I really think you (the Gamespot website) need to have some sort of better description for your numeric ratings other than "Good" or "Poor", since those are such vague, and possibly in some cases, arbitrary meanings.
While I understand the points you (Tom) make and your reason for disliking the game, I think the numeric rating a bit confusing. For you, a rating of "4" pertains to "poorly conceived adventure that struggles to form a cohesive whole", while in my mind, a "4" would be a game that was poorly coded so as to have collision detection issues, numerous hard crashes, a game that was not fun to play because it didn't function properly some of the time...
A big difference, I know!
I feel that you are giving this review from an emotional standpoint (a feeling that I got from the use of the word "scorned" in the title of the review), you being more concerned about how the game made you feel and it's not standing up to the original Bioshock...but I think that if you had a table that stated the numeric value of "4" followed by "didn't meet reviewers expectation based on previous games in the series" or "storyline and gameplay thematically clash", then people would not be surprised when you gave a "4" to a game for those reasons.
I like the way they handle affection in Disgaea D2...as opposed to Mass Effect, where you need to get a party member really like you before you can ride them, in D2 you ride your monster party members to get them to really like you...and then they start jumping in front of attacks meant for you, which is way better than a sex scene as far as gameplay goes.
I think the new Red Ring of Death for the Xbox One will be the ability for the Kinect to understand two voices at once...parents shouting "Xbox Off!" while their kids are shouting "Xbox On!" at the same time until the damn thing just burns out...
Most of them are like Final Fantasy games, a new story with a new set of characters (though characters from previous games can be gotten after the story missions are completed, either through bonus missions or DLC). D2 is a bit different since it's the first actual sequel (to the first game). I would recommend going to a Disgaea wiki and checking out the entries on the games, you can read a synopsis of the games previous to the one you are thinking of getting, and read the differences in the battle systems to see which one might be most enjoyable to you (as a personal recommendation, I would suggest Disgaea 2, either the PSP or PS2 version).
As for being any good, I love all the games, but have never met anybody else who played any of the games to completion.
It's like a fortune cookie...if you go into a Chinese Food restaurant and ask for one, they will charge you for it, but if you order a meal, they won't charge you for it.
Is there any reason why GameSpot regularly mentions the "Games for Gold" but not the Playstation Plus games? The are both equally newsworthy, aren't they? It's a bit annoying to come here for gaming news, but to have to go to another site for this one piece of information...
I, too, am one of the six, Jess...I'm on a limited budget, so I put a preorder in for "Disgaea D2", because you can't beat the value of a game that you can play for over 650 hours (which is where I'm at with Disgaea 4, and I'm still playing it).
Ereheru's comments