Screenshots & trailers
What players say
Why the number is what it is: aspect mentions counted across 300 sampled Steam reviews (274 positive / 26 negative), recent and most-helpful. Plain keyword counting, fully reproducible; nothing here is written by a machine.
What positive reviews talk about
- Story & writing20% mention it
What negative reviews complain about
- Story & writing50% mention it
- Visuals & art15% mention it
- Bugs & crashes12% mention it
Satisfaction by hours played
Same score, different games: see how sentiment holds up the longer people play.
Under 5h
91%
284 reviews
5-15h
93%
15 reviews
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 73 | 8 |
| Creator reviews (1 tracked) | – | 95 | 0 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 88% | 82 | 1000 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | 79 | 19 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 91% | 85 | 78 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 224 reviews sampled · 222 total reviews in window · weighted 51.3 up / 5.4 down · computed 2h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (41)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 95
“There’s more to this game than it’s 90 minute runtime. The fact I’m still thinking about it, deeply, hours after I played it is all part of the value too...The fact it prompted me to write much of what I wrote here is something… special.”
read full review ↗ - 20
“It sensationalizes the concepts of the misunderstood creator and the misguided audience and begs pity from the latter.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“I 100% enjoyed all of my time with The Beginner's Guide, despite a few instances of clumsy writing, up to the point where the last chapter slipped over into the epilogue. I feel like the tail end of the game is almost kitschy in how it plays out, and I believe that the game would have been so much stronger and braver for ending with the last voiceover of the final chapter. By continuing to go on and on with the narration, I felt like I was being robbed of significance by someone attempting to visually and emotionally sew up something that could not be repaired. This is all to say that you should play the game.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“The Beginner's Guide is an incredible art piece of a game that gets you thinking your relationship with the games you play.”
read full review ↗ - 88
“The Beginner’s Guide is as fascinating as The Stanley Parable is hilarious. One of the most intriguing ‘games’ that we’ve played in recent history and an easy recommendation for everyone who likes weird game experiments. [dec. 2015 / page 062]”
- 100
“The second game from the creator of The Stanley Parable is an intensely personal character study and one of the most daring games in years.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“The Beginner’s Guide is an absorbing journey into the thoughts and processes involved during the creation of a video game. It succeeds in helping you understand and sympathize with game developers as artists and people. It equips you with important tools to perceive and think about both video games and other mediums in intelligent ways. It’s a game that lives up to its namesake--it’s the beginner’s guide to the meaning of video games.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“The Beginner's Guide is more of an interesting experience than a really interesting game. However, if you are looking for something new and fresh, give it a chance.”
read full review ↗ - 69
“A peculiar experience that’s personal, sincere, and full of questions to unpack, though it asks them far too bluntly.”
read full review ↗ - 100
“Few game developers have ever ventured such an open-hearted project about human frailty, and knocked it out of orbit.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“The Beginner’s Guide is not lightning in a bottle like The Stanley Parable, nor is it a checklist of graphics and sounds that players should run through. For people that want a taste of the hardships that indie developers endure, however, you can do no better.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“The Beginner’s Guide is a poignant and thought-provoking journey into the minds of game developers who are at their core, people with struggles and insecurities of their own. $10 might seem a steep price tag for an hour and a half of playtime without traditional mechanics, goals, or objectives, but if you take a chance you might find yourself moved (and even changed) by the time the credits roll.”
read full review ↗
The Jimquisition
Slant Magazine
Paste Magazine
The Escapist
Power Unlimited
Eurogamer
GameSpot
SomHráč.sk
PC Gamer
Washington Post
We Got This Covered
DarkZero…and 29 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- The Beginner's Guide Update ReleasedOct 5, 2015
- The Beginner's Guide Update ReleasedOct 5, 2015