Edge of Tomorrow (or Live Die Repeat depending on your geographic location) has a genre problem. It was frequently described as the “ultimate video game film” upon its release in 2014, thanks to its sci-fi military action and a plot revolving around a respawning Tom Cruise—like the futuristic Call of Duty or Battlefield games. Upon closer analysis of its mechanics and systems though… is this accurate? Is Call of Duty like these people described… or is it actually closer to something like The Forgotten City? Grim Fandango? Further, what can this thought experiment tell us about how we discuss video game genres?
Just what kind of game *is* Edge of Tomorrow, anyway? Let’s try and answer that question in this analysis!
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0:00 – Intro
1:03 – Is Edge of Tomorrow Call of Duty?
2:02 – The mechanics of Edge of Tomorrow
3:32 – The answer
5:28 – How games and films handle time
6:27 – The problem with discussing genre in games
8:12 – The REAL answer
8:46 – Outro
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Intro text animation by Isaac Holland – http://twitter.com/drazgames
#edgeoftomorrow #livedierepeat
29 Comments
Edge of Tomorrow is one of the best film ever made and nothing will change that opinion.
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I reckon if I was a major figure in a cult, I wouldn't want anything in my output to actively ask "What if I died immediately?", since that question invites an obvious answer.
It's a soulslike with the worst run back of all time.
COD + Outer Wilds = Edge of Tomorrow
To me the very easy comparison would be games like Outer Wilds or Fear & Hunger, where all of your in-game "power" comes from the actual knowledge you have gathered as a player, with a side-dish of getting more comfortable with smaller mechanical skills like movement. The time management, the long pressure-filled runs with the threat of losing all your progress, and the confidence of starting a new run, having everything planned out and knowing exactly what you'll try next
Clearly Edge of Tomorrow is a visual novel, Tom Cruise needs to make all the right answers at the beginning to prevent a "bad end"
Its a platformer built around level memorization.
It's based on a manga, so that could explain why it's very game-like while at the same time lack the essential mechanics.
Not sure about it being a video game but it certainly looks like a regression type manhwa turned into a westernized movie.
character action game on hardcore 1-life mode. or, scifi devil may cry no hit mode
it waa a japanese light novel and they sure love their videogame themed novels over there.
Outer Wilds.
So it's a really tiny Armored Core game?
Dark Souls
Clearly the action sequences of Edge of Tomorrow is a rythm game. You learn the right moves, and them perform them at the right time >.>
permadeath sierra adventure game
Oh hey, this is public now! I’m glad others can see this video; I really enjoyed it!
This film was all I could think about when trying to remember Heartman's name in Death Stranding where I thought his name was Live Die Repeat Man, which wasn't too far off from a Kojima character name lol
I'd say games categories need some fine tuning. Seeing FPS,Action,RPG,Openworld…. On games that are so dissimilar makes the categorization useless. I know it can't be perfect but there has to be a better way to label them. It's like reading the ingredient label on food packaging. At a point it's a jumble of nonsense words that don't tell you anything.
Great video!
So does this make Groundhog Day a video game movie?
in case it hasn't been said yet edge of tomorrow was loosely based on the manga titled [all you need is kill]
The mech suits from Edge of Tomorrow reminded me of The Surge, which was a souls like. So also kinda matching with a lot of respawning and figuring out boss strategies
Great conversation!
I remember watching The Raid when it came out and thinking "I've played this" in games like die hard arcade and streets of rage. Sometimes when the credits roll on films like Ready Player One or Guardians 3, I feel like I've just watched somebody play a game with "now let's go here" waypoints and maguffins rather than a characters with motivations and a themes.
The whole setting, to me at least, reminds me of the Titanfall setting. While the whole repeating loop bit reminds me more of Katana Zero before anything else. Dunno, just my first thoughts.
Man, I love me a good time loop
I actually had the thought during this video that edge of tomorrow most ressembled a roguelike mixed with majora’s mask.
I haven't watched the movie, but that was a great video!