This is a refreshed version of our review guidelines. Previously we only gave scores to games and verbal verdicts for other content and hardware. Now, we’re adopting a single five-point scale that will encompass all future reviews at UploadVR. For reference, here is the old scale.
The VR industry is growing bigger by the day, and consumers have more choice than ever when it comes to games, films or other types of experiences to purchase for a variety of headsets. At UploadVR, we take pride in providing balanced, informative reviews of VR software to help you make the right purchasing choices in an increasingly crowded field.
In October 2019 we retired out 10-point review scale in favor of a five-star system. While traditional games are commonly judged on a 10-point scale, we feel that VR’s ongoing journey to blur the lines between games, film and other media called for a streamlined system more often used for other media. In June 2020, we further refined the system with new terminology and visuals. Take a look at our new scoring system below.
Take note that, while we do review hardware on UploadVR, we don’t feel it appropriate to label evolving platforms with a number, so these reviews don’t carry scores. The same go for unfinished experiences like those released in Early Access. From time-to-time we may also publish a review-in-progress. This means that we haven’t seen enough of the experience to render a final verdict, such as in the case of games with multiplayer that isn’t active pre-launch. In those cases the review-in-progress will be published without a score and will be finalized, then republished with a score once we’ve reached a final verdict. It will not be a new URL, but just an update to the in-progress review to make it final. This means some content of the review may change.
And although reviews-in-progress don’t have a score attached, we do consider them a valuable service to our readers when making a purchasing decision as they provide our thoughts, opinions, and insights on products.
Since ratings on final reviews are so tricky and carry a lot of baggage, we’ve put together this review score breakdown guideline on what each star rating means for a review at UploadVR:
UploadVR 1-5 Star Rating Scale
Essential games and experiences offer the very best in VR today. While not necessarily perfect, these will set high bars in multiple areas, be they overall immersion, graphical fidelity, gameplay quality, narrative excellence or otherwise. These are absolute must-have experiences.
Great games and experiences will be titles you’re very likely to enjoy, even if they don’t reach the same heights of break as much ground as Essential VR apps. Experiences with this rating may have a fair few obvious flaws, but the pros will still clearly outweigh the cons, making for an easy recommendation to just about anyone.
Good games and experiences are rock-solid titles that leave an overall positive impression, even if they have some glaring issues. It might be that the experience sets a high bar for presentation, but is ultimately a little repetitive to play, or winds up being far too short. Make no mistake, a Good rating still means an app is worth checking out if you have any interest in it.
Okay games and experiences are generally uninspiring; they either fail to leave any kind of lasting impression on the user, even if they’re not especially bad. There could be technical constraints limiting your enjoyment, or the overall design might actively detract from the experience. You might want to seek out an Okay experience if you’re a die-hard fan of a given genre or brand, but it’s not essential in any way.
Avoids are at the bottom of the pile when it comes to games and experiences you should try in your headset. Expect these to be either buggy, broken messes that leave you spinning from nausea or just straight up terribly-made games, films or otherwise. Chances are you won’t see too many Avoids but, when you do, you’ll know to stay far away.
Updated June 25th, 2019
Established October 9th, 2019: This is the date that UploadVR retired its original scoring system.
