Let’s get one thing out of the way early about our reviews: we’re not doing scores out of 10.
No 6.8s. No 7s that somehow read like 4s. No pretending there is a meaningful difference between a game that gets a 7 and one that gets a 7.5 because someone liked one boss fight a bit more than the other. Life is too short, and quite frankly, we find that sort of thing a bit dull.
At Indie-cent Exposure, we want our reviews to feel like they were written by actual human beings with thoughts, opinions, standards, and the occasional sense of humour. That means being clear, honest, and a little cheeky about what we think, rather than hiding behind numbers that often say less than they are meant to.
So instead of handing out traditional review scores, we use our own verdict labels.
Indie-cent Exposure review labels
If something really wins us over, it earns a Shamelessly recommended. That is the big one. The stuff we loved, the things we would happily tell other people to play, watch, visit, or listen to without hesitation. It does not mean flawless, because nothing is, but it does mean we think it is doing something genuinely worth your time.
Then there is Worth exposing yourself to. That is still a strong recommendation, just without quite hitting the top tier. Maybe it does not blow the doors off, but it is still easy to suggest to the right audience. Solid, enjoyable, and definitely worth a look.
A bit rough with the lights on is where things get more mixed. There is something there, maybe even quite a lot to like, but it comes with caveats. It might be messy, uneven, awkward, or held back by some frustrating decisions. These are the ones where we can see the appeal, but we are not going to pretend the cracks are not showing.
And finally, Keep it covered. That one is pretty self-explanatory. If something misses the mark badly enough, we are not going to dance around it. Not everything works, and we are perfectly happy to say when something is not for us.
Why we are choosing to use these review labels
The important thing is that these verdicts are not there just to be funny, even if we do enjoy them. They are there to make our reviews clearer. Too often, review scores become the only thing people look at, and the actual words end up doing all the real work anyway. We would rather lean into that. Tell you what something is, what it does well, where it falls apart, and who might still get something out of it.
That is really the heart of how we approach reviews.
We want to be brutally honest, but not needlessly harsh. There is a difference. Indie projects in particular can be ambitious, scrappy, strange, and sometimes held together with little more than duct tape and a dream. We respect that. We know smaller teams take risks bigger studios often will not. But respect does not mean a free pass. If something does not work, we are going to say so. If something nearly works, we will say that too. And if something lands in a big way, we will happily shout about it.
We are not interested in pretending everything deserves praise just because it is independent. We love indie creativity precisely because it can be weird, bold, rough around the edges, and occasionally brilliant. That means taking the highs seriously and the lows seriously, too.
Our reviews are here to help you figure out whether something is actually worth your time. Not whether it ticks a few predictable boxes. Not whether it matches some imaginary industry average. Just whether it is any good, why we think that, and whether you should be paying attention.
Simple, really.
So that is how we do things at Indie-cent Exposure. Honest thoughts, no lifeless number scores, and verdicts that actually sound like us.
It may not be the most conventional review system on the internet.
Good.
