Screenshots & trailers
What players say
Why the number is what it is: aspect mentions counted across 331 sampled Steam reviews (322 positive / 9 negative), recent and most-helpful. Plain keyword counting, fully reproducible; nothing here is written by a machine.
What positive reviews talk about
- Story & writing32% mention it
- Music & audio9% mention it
- Visuals & art7% mention it
- World & exploration6% mention it
What negative reviews complain about
- Story & writing56% mention it
- Music & audio44% mention it
Satisfaction by hours played
Same score, different games: see how sentiment holds up the longer people play.
Under 5h
100%
67 reviews
5-15h
97%
105 reviews
15-40h
96%
149 reviews
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (Metacritic) | – | 75 | 6 |
| Creator reviews (1 tracked) | – | 65 | 0 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 96% | 91 | 1245 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | 86 | 24 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 99% | 95 | 305 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 300 reviews sampled · 872 total reviews in window · weighted 269.1 up / 3 down · computed 1h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (43)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 65
“Quite a strange little item. Its dialog makes me wince, but I will confess to being more amused by the awfulness than upset by it, at least half the time. It’s embarrassing and hella lame for totes, but there’s something almost charming about it. Still, I don’t quite think that’s what Dontnod had intended.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“There's enough ground work laid here to pave the way for future instalments, but a lot of the good is undone by lip sync issues and some of the most mind-bogglingly bad dialogue that we've heard in recent memory. ”
read full review ↗ - 70
- 70
“Inconsistencies of time reversal aside, Life is Strange is an involving slice of life that works because its situations eloquently capture a peculiar early-college state of mind.”
read full review ↗ - 79
“Life is Strange’s first episode has great characters and atmosphere but the story isn't very gripping yet. It has definitely made us curious for the next couple of episodes though.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“A wonderfully assured first episode, in what has the potential to outdo both Telltale Games and Quantic Dream in terms of successful video game storytelling.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Someone once told me to not buy things for what you want them to be, but buy them for what they currently are. Based on that sound reasoning, I would recommend holding off on Life is Strange for a while, but keep an eye on how well future episodes are received. ”
read full review ↗ - 75
“The first episode of Life is Strange works well, presenting the characters and mechanics of a game that has great potential. The time manipulation system can become a turning point in its identity as game, but there is still much work to do in the subsequent chapters.”
read full review ↗ - 75
“The colors are vivid and bright, yet nothing appears to be that crisp or sharp, especially the foliage, which honestly, makes the game even more beautiful and stand out.”
read full review ↗ - 65
“Life is Strange suffers from awful voice acting and writing that doesn’t do its characters and world justice.”
read full review ↗ - 65
“With this first try, we can see that Dontnod tries to reach the quality of Quantic Dream and Telltale's work. But they're not there yet. You're not really free to do what you want and the game suffers from a certain number of clichés; the fact that we cannot really find any use for the rewind system is just the icing on the cake.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Life is Strange oozes potential. The female portraits are unexpectedly fresh, the basic concept originally formulated by Telltale still excites and the rewind mechanic is interesting. At the same time, it is also the game's biggest weakness, because it diminishes the impact of the choices made. Nevertheless it will still be exciting to follow the rest of the season.”
read full review ↗
The Jimquisition
Push Square
Eurogamer
GameSpot
Power Unlimited
Metro GameCentral
DarkZero
Atomix
ActionTrip
IGN…and 31 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- Patch Update 19th January 2016 (20160116-397647)Jan 19, 2016
- Patch Update 19th January 2016 (20160116-397647)Jan 19, 2016
- Happy Limited Edition Launch Day North America!Jan 19, 2016significant · resets scoring window
- Happy Limited Edition Launch Day North America!Jan 19, 2016significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Update 19th October 2015 (20151014-371598)Oct 19, 2015significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Update 19th October 2015 (20151014-371598)Oct 19, 2015
- Patch Update 27th July 2015 (20150720-344867)Jul 27, 2015
- Patch Update 27th July 2015 (20150720-344867)Jul 27, 2015
- Patch Update 18th May 2015 (20150515-312843)May 18, 2015significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Update 18th May 2015 (20150515-312843)May 18, 2015