Overhauling My Scoring Criteria
When I started the “Let’s Adventure!” series I devised a scoring system that I thought would meaningfully allow me to rate the games I was playing in a fair and balanced way:
Atmosphere: This will focus on how the game makes you feel while you’re playing it and includes inputs such as Music, Sound Effects, Graphics, Cut Scenes and overall quality.
Max Points: 20Story: Adventure games are very story-driven, and as such the story needs to be evaluated as a top-level criteria. Focus will be on Quality, Immersion, Complexity, Progression and Pacing.
Max Points: 25Experience: How much Fun was the game? Was the Difficulty too high/low? Were the puzzles a Challenge or were they repetitive and felt derivative and lazy? Was there any introduction for the player or are you dropped in blind?
Max Points: 15Impact: Did you enjoy the overall experience? Would you play this again? Would you want to know more about this world and its characters in subsequent adventures?
Max Points: 10
For the first 84 games in this series, this was the rating system I used. What I learned pretty early on was that I didn’t really have a very good set of evaluation criteria, and since my score only went up to 70 and I was generating a percentage score, it wasn’t very balanced.
Nothing’s set in stone, so now’s as good a time as any to correct this misstep and revise the scoring system for the remainder of the series.
New Scoring System
In an attempt to improve the overall rating system used for the series I’ve decided to expand the categories and make the total score out of 100. I’ve also included some more opinionated criteria to allow me to boost games that I personally enjoyed - even if they’re less critically acclaimed.
[10] Graphics
The overall visual experience of the game can include background art, character models, game interface, cutscenes, inventory design and basically anything that you can see while playing the game.[10] Sound
What do you hear? Is there ambient music or background noise? If the game is voiced are the actors giving it their all or phoning it in? Are sound effects present and enhancing the experience, or jarring/distracting.[25] Plot / Progression
What’s the quality of the overarching story in this game? Does it grab your attention and hold it or is it sort of “just there” as a forced reason for you to interact with this virtual world? How does the plot progress, and does everything wrap up at the end? When the game is over do you feel satisfied and want to learn more about this world and its inhabitants?[15] Characters / Development
Is the main character interesting and engaging? Are there other characters you interact with and are they fleshed out or just hollow NPCs there to deliver basic instructions? Do the main and supporting characters add depth to the world and gaming experience and how do they grow and evolve as the game progresses?[15] Gameplay / Experience
This is a game … so is it fun to play? The goal is to get from some starting point to some ending point, but was this journey worth your time? Sometimes these games can be a joy to play through and sometimes they’re a slog and focus too heavily on “filler” or elements that artificially pad out play time.[10] Replayability
Once the game is complete would you ever find yourself itching to play it again? Was the game fun to play or experience, or offer some variety of gameplay or character selection that could entice you back for repeated playthroughs.[10] Impact / Impression
Final thoughts and impressions on this game as a whole. Were you left wanting more, or were you rushing to the end to get it over with.[5] Bonus / Surprise
Anything unexpected or notable that’s worth calling out?
Scores (for posterity)
The snapshot of the scores at the time the system was overhauled is below. As I’m going to revisit each of these scores over time, the master list - sorted by score - will slowly be updated.
