How long does it take a reviewer to play a game?

I was reading a MEA review and the author mentioned that he'd spent 80+ hours in the game.

That led me to wonder if reviewers ought not let you know how much calendar time they spend with a game.

I guess this comes from me just spending 72 hours in HZD over 20 days and feeling like my entire life was consumed by HZD. I have to assume the reviewer didn't have 3 weeks to cover his game, so he must have played for 6-8 hours/day to get it done in a timely fashion. And don't you think that would impact your feelings towards a game?

It could be positive or negative. Like a story that you experience over a week might not be as impactful as a story that you experience over 6-8 weeks (because you might forget details over time). On the other hand, a UI weirdness that drives you nuts when you're playing 8 hours a day might not be a big deal when you're playing 1-2 hours a day and only encounter the UI quirk once or twice a night.

I don't know what reviewers get paid today. Back when I was an editor we paid, iirc, $1200 for a full length review and $700 for a quickie 1 page review. Hopefully those figures have grown since then (it's been 15 years or so) but even back then it was nearly impossible to review enough games to do it for a living, so you'd have to have a day job, which makes 80 hours seem even crazier. Or if the reviewer is on staff I guess s/he works on just that 1 article for 2 weeks...