Starting in January 2025, Six One Indie will implement a 10-point scoring scale for all reviews moving forward. When we first launched, our goal was for readers to focus more on the reviewer's words than on a score without context. While that remains true, we recognize the value a numerical score can provide to developers, as it can significantly impact a game's success. Additionally, many indie games don’t always receive scored reviews, especially from OpenCritic and/or Metacritic accredited outlets. Six One Indie takes pride in supporting indie developers across as many avenues as possible, and scored reviews are now another tool to help in that effort.
Here’s a brief overview of Six One Indie’s 10-point scoring scale.
An outstanding game that elevates the gaming genre. The game doesn’t need to be perfect in all aspects, but old systems should be implemented masterfully and new systems could substantially add to the game and the genre. The story, mechanics, replayability, or overall gameplay experience has such substantial weight to the enjoyment of the game where it can be considered a masterpiece.
An excellent game that is so accessible or enjoyable that they could and should be recommended to nearly everyone, both new and old to gaming. The story, replayability, or overall gameplay is compelling and amazing.
A great game that may have some minor flaws, but is an overall compelling experience. This game has some really wonderful things happening with it and is definitely worth your time.
A good game is worth the time and leaves you feeling all around satisfied. A good game has its flaws, but that shouldn’t stop you from playing it.
A decent game is one that meets the bar of expectations for a game. Decent games are not bad, but could be flawed in significant ways. You might recommend a decent game to a fan of the genre or series, but there may be some conditions with the recommendation.
There’s nothing overly impressive about this game. It is okay, but other games in the genre likely do it better.
A bad game has its issues, and they grind on you the more you play. The game may have some redeeming qualities. However, a bad game is still fundamentally playable. There may be bugs, over-complication, unsatisfying story, or some other feature that really takes away from your enjoyment of the game.
While there is a shimmer of good here or there, a poor game (while otherwise playable) is so bland, boring, or repetitive that it feels like a chore more than fun. This is a game you wouldn’t recommend to anyone for obvious reasons — reasons that aren’t specific to you, but would be easily agreed upon by the majority of gamers.
An unpleasant game actually feels painful. While the game is able to be completed, the game is more annoying than anything. It is made painful due to bugs that affect gameplay, major control issues, or a story that is so unpleasant that it detracts substantially from the experience.
This is a downright broken game. A game in this range is borderline (or actually) unplayable. For instance, a game that crashes frequently or won’t even boot. It takes a special kind of game to reach this low.