Honest Game Trailers: Life is Strange

[Bat Vader]

But you didn't play "Life is Strange". You played episode one of an entire story.

And so did the people singing its praises. That doesn't change the fact that for two full months it was the entire game, and that every episodic story driven game should be able to catch your attention (to say nothing of demonstrating halfway decent quality) in its opening.

It might not be to your taste, but that doesn't earn the accusation that reviewers had to be paid off to enjoy it.

That's what you're harping on? I didn't say that that was the case, I said if there was ever an argument to be made that that happened in the industry (outside of the times it was caught red handed) this game would be an example of why people feel that happens. Even if someone enjoyed the game I can't possibly understand how they hell it got the level of praise it got. My favourite game in the world is one that only has a 63% on metacritic, and while I love the game to death I wouldn't give it more then a 7.5 if I was being generous and more likely just slap a 7 on it and be done with it due to my understanding that while I love it enough to sink 500 hours into a single save file it's not actually that great of a game.

Life is Strange got a reaction that seems in line with Arkham Knight getting 9s and 10s despite not even being playable.

Except the console versions of Arkahm Knight were playable and were fantastic. The PC version sucked but that shouldn't impact the console version review score. The PC version I would give a 0 but the PS4 version of Arkahm Kngiht I would give a 9.

 

[Kyle Winston]

To be fair, I bet every actual high school in America has those tropes. What's that saying about life imitating art?

That ending was complete garbage. When a recurring theme is how actions have unintended and far-reaching consequences, the ending being a binary choice with one ending each is just a slap in the face.

Why? Sometimes an ending is just another part of the story. It doesn't have to be a culmination of all things past or the thing that everything before it was building up to.

My reasoning is that a theme in Life is Strange is about action, consequence, or lack thereof due to time manipulation. Everything that had been done over those five chapters... Ultimately had no impact on the ending. When so many choices had consequences, the ending just seemed egregious.

But those choices had an impact nonetheless. Why must they have an impact on the ending?

They do not "have" to have an impact. My position is that because they do not, both of the endings are bad in a story-telling sense. One ending nullifies five episodes of choices and the other does not even show any consequences from five episodes of choices, except the final, binary one.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

To be fair, I bet every actual high school in America has those tropes. What's that saying about life imitating art?

That ending was complete garbage. When a recurring theme is how actions have unintended and far-reaching consequences, the ending being a binary choice with one ending each is just a slap in the face.

Why? Sometimes an ending is just another part of the story. It doesn't have to be a culmination of all things past or the thing that everything before it was building up to.

My reasoning is that a theme in Life is Strange is about action, consequence, or lack thereof due to time manipulation. Everything that had been done over those five chapters... Ultimately had no impact on the ending. When so many choices had consequences, the ending just seemed egregious.

But those choices had an impact nonetheless. Why must they have an impact on the ending?

They do not "have" to have an impact. My position is that because they do not, both of the endings are bad in a story-telling sense. One ending nullifies five episodes of choices and the other does not even show any consequences from five episodes of choices, except the final, binary one.

But they do have an impact.

Take the plant. If you don't water it, it dies. If you water it too much, it also dies. If you water it the right amount, it lives.

Why must your choice whether or not to care for the plant be included in the ending? The choice is there there, and it has consequences in the story. What happens after the plant lives or dies is inconsequential.

 

[Kyle Winston]

To be fair, I bet every actual high school in America has those tropes. What's that saying about life imitating art?

That ending was complete garbage. When a recurring theme is how actions have unintended and far-reaching consequences, the ending being a binary choice with one ending each is just a slap in the face.

Why? Sometimes an ending is just another part of the story. It doesn't have to be a culmination of all things past or the thing that everything before it was building up to.

My reasoning is that a theme in Life is Strange is about action, consequence, or lack thereof due to time manipulation. Everything that had been done over those five chapters... Ultimately had no impact on the ending. When so many choices had consequences, the ending just seemed egregious.

But those choices had an impact nonetheless. Why must they have an impact on the ending?

They do not "have" to have an impact. My position is that because they do not, both of the endings are bad in a story-telling sense. One ending nullifies five episodes of choices and the other does not even show any consequences from five episodes of choices, except the final, binary one.

But they do have an impact.

Take the plant. If you don't water it, it dies. If you water it too much, it also dies. If you water it the right amount, it lives.

Why must your choice whether or not to care for the plant be included in the ending? The choice is there there, and it has consequences in the story. What happens after the plant lives or dies is inconsequential.

I do not expect every single choice to have its own scene in the ending, but at least something from the more important choices, like the outcome of Kate's attempted suicide, whether or not David shot Mark, or if Frank is still alive. If every different combination of choices were played out over numerous playthroughs, the two endings would be exactly the same.