UploadVR awards games a score out of five stars with support for half stars for a full 10-point scale.
Update Notice
In October 2023, we refreshed our review guidelines once again, moving from our label system to a refreshed 5-Star rating system. You can read more info on the reasoning for the change here. We revised this again in July 2024 to add half stars, making this a 10-point scale.
The guidelines for our retired label system are available to read for reference purposes here.
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 choices about how to spend your time and money in an increasingly crowded field.
UploadVR's review guidelines have undergone several refreshes over the years. In October 2019, we retired our original 10-point review scale in favor of a five-star system. In March 2022, we moved to a system with three labels (Essential, Recommended, Avoid) alongside a broader unlabeled category rather than a numeric score. In October 2023, we moved back to a five-star system. As of June 23, 2024, we're now returning to a 10-point system designed to more accurately reflect our critical opinions. This system will be used mainly for games and entertainment experiences – we don't score hardware reviews.
As we recently outlined, only complete games in full release will receive a score out of five stars – you won't see them for Early Access titles. From time to time, we may also publish a review-in-progress. This means that we haven’t seen enough to render a final verdict, like games with multiplayer that isn’t active pre-launch or a live service game that needs a long-term approach. In those cases, the review-in-progress will be published without a score and will later be finalized, then republished with a final score out of five stars. 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.
We also need to underscore that every word in a review comes from the individual perspective of its author. This means the rating needs to be taken in context of the writer's overall perspective. You can find games you will enjoy from a reviewer you reliably disagree with just as you can from one you agree with.
Here’s our review breakdown guideline on what each star rating means for a review at UploadVR:
0.5 Stars
An experience that should be completely avoided, no matter what. These games will not have any redeeming qualities and will likely be racked with performance issues or widespread bugs. There’s nothing worth your time here whatsoever and you’re better off not touching these experiences at all.
Examples: Operation Wolf Returns: First Mission VR
1 Star
An experience that, for any reason, is almost completely unplayable. The experience will run more smoothly than one we've given 0.5 stars but otherwise finds itself devoid of meaning or creativity. Either way, these games aren't worth your time.
Examples: Colossal Cave, Gambit!, Tarzan VR
1.5 Stars
These games are filled with issues, perhaps having lofty goals but coming up short in the execution, though may have some minor positives worth highlighting. When we award 1.5 stars, we believe such experiences are best avoided, unless there's at least one key aspect you might enjoy.
Examples: Crimen Mercenary Tales
2 Stars
These experiences feature admirable goals and intentions, but ultimately miss the mark. While not a total trainwreck, they might feature one too many bugs without it being completely unplayable, questionable performance, or they simply fail to deliver a consistently enjoyable experience. Even if everything runs smoothly, these experiences might be creatively uninspired, uninteresting or just below average in other ways. Some people might be able to glean some fun from them, but for most, they’re unlikely to be worth your time.
Examples: Peaky Blinders, Grid Legends, Tennis League VR, Bulletstorm VR, Taskmaster VR, Soul Covenant
2.5 Stars
This is what we'd consider an average game, one that's filled with positives and flaws in near-equal measure. There are redeeming aspects that we believe are worth looking into, though we'd generally consider this to be rather bland or uninteresting overall. Titles with this rating are likely to have done a really solid job on certain aspects while missing the mark on others.
Examples: A Knight in the Attic, Firmament
3 Stars
An enjoyable experience – not great, but not terrible either. What you get out of these experiences will often depend on what you’re looking for and what caveats you’re willing to put up with. For the most part, these experiences work as intended – it’s just a matter of whether what’s on offer is enough to keep you interested.
Examples: Hubris, Budget Cuts Ultimate, Another Fisherman’s Tale, The Dark Pictures: Switchback
3.5 Stars
An experience that delivers more positives than negatives with some memorable traits, but doesn't quite reach the heights of greatness. There will be a few caveats worth considering and not every game will match your personal tastes. However, we'd ultimately consider this worth your time.
Examples: Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game, Unplugged, No Man's Sky, Sushi Ben
4 Stars
A mostly enjoyable experience that delivers on everything it promises with memorable moments. While it doesn't quite tick the boxes to become an all-time classic that everyone should check out, the pros will likely outweigh the cons and experiences that master a specific genre or type of game will find themselves here – not necessarily for everybody, but the perfect choice when it aligns with your personal preferences.
Examples: Gran Turismo 7, Before Your Eyes, No More Rainbows, Synapse, Among Us VR
4.5 Stars
If you enjoy that particular genre, this is an essential purchase that almost flawlessly delivers on its potential with very minor drawbacks. If we give any experience 4.5 stars, you can expect an inventive single-player campaign, excellent presentation, consistently entertaining multiplayer, or other noteworthy traits. These are experiences we enthusiastically recommend playing.
Examples: Resident Evil Village, Assassin's Creed Nexus, Arizona Sunshine 2, Horizon Call of the Mountain, Dungeons of Eternity
5 Stars
An experience that is, for all intents and purposes, near flawless on every level. This is a ranking reserved for the best of the best. It doesn’t mean the experience is entirely without fault or caveats – nobody’s perfect – but it does mean that any downsides are unlikely to affect your overall enjoyment. These experiences are rare entries that often push the boundaries while mastering the medium. We recommend everyone with access to the relevant platforms check them out.
Examples: Pistol Whip, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Half-Life: Alyx, Demeo, Walkabout Mini Golf, Eye of the Temple, Vertigo 2
If you have any questions about our review scoring policy, feel free to contact us or leave your comments below.
