Life is Strange: True Colors Review Bombed in China for Tibetan Flag

The latest Life is Strange game, True Colors, has gone under somewhat of a fire across the sea. The games Steam page is getting review bombed in China. The reason? It contains a Tibetan flag.

First noticed by PC Gamer, the recently released narrative drama has received an influx of negative reviews from Chinese users. The common complaint among them all is in regard to an in-game location called Treasures of Tibet flying the Tibetan flag out front.

This, for those who may not really know, is part of a greater political issue over the last 30 years. Various regions have been pushing for separation and freedom from China. More recent example you may have heard about include Hong Kong and Taiwan. One of the older examples, though, is Tibet. Back in the 80s, there was a movement often referred to as Free Tibet that pushed for the area to become its own nation separate from China. Many Chinese nationalists, however, (including the government of China) do not agree with these desires, and actively fight against them.

Chinese Steam users that do not agree with Tibet being independent have taken to reviewing the game negatively en masse. This is only another example of online groups using the review system to target games they dont agree with (regardless of the games quality). A recent example includes SuperHot getting review bombed for removing depictions of self-harm from the game in a post-launch update.

The flood of negative reviews hasnt been as prominent as one might expect, however. The overall review score for the game remains very positive on the store page.

Regardless of how you feel about Tibet, bombing Steam reviews is not the correct way to voice a political opinion.