oct 25, 2017
3,012
sambills said:
interesting they call it a "second game". I assume the world and mechanics will be the same right?
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Labeling the ''mechanics'' is very broad in this case. You could say GTAV and GTAO have the same ''mechanics'' but these two pieces of content work in completely different ways. It's completely understandable to view those as different games, and I imagine it will be the same here
 
Silvergun-Blue

Silvergun-Blue

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,930
Anybody buying the game now is buying it for the single player, so reviews focus on that.
People seriously need to stop obsessing over reviews and scores anyway.
 
kennyamr

kennyamr

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,587
New York, NY, USA
Sadly, game reviews are based on the version that is available on release date of the official 1.0+ build.
Anything that comes after doesn't count.
That is because reviewers can't be re-reviewing games every time a big patch comes to a game. Only the first one should suffice.
It is not a perfect system and can unjustly benefit/hurt games that get much worse or much better after release.
Having so many games coming out every week lately, there is just not enough manpower to cover every single release, that is why reviewers can't be going back to old ones, even if they should.
 
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spad3

spad3

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Oct 30, 2017
7,122
California
Silvergun-Blue said:
Anybody buying the game now is buying it for the single player, so reviews focus on that.
People seriously need to stop obsessing over reviews and scores anyway.
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I get it, but it's still an incomplete score. Like sure it got great reviews across the board, i'm loving the game, but it's strange on why R* didn't give reviewers access to the online component to include in the review, because it clearly exists in fully playable capacity, just not ready for the masses.
 
stan423321

stan423321

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Oct 25, 2017
8,676
spad3 said:
"it's not out yet, duh" cmon guys. Reviewers should have to hold their reviews/edit their reviews for the online portion of the game OR should be given access to by R* to properly review. Because if that's the case, R* is kinda cheating the review system.
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These press scumbags should also wait untit publisher previews them with all balance, content and performance patches by the way, obviously.
 
Eumi

Eumi

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Nov 3, 2017
3,518
What's the point of revisiting the reviews? By that time far more worthwhile criticism will exist.

Unless you hold actual meaning to it's metascore or something I can't see what the benefit is.
 

Deleted member 32018

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If you think reviewers should wait until online is out or revisit the review when it is out then where is the line drawn? Should reviewers wait until all DLC is out to review a game too? What about expansions?
 
Burrman

Burrman

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Oct 25, 2017
7,633
I always think about the MCC when these topics come up. It's funny because if 343 released it just as campaigns and spent a little more time fixing the bugs in it, it would've got 9/10s across the board. But adding a whole multiplayer package brought the reviews down.

The campaigns always worked good to me since launch. But the MP had major problems for the first 2 weeks.
It's funny that adding something can bring your review down.

Let's say BOTW had a MP feature on top of the main game, but it was a janky ass mess or whatever. Would it score 7/10s instead?
 
okayfrog

okayfrog

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Oct 25, 2017
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It's not strange at all. The game did not release with online. The version the consumers got is the same version the reviewers got. Why would you want reviewers to review an aspect of the game consumers can't access?

That being said, for your sake, hopefully reviewers revisit the game when Online surfaces.
 
tommy7154

tommy7154

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Oct 25, 2017
5,370
spad3 said:
"it's not out yet, duh" cmon guys. Reviewers should have to hold their reviews/edit their reviews for the online portion of the game OR should be given access to by R* to properly review. Because if that's the case, R* is kinda cheating the review system.
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They should have to hold their reviews? That's silly.

I mean I do see your angle, but no. What's being reviewed right now is the main game. That's what everyone playing the game right now is buying it for. Once the online is released, that will then also be reviewed no doubt and I hope given a proper score of it's own.
 
Much

Much

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It's not out yet. That's why. Plain and simple.
 
Deleted member 11093

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JeffGubb

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spad3 said:
why the sarcastic hostility? relax.
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Just regular sarcasm. I'm just having fun with an absurd notion.

spad3 said:
I get it, but it's still an incomplete score. Like sure it got great reviews across the board, i'm loving the game, but it's strange on why R* didn't give reviewers access to the online component to include in the review, because it clearly exists in fully playable capacity, just not ready for the masses.
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There's no such thing as a "complete score." That phrase has no meaning.
 
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spad3

spad3

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Oct 30, 2017
7,122
California
steviejd1 said:
If you think reviewers should wait until online is out or revisit the review when it is out then where is the line drawn? Should reviewers wait until all DLC is out to review a game too? What about expansions?
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My point is, why do some games have their online functionality incorporated into their reviews while RDR2 doesn't?

Either disassociate online components entirely for games that have campaigns + online for everything or hold off on reviews until games that are advertised to have online components actually get their online components.

I hope this makes sense.
 
JeffGubb

JeffGubb

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spad3 said:
My point is, why do some games have their online functionality incorporated into their reviews while RDR2 doesn't?

Either disassociate online components entirely for games that have campaigns + online for everything or hold off on reviews until games that are advertised to have online components actually get their online components.

I hope this makes sense.
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I get what you're saying, but you're working backward from the viewpoint of "reviews matter." This isn't the Olympics or a court of law. Most reviews are purchasing guides. In those cases, they need to come as close to the release as possible. If things change over time, it's easier to note those changes in news stories. But the majority of people are going to be looking for buying advice on the day of release.

Other reviews are pure criticism. In that case, they aren't going to care what is going to change in the future. The game is out now. It is worthy of criticizing now.

No one who reviews games for a living is thinking that their review score is the final say on anything. So the idea that they need to wait to appropriately assess some vague notion of a complete package doesn't make any sense.
 

Deleted member 32018

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spad3 said:
My point is, why do some games have their online functionality incorporated into their reviews while RDR2 doesn't?

Either disassociate online components entirely for games that have campaigns + online for everything or hold off on reviews until games that are advertised to have online components actually get their online components.

I hope this makes sense.
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Other games have their online in the reviews because it was able to be played by the reviewer, it's as simple as that. Do you really think RDR Online would really change the scores and general tone of the review anyway? It's a single player game with an online expansion basically. It doesn't have a 5 hour campaign like a CoD or something like that. Reviewers/gaming media outlets will write articles about the online when it releases anyway.

Reviewers can't hold off on reviews because their sole point is to inform people buying the game, where are people going to get info about how good the game is now if every reviewer waits for the online to review it?
 
molnizzle

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spad3 said:
"it's not out yet, duh" cmon guys. Reviewers should have to hold their reviews/edit their reviews for the online portion of the game OR should be given access to by R* to properly review. Because if that's the case, R* is kinda cheating the review system.
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wat

Having less game generally doesn't increase scores. If someone thinks RDR2 is a 10/10 value with no online, then the online portion will just be seen as a bonus.
 
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