Board 8 > RATE THE GAME - #60 - Life is Strange

(+) Yeah! (+)

a strange number of people messed up and mistyped their 10s as lower numbers, so Rayman Legends erroneously ends up in 15th place

• Rate the game on a 0-to-10 scale, with up to one decimal place (like 8.8)
• If you change your rating, delete your previous post
• No alt-account shenanigans
• The topic is open for ratings until I close it
• Feel free to post suggestions for future games to rate
• If you want to rate a previous game you missed, make it very clear in your post
• If there are multiple versions of the same game, rate your favorite
• Dont be a dick

Tracking Google Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18aVHprZfGYJAAgREmqqOwku3lIiNGkHTzuzevYiKhQk

The leaderboard:
#1 - Red Dead Redemption 2 - 9.50 (11)
#2 - Disco Elysium - 9.25 (26)
#3 - Resident Evil 4 - 9.21 (44)
#4 - Chrono Trigger - 9.07 (52)
#5 - Persona 4 - 9.02 (39)
#6 - Mass Effect 2 - 8.99 (30)
#7 - Elden Ring - 8.95 (34)
#8 - Bloodborne - 8.94 (33)
#9 - Nier: Automata - 8.93 (36)
#10 - Outer Wilds - 8.90 (25)
#11 - Hades - 8.81 (36)
#12 - Final Fantasy Tactics - 8.77 (33)
#13 - Final Fantasy VII - 8.75 (49)
#14 - Metal Gear Solid 3 - 8.75 (41)
#15 - Rayman Legends - 8.72 (19)
#16 - Bioshock - 8.69 (35)
#17 - God of War (2018) - 8.68 (28)
#18 - Silent Hill 2 - 8.67 (21)
#19 - Cyberpunk 2077 - 8.65 (15)
#20 - Xenoblade Chronicles - 8.65 (27)
#21 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 8.65 (35)
#22 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - 8.62 (45)
#23 - Diablo 2 - 8.61 (16)
#24 - Super Smash Bros Ultimate - 8.58 (42)
#25 - Celeste - 8.56 (34)
#26 - Kirby Super Star - 8.56 (36)
#27 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 8.55 (40)
#28 - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - 8.55 (38)
#29 - Halo 2 - 8.50 (28)
#30 - Metroid Prime - 8.49 (37)
#31 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - 8.47 (22)
#32 - Hollow Knight - 8.47 (31)
#33 - Donkey Kong Country 2 - 8.44 (40)
#34 - Spider-Man (2018) - 8.39 (23)
#35 - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - 8.32 (15)
#36 - Spelunky - 8.16 (18)
#37 - Shovel Knight - 8.14 (21)
#38 - Mega Man 2 - 8.13 (28)
#39 - Slay the Spire - 8.12 (21)
#40 - DOOM (93) - 8.05 (19)
#41 - Pokemon Gold / Silver / Crystal - 8.04 (34)
#42 - Balatro - 7.98 (16)
#43 - Skies of Arcadia Legends - 7.93 (15)
#44 - Metroid Dread - 7.90 (29)
#45 - Undertale - 7.90 (41)
#46 - Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - 7.90 (21)
#47 - Super Mario Bros - 7.86 (47)
#48 - The Last of Us - 7.66 (36)
#49 - Stardew Valley - 7.53 (19)
#50 - Earthbound - 7.50 (39)
#51 - VVVVVV - 7.50 (30)
#52 - Rocket League - 7.40 (21)
#53 - Goldeneye 007 - 7.28 (24)
#54 - Borderlands - 6.95 (13)
#55 - Sonic Adventure 2 - 6.80 (34)
#56 - Mortal Kombat II - 6.64 (22)
#57 - Pokemon Sword / Shield - 6.47 (19)
#58 - Donkey Kong 64 - 5.69 (34)
#59 - Fortnite - 5.19 (14)

GAME #60 - Life is Strange
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/49d0b5c7.jpg

6.5/10

It has some stuff I like, particularly the Kate chapter, but it didn't grab me the way it did for a lot of people.

10

There are four games I'll give this score to and we've done two of them now.

7

Great potential, and some of the scenes were stellar, but man the ending is a cheap shot that ruins the rest of the story.

10

ready for the mosh pit, shaka brah

6.5

Okay, technically I didn't actually play this myself and watched the Giant Bomb playthrough but fuck it I'm rating it anyway.

9.5

It blew me away when it first came out. Though the rest of the series being so meh kinda makes me question why I liked the first game so much...

9.5

Seanchan posted...

