Life is Strange Episode 5: Polarized Review (Xbox One)

The finale of Life is Strange is here and is full of action and amazing sequences. The game’s story had perfectly set up such hype for the ending that to live up to expectations developers DontNod had to do something amazing. Read on to see how Life is Strange Episode 5: Polarized did in our review below.

Lets start with the ending of Episode 4, which although teased throughout the previous episodes, managed to completely shock me. One of the highlights of Life is Strange is the realistic portrayal of characters and acting, the game feels real. The starting monologue of Episode 5 by a certain character had me so uncomfortable because of how twisted the character was. As an adventure game where characters are put first, Life is Strange does splendidly.

Although the whole series has been a splendid experience, the finale titled Polarized has been quite a let down. The supposed main threat is neutralised in the first act and the story fails to explain the overarching plot. DontNot also use an underwhelming Nightmare scenario to recap whatever happened in the previous episode so far which wasn’t done that well to be honest.

Moving on to the ending which is my main problem with the finale. We’re just not given a good enough closure. In the end of the episode, players are given two choices which nullify all of the decisions we’ve made in the past episodes. It all felt like a copout to me, I was expecting a much grander scale given how powerful Max’s powers. DontNod’s attempt to keep the scale of the series small may have cost them dearly. Life is Strange’s most important story threads were those of the overarching story of Max’s power and not the investigation, so ultimately I was left disappointed. The ‘proper’ ending was presented excellently don’t get wrong with a splendid soundtrack playing in the background, but I wanted something else.

The game is now available at a discounted rate in a bundle packing all 5 episodes which I would defiantly recommend buying. Life is Strange is a unique and realistic adventure game that does most of the things right and that it enough of a reason to get the game.

This review covers the Xbox One version of the game.