- 91% Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (LucasArts) - 1993
- 89% Full Throttle (LucasArts) - 1995
- 89% Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (Sierra On-Line) - 1993
- 87% The Secret of Monkey Island (Lucasfilm Games) - 1990
- 87% Grim Fandango (LucasArts) - 1998
- 86% Beneath a Steel Sky (Revolution Software) - 1994
- 86% Sanitarium (DreamForge Intertainment) - 1998
- 84% Sam & Max Hit the Road (LucasArts) - 1993
- 84% Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter (Sierra On-Line) - 1986
- 84% Flight of the Amazon Queen (Interactive Binary Illusions) - 1995
- 81% King’s Quest: Quest for the Crown (Sierra On-Line) - 1984
- 80% Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom (Hudson Soft) - 1984
- 80% Shadowgate (ICOM Simulations) - 1987
- 79% Innocent Until Caught (Divide By Zero) - 1993
- 77% Blue Force (Tsunami Games) - 1993
- 76% Rise of the Dragon (Dynamix) - 1990
- 73% I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (The Dreamers Guild) - 1995
- 71% Police Quest II: The Vengeance (Sierra On-Line) - 1988
- 70% Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon (Sierra On-Line) - 1989
- 69% Manhunter: New York (Evryware) - 1988
- 69% Tony Tough and the Night of Roasted Moths (Nayma Software, Prograph Research S.r.l.) - 1999
- 67% Blade Runner (Westwood Studios) - 1997
- 67% Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel (Sierra On-Line) - 1987
- 66% Mystery House (On-Line Systems) - 1980
- 66% Nightshade (Beam Software) - 1992
- 66% Space Quest II: Vohaul’s Revenge (Sierra On-Line) - 1987
- 64% Ringworld: Revenge of the Patriarch (Tsunami Games) - 1992
- 64% Normality (Gremlin Interactive) - 1996
- 64% Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places) (Sierra On-Line) - 1988
- 63% DreamWeb (Creative Reality) - 1994
- 63% Labyrinth: The Computer Game (Lucasfilm Games) - 1986
- 61% Snatcher (Konami) - 1988
- 61% Countdown (Access Software) - 1990
- 59% Discworld (Teeny Weeny Games/Perfect 10 Productions) - 1995
- 59% Dark Seed (Cyberdreams) - 1992
- 59% The Adventures of Willy Beamish (Dynamix) - 1991
- 59% Police Quest III: The Kindred (Sierra On-Line) - 1991
- 57% Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (Sierra On-Line) - 1987
- 57% Mean Streets (Access Software) - 1989
- 56% Return to Ringworld (Tsunami Games) - 1994
- 56% The Legend of Kyrandia: Fables and Fiends (Westwood Studios) - 1992
- 56% Frederik Pohl’s Gateway (Legend Entertainment) - 1992
- 56% Loom (Lucasfilm Games) - 1990
- 53% Ripper (Take-Two Interactive) - 1996
- 53% Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers (Sierra On-Line) - 1991
- 51% Harvester (DigiFX Interactive) - 1996
- 51% Beavis and Butt-Head in Virtual Stupidity (Viacom New Media) - 1995
- 50% Déjà Vu: A Nightmare Comes True (ICOM Simulations) - 1985
- 49% Duckman: The Graphic Adventures of a Private Dick (The Illusions Gaming Company) - 1997
- 49% Urban Runner (Coktel Vision) - 1996
- 47% Hopkins FBI (MP Entertainment) - 1998
- 47% Manhunter 2: San Francisco (Evryware) - 1989
- 46% Lure of the Temptress (Revolution Software) - 1992
- 46% Tass Times in Tonetown (Interplay Productions, Brainwave Creations) - 1986
- 46% Ulysses and the Golden Fleece (On-Line Systems) - 1981
- 44% Torin’s Passage (Sierra On-Line) - 1995
- 44% Uninvited (ICOM Simulations) - 1986
- 43% Eternam (Infogrames) - 1992
- 41% Hugo’s House of Horrors (Gray Design Associates) - 1990
- 41% King’s Quest II: Romancing the Throne (Sierra On-Line) - 1985
- 40% The Crimson Crown - Further Adventures in Transylvania (Penguin Software) - 1985
- 40% Police Quest: Open Season (Sierra On-Line) - 1993
- 39% Companions of Xanth (Legend Entertainment) - 1993
- 39% Codename: ICEMAN (Sierra On-Line) - 1989
- 39% Cruise for a Corpse (Delphine Software International) - 1991
- 36% EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus (Sierra On-Line) - 1991
- 36% Hugo II, Whodunit? (Gray Design Associates) - 1991
- 36% Jurassic Park (Sega of America) - 1993
- 34% Murder on the Mississippi (Activision) - 1986
- 34% Altered Destiny (Accolade) - 1990
- 34% The Black Cauldron (Sierra On-Line) - 1986
- 34% Rendezvous with Rama (Telarium) - 1984
- 33% Transylvania (Penguin Software) - 1982
- 31% The Dark Crystal (On-Line Systems) - 1983
- 31% Dallas Quest (Datasoft) - 1984
- 29% Ace Ventura (7th Level) - 1996
- 29% Wizard and the Princess (On-Line Systems) - 1980
- 27% Kabul Spy (Sirius Software) - 1982
- 21% Bargon Attack (Coktel Vision) - 1992
- 19% Lost in Time (Coktel Vision) - 1993
- 19% Mission Asteroid (On-Line Systems) - 1980
- 14% Adventureland (Adventure International) - 1982
- 13% Emmanuelle (Coktel Vision) - 1989
- 7% (was 11%) Geisha (Coktel Vision) - 1990
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