RPG reviews are so incredibly hard to do well. Even Justin's review is based on a read-through, not on how it works in play.
Have I managed to write a review of a 5E hardcover? I don't think so - though having run Tyranny of Dragons and Curse of Strahd three times each, I think I could do them now. (I might have done so... can't remember).
It's important to remember that there are four categories of RPG products (simplified, I know):
- Reads well, plays well
- Reads well, plays bad
- Reads bad, plays well
- Reads bad, plays bad
And those can
really trip you up when reviewing. I've spent a lot of time paying attention to the computer game space recently, and there are massive amounts of hours that go into the game reviews, especially when you get games like Baldur's Gate 3. And those are relatively easy, since they are just one person spending the time - consider that to properly do a playthrough review of a 4-hour adventure, you probably need five people to spend 4 hours each! (At the same time).
But most of the "reviews" that get posted on big gaming sites for the new hardcovers aren't much in depth. They probably haven't had the book for that long, either.
I run adventures much faster than most people, and it still took 40 hours to play through
Shadow of the Dragon Queen. Once I finish writing up the
session reports, I really should get around to writing a proper review of it.
Cheers,
Merric