Okay, technically I didn't actually play this myself and watched the Giant Bomb playthrough but fuck it I'm rating it anyway.

i haven't played this game so do others think this is acceptable for this one?

yeah

Generally not a huge fan of rating games you haven't personally played, but for something like Life Is Strange, I don't think actually playing it would change a ton on how you feel about it, so I guess it's fine for stuff like this or visual novel type games.

LeonhartFour posted...

Generally not a huge fan of rating games you haven't personally played, but for something like Life Is Strange, I don't think actually playing it would change a ton on how you feel about it, so I guess it's fine for stuff like this or visual novel type games.

Pretty much this.

6

7

It's alright, but I was definitely hoping for more depth from the characters and overall narrative.

Throwing the man's beans on the floor was the best scene

8

LeonhartFour posted...

Generally not a huge fan of rating games you haven't personally played, but for something like Life Is Strange, I don't think actually playing it would change a ton on how you feel about it, so I guess it's fine for stuff like this or visual novel type games.

Well, there's a difference between watching a no-commentary playthrough and watching an LP where the player might be riffing on it the entire time. I haven't played Life is Strange but if it has any amount of seriousness to it, an LP would be a poor way to experience it.

8.5

I don't see any problem with rating a game like this that you can just as easily experience by watching vs playing, who cares

7/10

There's aspects of this game that aren't very well done, and the highs aren't necessarily that high, but it's still very memorable for me.

Contrast that with Before the Storm, which I enjoyed more when I was playing, but I can barely remember a thing from.

8.5

Paratroopa1 posted...

I don't see any problem with rating a game like this that you can just as easily experience by watching vs playing, who cares

As an extreme example, there's multiple streamers who recently played Silent Hill 2 Remake for the first time, got the pre-order bonus that lets James wear a big goofy mascot mask, then put that on immediately, turning the entire story into essentially a comedic farce. If you were a first-timer watching this, I wouldn't say you remotely got the experience of playing SH2.

I doubt Life is Strange has anything as jarring as that, but if you're watching a streamer that's cracking jokes every ten seconds, it's still going to be a fundamentally different experience than playing it yourself and getting immersed in the story.

9

While not perfect, it was a strong story game and I found myself coming back for more.

The prequel was halfway decent - sure, it wasn't as good as the original, but it was still playable - but LIS2 was hot garbage.

6

Meh

6

9

6

7.5

KamikazePotato posted...

I doubt Life is Strange has anything as jarring as that, but if you're watching a streamer that's cracking jokes every ten seconds, it's still going to be a fundamentally different experience than playing it yourself and getting immersed in the story.

Aside from lot of the content in Life is Strange kind of making cracking jokes every few seconds on stream in extremely poor taste (tw: there's suicide, sexual assault, domestic abuse, teen violence, overdose, etc), the game is almost entirely story-focused. There is enough active gameplay that I wouldn't throw it into the VN category, but it's adjacent enough that if you watched a playthrough (and I mean watched a full playthrough from start to finish, not just caught bits and pieces), even though you might not have gotten the "full" experience, you can judge it well enough without putting the controller in your hand.

5

I was disappointed

6/10. It didnt stick the landing and that was really important

6

9.8

BAY

Chloe is probably my character of the '10s

Minus points for the section of the fandom losing their goddamn minds over Double Exposure (which I have bought but not played yet)

I think rating Life is Strange from having seen a Let's Play is fine. I would be very surprised if someone were to watch the game, then play it themselves and have their opinion significantly change from experiencing the interactive aspect.

I don't see whether it was a commentary or no commentary LP as being a super important distinction either, at least definitely not one to base a ruling around in a topic series like this. Every person's experience with any piece of media will be influenced by the context in which that experience takes place and it would quickly become silly to try and exclude ratings from people who didn't play the game in some "ideal" context. I played Life is Strange entirely at a friend's house so the conversations we had during the game probably took focus away from the story at least as much as a Let's Play would. I did this with Oxenfree as well and then re-played the game on my own and the second playthrough definitely wouldn't have changed my rating of the game in a topic like this.

To be fair, this is one of the very few games in my personal history I consider as completed despite watching a Let's Play instead of playing it myself. As I said, it was Giant Bomb East, so they were taking it "seriously" and I think they made most of the decisions I would have (it's been years so don't 100% hold me to that).

On the other hand, I watched GB play through the first 2 Silent Hill games and I would never consider those as "personally completed".

