@nocoolnamejim I'm mostly just glad you read the text. :)
Shadowgate is very good. Hence the score of 7/10 ("Good"). It's a game I enjoyed quite a bit, you're not wrong. And if you were a fan of the original game, I think you'll really like this one.
@deliciouspoints Hi, I'm the reviewer. I liked Shadowgate a lot, both as a fan of adventure games in general and as someone who spent a LOT of time playing Shadowgate Classic on the Game Boy Color (which you'd know if you read my bio under the review). It's a very good game that I don't hesitate to recommend. You do realize that a "7" means "Good," right?
Also, you have my preferences backwards: I definitely prefer story/gameplay over graphics.
@battlefront1943 You've got it backwards. There's no explanation in the review for why Transistor IS a 10. Games don't start at 10 and go down, you know. You don't go into a movie thinking, "This movie is perfect until I start deducting points from it." That's just not how reviewing works.
An 8 is, by GameSpot's definition, "Great." The review described a great game. Thus, the score is justified.
@Morphine_OD I've been reading all of the comments, actually. And I rated it as an RPG, not as a reflection of my "beliefs." I found the gameplay systems themselves mediocre.
@kurbstar @Sargus @DamnILoveGames So, like, journalism college classes? Because yeah, I have that "academic background with journalism." (My degree is technically English, but I took journalism/media classes and was at the student newspaper all four years.)
I'm gonna quite cluttering up this comment thread with this issue, but I'm willing to continue discussing it if you're not satisfied. Feel free to send a PM or get in touch on Twitter or something.
@kurbstar @Sargus @DamnILoveGames I'm not a full-time GameSpot employee. My job does not rely on page views in any sense. I know you want there to be a conspiracy here, but it just doesn't exist. Sorry.
Sargus' comments