When any reviewer plays a game, say Half-Life 2 for example, they complete the game and then submit their review based on their experience. Most reviewers will have at least one instance where they had to sit up all night finishing a game to meet a deadline. Why do they do this? So that they can accurately provide information based on the whole experience. Several games have fantastic openings and then really, really terrible middle and end sections and vice versa.
When reviewing a multi-player centric Game, a review can not be considered accurate until adequete time has been put into the game.
For example, when I originally bought Counter-Strike Source, there was a problem with Steam for a few days and it prevented me from connecting to servers via the Steam network. If I had of been a reviewer, I could have given the game a Zero because it simply didn't work. I could have played against bots, but the play is designed for multiplayer so it's not really a fair representation of the game. When reviewers review MMOs they play for several weeks so that they can report on things like Quests, Balance, how fun the PVP and PVE aspects are. And they also take into consideration how the community works. Are the Community Managers helpful or are they simply mindless bots? How good is the customer service?
While Demigod isn't an MMO and as such can't be judged by those standards, games like Halo 3 won praise for their online community - the stat tracking, the forums, the file sharing - read any review and it's highlighted as a 'Pro'. Should the response of people like Frogboy go unmentioned? There are people working sleeplessly to get this game working - they are keeping their player base informed of the problems and ensuring that the problems are fixed in days, not weeks. This alone eclipses the likes of Blizzard Entertainment where unless the servers crash, theres no word for months about anything.
In my opinion Demigod is a multiplayer centric experience, and the Gamestop review can not be considered accurate because they simply tried to connect to a few games and couldn't, played against some bots and wrote "It's good, but multiplayer doesn't work. 6.5". The reviewer should have pushed for more time, until the game could actually be reviewed and an accurate representation given. The score given to Demigod isn't a mark against Demigod, it's a mark against Gamespot. And one they won't live down for a long time to come.
