I’ve done probably hundreds of game reviews and have experimented with a few “review styles.” I can summarize the one’s I’ve tried:
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Comprehensive Review: Talk about every mistake. This is the most difficult method, since every mistake is discussed. Potential pitfalls include the fact that your review is highly likely to feature your own opinion rather than fact. Extensive and authoritative discussions may also strain the player’s attention span. Even the best points are worthless if they are never heard.
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Small Sample Review: Select a portion of the player’s mistakes (first 10, random 10, etc.) and talk about those. This is the second most difficult method, since many mistakes are discussed. This has the benefit of casting insight on the quality of the player’s remaining moves that are similarly flawed. It’s also less likely to drain the player’s attention than a move-by-move analysis. But it still requires a lot of effort in reviewing.
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Overriding Theme Review: Identify an overriding theme or essential concept that unites some or all of the player’s mistakes, and discuss that. The advantage of that is that it can repair several mistakes at once by undermining the flawed thinking of them all. It’s also most likely to force the player to adjust their thinking because they are confronted with the logic behind many of their mistakes rather than by any one of myriad mistakes in the game.
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Turning Point Review: Ask the player to select and summarize the turning points of the game, and discuss that. This is one of the easier methods, since only one concept is discussed, and the burden to do some of the legwork is put back on the player. It’s also more likely to result in a collaborative discussion that can change the player’s thinking because it forces them to consider what is actually important and consequential in the game, rather than seeing right or wrong as an abstract concept applied to their moves. This method, however, depends on the player actively engaging with you and defending their move choices, which is generally more than I find many players are willing to do. The player may also be offline and unavailable to discuss moves with you.
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Biggest Mistake Review: Select the biggest mistake in the player’s game, discuss it, and look for similar mistakes where the same thinking applies. This is the one of the easiest methods, since it’s the lowest effort. But if the effort is less than the player was expecting, they may not value what you have to say about their play.
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Lazy AI Review: Send the game through a computer engine and report the output with some basic rationale. This method is unlikely to help the player, because the rationale is post-hoc justification and may not help the player identify similarly good moves in future games. If you don’t have much time to review the game, however, this is better than nothing.