As spotted by CogConnected, Life Is Strange: True Colors has
received a host of negative reviews due to an in-game shop called Treasures Of
Tibet hanging a Tibetan flag outside its entrance. Almost all of these reviews
have been posted by Chinese-speaking players, likely as the Tibetan flag is
banned in mainland China and seen as a point of controversy.
Review bombing is a practice where users flood a Steam game
with negative reviews, often focusing on events or political issues unrelated
to actual gameplay. Valve has certain measures set in place to avoid the
practice of review bombing, which are aimed at ensuring review bombs do not
affect the overall review score of the game.
While most of these reviews are subsequently hidden from the
first layer of Steam reviews, they are still visible by browsing reviews
labelled as ‘funny’, as many players seem to disagree with the stance of these
negative reviews.
Many of these negative reviews mention the inclusion of
“private goods”, which seems to refer to American studio Deck Nine‘s decision
to include something considered an internal Chinese issue. While one negative
review highlights “its merits of sound, narrative, [and] beautiful game scene”,
it adds that “it is not allowed for any foreign studios to discuss or to
interfere in China’s internal affairs”.
Similarly, another asks why Deck Nine “can’t live without a
bit of politics” by including “this kind of dirty stuff” and tells other
players to get the “disgusting” game refunded.
In NME’s review for Life Is Strange: True Colors, we gave it
four out of five and said, “The game introduces one of the best protagonists in
the franchise yet and excels in its core gameplay mechanics”.
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