Life is Strange: Episode 5 - Polarized

 PC
User Score
8.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 348 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 274 out of 348
  2. Mixed: 36 out of 348
  3. Negative: 38 out of 348

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  1. Gwenchlan
    Oct 22, 2015
    7
    I had high expectations for this final episode. Some were fulfilled, some were not. There are 2 or 3 sequences which are looking like "flood" in this episode. There are not necessary, it sounds fake. But, otherwise, the final plot with the murderer (no spoil :p) is well managed. And the end is a cruel dilemma. *shared a tear*

    I think I'll re-do this game later, in a one-run. I'll try to    I had high expectations for this final episode. Some were fulfilled, some were not. There are 2 or 3 sequences which are looking like "flood" in this episode. There are not necessary, it sounds fake. But, otherwise, the final plot with the murderer (no spoil :p) is well managed. And the end is a cruel dilemma. *shared a tear*

    I think I'll re-do this game later, in a one-run. I'll try to change the choices I did, just to see what changes it's making.

    Life is Strange has a great soundtrack, too. This fifth episode has nice songs too.

    Definitively a great game. I love it. Thank you DontNod.    … Expand
  2. Aiden_Cora
    Oct 21, 2015
    6
    The pacing is very uneven and it's 70% filler, only 2 choices for the ending. Both of which feel rushed, especially the one where you save Chloe, that one feels tacked on in the last minute.
  3. De_santa
    Oct 21, 2015
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I thought that no other movie or game, would disappoint me more than the end of Mass Effect 3. But, the day 19 of October comes the end of Life is Strange, that simply ignores all your choices during gameplay and with two sloppy, however, the journey of Maxine Caulfield and too good for a less than seven.
  4. Centrey
    Oct 30, 2015
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The ending of Square Enix's attempt at an episodic story driven game. The previous episodes had been good, they had depicted a college student's life with relative success - 'hipster' is the only way to describe the atmosphere. The game then took a darker turn to then finally end up with this episode. I would describe more of the game but the reason I won't is because there is literally no point. There are two endings to the game and only one of which feels like the 'correct' one. Kill everyone in your town besides you and your bestfriend or kill your bestfriend. Any sane person chooses the first one, but therefore every single episode before this one is meaningless. In short, this game has wasted your time making a story that results in it all being destroyed physically or not even existing in the first place.… Expand
  5. Rem
    Dec 2, 2015
    6
    As the conclusion of Max's story comes to a close, the themes of lifelong friendships and destiny come full circle and the game ends with those ideas hammered in your head, and most truly as people have said, the ending is polarizing. What cannot be debated however is how the rest of the episode is panned out, many of the sections of the game not meshing or congealing with what the otherAs the conclusion of Max's story comes to a close, the themes of lifelong friendships and destiny come full circle and the game ends with those ideas hammered in your head, and most truly as people have said, the ending is polarizing. What cannot be debated however is how the rest of the episode is panned out, many of the sections of the game not meshing or congealing with what the other episodes excelled on. Gone are the well paced events that drive the story. In the beginning of the game Max picks up right from where she left off, in the clutches off the supposed antagonist. While I was concerned over the tone shift at the final quarter of Episode 4, they handled it well without being overbearing. The villain in the first 30 minutes could hardly be more "psychopath murder villain" token. He hardly adds to the plot and is just there to give Max a situation of peril. He's bland to put it simply. What hurts however is the whole sequence in the Dark Room, where much of your time is spent listening to the token dialogue and minimal interactivity, it's painfully slow for what should have been an explosive start.

