Patrick Dowdle First let's start with the great stuff, which there is plenty of.The cinematographers clearly knew what they were doing. Shots are excellently composed, lighting and camera work are top notch, particularly in context of the budget, and the entire work (thus far) has been visually compelling. The digital elements are intuitive and well done (intuitive by being instantly recognizable and relatably - for example, when a player was shot in the game, there would be a bunch of digital pixels that flew off them. It makes a lot of sense and looks cool).The soundtrack is fluid and on-key, building tensions and emotions and complimenting the arc of the story as it progresses. It's nothing particularly amazing, but it's great for the budget. The supporting actors also do a quite good job, although, like all amateur actors, there are some flaws.It's important to give credit to these backstage guys who made a really clean, professional looking film. Because honestly, I was legitimately impressed. But that's where the good impressions end, and the bad begin.I gave this work such a low review because, frankly, the acting and writing is AWFUL. Literally offensive. A fair, even good, portion of the jokes hit pretty well, but the characters are atrocious. BrianD, the 'protagonist', is arguably the bigger douche between him and his cliché, one-dimensional, nonsensical antagonist rival, The Law. Brian never listens to people, is generally psychopathically inconsiderate of other people, and is incredibly standoffish with anybody that disagrees with him. So is The Law, but hes SUPPOSED to be that way, he's the bad guy. Whats the point of making the protagonist as mean as the antagonist? I hated them both. At least the Law was a good actor, but BrianD gave a wooden, comically unconvincing performance that felt like a 'very first stab at acting ever'kind of acting.Characters don't evolve, they just do random things that don't make sense. Everybody is a huge dick to Brian, then they're suddenly not, and then they are again, and there's no reason why. Ever. Characters change without events occurring, and thats baffling. The writing makes it so that the character change is the impetus for the event, not the other way around, which is how it should be. Brian and his on-again off- again romance with Matrix, the lead female, is baffling, forced, and awkward - a set of traits that describe most of the movie.Also, a piece of work that bills itself as a 'video game movie' has an embarrassingly poor understanding of the medium. It's like the producers have never actually watched any eSports. Of course, adaptations are never perfect, but its so far off the mark that, as a gamer, I felt cheated. I wasn't expecting them to translate CSGO or CoD perfectly, but a respawn + CTF + dramatic 'evil villain speech' cliché inside a COMPETITIVE GAME? It just felt alienating.That's a good word to sum up the review. Alienating. I felt uncomfortable, confused, and apathetic to the characters' plight. The writing was bad, the actors were bad, and this work is bad. 3/10, with 2/10 points added for visuals.

Harbinger_3781 Okay... so where to begin? This show is awesome. I couldn't believe this network show also came in seasons - first time I watched it I thought it was a pure direct-to-DVD movie. Can't believe it's a show that got renewed to season 3! Figure it got widespread audience acclaim. Not surprising. Somethings I'd like to point out: 1. This show displays a world where gaming is the way of education. This is not exactly the world that *our* society would agree with, though I gotta admit; this is a pretty good alternative way to settle wars and conflicts(the first one being the one-on-one between two best warriors). 2. This show's about the games, and the bulkhead concentrated on the FPS - where the protagonists Brian and Jenny are most specializes in - and it somehow follows a Call of Duty cliché, where all the other minor ally characters can be killed off, and the protagonists always stay alive. 3. The emblems of each character is precise: BrianD the sharpshooter, Jenny Matrix the champion, Ki Swan the brawler, Ted Wong the racer, Mary Matrix the coach, and Law the professional. 4. Clearly the chemistry between Brian and Jenny were brought beyond the screen, as they dated and married in real life - before the second season aired! They were so young, and my best wishes to them. 5. Wonder how much military support - or any support - Freddie Wong and others got. Apparently this much shooting scenes require extensive military training, the drifting races requires driving skills, and Mortal Kombat-style brawling requires martial arts trainings and one heck of a Kung Fu fight choreography. And where did they get those awesome guns and gears? I want some... XDDD 6. Special effects are also one of the marvels of this show. The blue- and-red "comfirmed hit" effect, the heads-up display on the cars' windshield, and the fire-and-ice effect in brawling games? Can't believe they only did that in under $70,000. Take that, Hollywood. 7. One of the show's creator, Brian Firenzi, plays a major role in the show as its on-and-off antagonist. There's no bad words from me about his acting skills - his character is both annoying and amusing. Wonder what would he become in season three. Speaking of which... 8. This show is super awesome. I'll give it 20 stars if available. But when will season three be up in the air?!?

Sean Kim I have watched countless hours of Freddie's channel. The first thing that got my attention was his weekly Action/VFX work with Brandon. The good old days. But VGHS blew me away. The concept was aimed toward the audience(mostly gamers) so it was a good start. The story was well written, the sound design was very good, the effects, camera work, and music. This could actually be a professional series if they wanted to seeing that they only spent about 1,000,000 dollars on a whole series that turned out great. Each episode gets better and better and especially season 2. Apparently they have said they are doing the largest action shots they have done, CGI, VFX.... I can't wait what will come in store for the best web series on Youtube!

David Gustafsson As a long time spectator of e-sports I will say this. VGHS does not portray the life of a pro-gamer in any way. But if you enjoy Monster and Razer advertisement, well this is your lucky day. The amount of Monster cans and Razer gaming peripheral makes this seem more like advertisement than a TV-series. The illusion of this being an actual real life scenario is constantly crushed by the obvious advertisement. Unfortunately this is not the only thing breaking the illusion. There are quite many small errors that add up. Like how the actors use their gear for example. They are more or less just pressing fanatically at 3 keys at the same time while constantly clicking the mouse buttons making themselves look like they have no idea of what they are doing when their characters are supposed to be at the highest level of gaming.The cast is not bad but not good. Using the Youtube stars seems to be more of a marketing tool and more important than having good actors, which I think would have been the only way to make it anything near a decent product.The animations are okay, nothing that will amaze you even considering the budget.The biggest problem is the characters, even under gun point can I imagine them being pro gamers. Not a single one. The supposedly best player in this universe seems to be more occupied with other stuff to even practice the 12-14 hours a day which would be required by him. Them being the best at video games are as likely as a hockey team with 6 year olds wining the Stanley Cup.VGHS is a fantasy story, more surreal than Game of Thrones. You literally drown in obvious advertisement to the point of it being parodical. While watching this I'm constantly pinching myself hoping to wake up from a nightmare. Again, the way the actors use a keyboard and mouse is like unintentional slap-stick falling down the stairs comedy. With these fatal errors pieced together with the mediocre cast makes this nothing but a 2/10.