7.2/10

8

Saying that it having more gameplay than a VN should disqualify rating it is a bad take. The gameplay loop of exploratory contained time control is neat, but it's hard to even call it a puzzle half the time. It's extremely perfunctory. The difference between witnessing it and playing it is minimal. I watched at least 2 chapters before playing it all myself and I am honestly cannot remember exactly how far in it was because in the end it made no difference.

notdave posted...

i haven't played this game so do others think this is acceptable for this one?

You get the bulk of it but not the whole thing. There's choices in LiS and a streamer won't make the same choices you would make every time. So you don't feel the weight of the choice, or the consequences (if any) of it.

So for me while it's definitely more valid than that SH2 mask shit, I'm not really a fan

XIII_Rocks posted...

You get the bulk of it but not the whole thing. There's choices in LiS and a streamer won't make the same choices you would make every time. So you don't feel the weight of the choice, or the consequences (if any) of it.

So for me while it's definitely more valid than that SH2 mask shit, I'm not really a fan

2 counter-points.

1. Most your choices don't matter at all.
2. Most of the "big" choices don't even have that high of variance.

The primary exception to both of those is literally the last choice, and the sequel will botch the first part.

8/10

Yeah the whole "choices don't matter" thing did occur to me but like, they should feel like they matter at least and there's no thinking about that choice on a stream

Also my choices led to Kate dying and that felt like it mattered

Also smaller stuff like I accidentally over-watered the plant and felt sad

I guess the final thing I'll say is that I'm very much against "didn't play it but watched someone else play it/watched the cutscenes" being eligible for voting in general but I definitely think it should be fine for pure VNs. Life is Strange is not one of those, but it's kind of in an adjacent grey area where I'd be fine with it either being allowed or not allowed to count.

Yeah I'm not gonna die on the hill or anything either

I don't like telling people how to experience things, but I would at least suggest actually playing it. Sure choice is an illusion most of the time, but you personal microchoices do shape the world around you.

Which is what I think people need to ultimately wrap their heads around for all these "choice" based games like telltale. Sure, the main beats are the same, but the little choices you do make ultimately shape how your character interacts with the world and the ultimate personality the exude, which does impact how you see the game as a whole.

But I realize I have been on the opposite side of this table as well (recently with elden ring), so again I understand different things appeal to different people.

But I do love this one.

First of all, 8/10. I really, really enjoyed it, but dialogue issues and the ending choice hold it back a bit. Great experience though.

On the is a lets play enough discussion, LiS is a grey area but having watched the Giant Bomb playthrough in question (after playing the game) I think its fine. They arent constantly cracking jokes or speedrunning or doing anything weird. It is a good overview of the game. Not the same experience, but that can be true even if you do play a game.

One of the memorable moments in LiS for me was right at the start with the rewind time powers when you find out the nice cheerleader is pregnant (was Dana her name?) by snooping through her bin and she gets pissed at you, so you can rewind time to retain the knowledge but stay in her good books.
The decision to snoop/rewind doesn't matter in the long run, but it's a cool moment that did an excellent job at introducing the main gameplay mechanic and demonstrating how you playing the game can effect the world around you. I doubt I would think as highly of that moment if i watched someone else do it rather than experience it myself.
SO I'm against voting for a game if you haven't played it because cool moments that involve the gameplay are lost due to you watching someone experience it rather than experiencing it yourself. Get involved in the Rate The Story series that ran a while back, but wanting to rate a game you haven't played just seems silly regardless of how story heavy it is. The rewind time mechanic was one of the coolest mechanics in the game, and I might be one of the only ones who gives Life Is Strange a higher Rate The Game score than I think I did in Rate The Story?

malyg posted...

One of the memorable moments in LiS for me was right at the start with the rewind time powers when you find out the nice cheerleader is pregnant (was Dana her name?) by snooping through her bin and she gets pissed at you, so you can rewind time to retain the knowledge but stay in her good books.
The decision to snoop/rewind doesn't matter in the long run, but it's a cool moment that did an excellent job at introducing the main gameplay mechanic and demonstrating how you playing the game can effect the world around you. I doubt I would think as highly of that moment if i watched someone else do it rather than experience it myself.
SO I'm against voting for a game if you haven't played it because cool moments that involve the gameplay are lost due to you watching someone experience it rather than experiencing it yourself. Get involved in the Rate The Story series that ran a while back, but wanting to rate a game you haven't played just seems silly regardless of how story heavy it is. The rewind time mechanic was one of the coolest mechanics in the game, and I might be one of the only ones who gives Life Is Strange a higher Rate The Game score than I think I did in Rate The Story?

Just checked and you gave it an 8 for Story! So your rating here is slightly lower.

lmao oh shit that surprises me

Nominate:
Katamari Damacy