    LiS really utilized the reverse time mechanic very well even for the most menial of tasks throughout the first four episodes, but in EP5, Max uses it for simple, but awful stealth sections, trial and error (in a bad way) fight scenes, and meaningless choices. And speaking of meaningless choices, Polarized probably summed it up the best. It's easy to understand that DontNod aren't big time developers and not everything will see come to a close, but absolutely everything, Rachel's story, Victoria's fate, Nathan's fate, Max's powers, the storm, and even Jefferson's motives, see little to no closure whatsoever in addition to the few dozen other choices that you have made throughout the series. If you played LiS's last 5 minutes, you would've played the entire game as your choices have no effect on the binary endings, both if which sell the concept well enough, but choice is disappointingly thrown out of the window.

    What really drove the events of the game was the craftsmanship of Max and Chloe's relationship, whether platonic or romantic, there was no denying it was the driving force of the series and the reason LiS is so amazing in the first place. Here, it takes a smaller backseat to a more "meta-nightmare-introspect" of Max overusing her powers, which is best summed up with the mixed bag of a nightmare sequence. On one hand, the final sequence of the game really presents the final two choices in the game with polarizing evidence that makes the choice much tougher to swallow for many players, but getting there was a chore. LiS didn't need to break the fourth wall b/c it had a world/atmosphere beautifully developed that was one of the main sticking points, and to abandon that in favor of an annoying stealth section paired with pseudo time travel wackiness that hurts more than peaks interest.

    Chloe's character arc, imo, is the most interesting in the game, as her tragic backstory and her relationship with Max is what drives the game forward, but the writing takes a dip. Most dialogue exchanged consists of Max prioritizing Chloe and putting her above anything else, which is compelling, but the dialogue with Jefferson, Victoria, David, Warren, and hell even herself felt lower quality. Knowing that the writing of the beautiful intro of Episode 4 has dropped is gnawing.

    Other than that there exists nitpicks. The Warren romance subplot feels shoehorned in without proper context, the many red herrings the game teases like Rachel and the doe, how one ending throws logic out of the window, how Nathan's character takes a sudden 180 turn just to satisfy fans, and the amazing music is sparse. Many can disagree on these minor infractions, but what cannot be denied is that Polarized is a disappointing conclusion to what might've been one of the best narratives told in gaming.

    LiS is still an excellent series, and the first four episodes are some of my favorite experiences, despite them not being plot concluding as episode 5, they understood what people loved most, the gentle world building/atmosphere and the small moments between the game's two protagonists that is among the most fleshed out in gaming. Polarized is still an emotional roller coaster in bursts, and the open ending actually works better than an overexplained one, but there was so much that could've been done better. As for the ending? Bae over Bay.    … Expand
  6. mik123abc
    Oct 20, 2015
    5
    I deeply loved my journey through Life is strange but sadly the Finale Ending was very disappointing to me,
    it was very "Lackluster" & felt rushed, I also noticed that the Lips animation were not really matching with what the character were saying.

    OVERALL: Amazing game, poor ending.
  7. Crackfarmer
    Oct 20, 2015
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Kinda disstatisfied with the ending. I prefer the previous Episodes over these, like randomly scrambled contents of the previous episodes to replay in this Episode and less "new" content. The Ending decision is kinda dry, all die and chloe is safe, or chloe dies and the rest is safe. ****… Expand
  8. kryfionka
    Oct 21, 2015
    7
    Game is just AWESOME and this episode broke my heart. Sad, sometimes even scary but really good. Such a shame i can't give 10, because still some important questions have no answers, to MANY important questions.
  9. Gamebeating
    Oct 20, 2015
    5
    I loved the game so much up to this point and it saddens me to say that I am a bit disappointed by the ending.
    The gameplay doesnt change much, soi I will stick to the story for this one.
    Its just average. It leaves a lot of questions unanswered and the plotholes are painingly obvious by the end. If you run through the whole game without investing too much time into the story, it might    I loved the game so much up to this point and it saddens me to say that I am a bit disappointed by the ending.
    The gameplay doesnt change much, soi I will stick to the story for this one.
    Its just average.
    It leaves a lot of questions unanswered and the plotholes are painingly obvious by the end.
    If you run through the whole game without investing too much time into the story, it might seem to make sense, when it really doesnt.
    The way the game ended was called since the release of episode 1, but nobody actually believed it.
    Seeing that it is reality it leaves a bitter aftertaste to an otherwise superb game.
    Only a 5/10 for this one, I'm sorry.    … Expand
  10. ragnarokew
    Nov 10, 2015
    6
    Impressive story with interesting characters i really enjoy the game but i don't know something missing there is too much space in scenario and i don't like the ending other episodes was better or i expect too much for finale.

    At the end 6/10
  11. papeadojhon
    Nov 8, 2015
    7
    My expectations of this last episode were very high, and... well, it wasn't bad, the endings are in many ways what I did imagine, but the whole rest of the episode was confusing and weird, in some aspects I liked it in others I didn't, I expected an epic conclusion, an epic episode for an epic game, but after all it was just fine.
  12. geekslayer
    Nov 10, 2020
    7
    Плюсы:
    - в чем игра не изменяет себе абсолютно во всех эпизодах, так это в поднятии тяжелых извечных проблем. В частности, пятый эпизод активно муссирует тему одиночества. Честен ли ты с окружающими, достаточно ли внимания уделяешь родителям - это лишь одни из немногих тем, которые задевает эта игра.
    - на определенном этапе Life is Strange приобретает отчетливые нотки саспенса, а    Плюсы:
    - в чем игра не изменяет себе абсолютно во всех эпизодах, так это в поднятии тяжелых извечных проблем. В частности, пятый эпизод активно муссирует тему одиночества. Честен ли ты с окружающими, достаточно ли внимания уделяешь родителям - это лишь одни из немногих тем, которые задевает эта игра.
    - на определенном этапе Life is Strange приобретает отчетливые нотки саспенса, а проходить некоторые моменты и вовсе придется в стелс-режиме. Кое-какие локации порождают желание поскорее смыться отсюда и больше никогда сюда не возвращаться. И это немного странно, ведь во всех предыдущих эпизодах хотелось наоборот смаковать и наслаждаться прекрасными уровнями. Глядя на эти странные локации, понимаешь, насколько многогранные геймдизайнеры работают в Dontnod.
    - пожалуй, моменты с разрушенным городом - одни из самых сильных в игре. Разработчики не постеснялись уничтожить милый американский городок практически до основания, завалив его улицы трупами людей, тушканчиков и даже китов (ничего святого).

    Минусы:
    - на определенном этапе от бесконечных временных переходов начинаешь уставать и немного теряешь связь с историей. Порой доходит до того, что ты тупо не понимаешь, в каком ты сейчас времени, кто из твоих друзей жив на данный момент и что вообще происходит.
    - главная проблема в том, что у нас здесь интерактивная драма, на финал которой, по заверениям самих разработчиков, должны влиять твои действия, совершаемые на протяжении всего сезона. А этого нет и в помине! Ни одно из твоих предыдущих решений в расчет не берется! Вот тебе «плохой» и «очень плохой» варианты развития событий - нажми кнопочку, пожалуйста. Стыдно, Dontnod.
    Факт остается фактом - финал получился смазанным. Достаточно посмотреть в сторону такой студии, как Telltale, чтобы понять: финальные эпизоды сезонов всё же можно делать эффектными и логически завершенными.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

36
#36 Best PC Game of 2015
65
#65 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. Games.cz
    Nov 4, 2015
    90
    Grand finale of an unconventional adventure is a success and the whole game has truly the one of the best stories of this year.
    Read full review
  2. RPG Fan
    Oct 26, 2015
    90
    The entirety of Episode 5 pulls at the soul, using the series' history as a catalyst for existential query.
    Read full review
  3. Multiplayer.it
    Oct 26, 2015
    80
    Life is Strange: Polarized is a brilliant pay off. All the choices we have made, along with the awkward narrative style finally make sense. And we are confronted with issues much deeper than expected.
    Read full review
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