Bandersnatch (Netflix)

Gmanx

Any other old farts on here might be interested in Bandersnatch on Netflix.

It's a branching narrative (like the Steve Jackson books) in live action video and features a game designer in the mid eighties struggling with creating a new game.

It's actually loosely based on a real title from that era: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt9BsZCifgU

I quite liked it - but I'm biased, I was that age at that time and also recognise a lot of echoes from Charlie Brooker's past as a PC games journalist.

PixelMasher

I thought it was interesting but the inclusion of multiple "dead ends" was kinda annoying and I found myself less immersed than regular black mirror episodes because I was always waiting for choice options to come up and they were pretty heavily forecast. I love black mirror but this was one of the weaker episodes i feel.

Gmanx

I hear ya. It would have maybe had more appeal if all routes were similar lengths. Some of the endings didn't feel like they closed the narrative properly. I guess it's hard to pace this kind of thing.

ZacD

I don't mind a few early dead ends, that's kinda expected with choose your own adventure books. Although some more silly ones, or ones with some sort of conclusion would help round it out.

Did wish there was a more interesting ending with Colin, PACS, or monster. Didn't give me enough.

Spag_Eddy

I thought it was pretty cool the first time I went through it. Then I watched my girlfriend do it, and pretty much every choice she made that differed from mine led to a dead end, which was extremely disappointing and made all of our choices seem a lot less meaningful. 

The concept was awesome, it just wasn't executed very well.

Francois_K

I thought the idea was really cool. "Bandersnatch" probably would have profited from having more options available to you , and options that actually mattered more , but considering the whole design of the game in the Film was pretty basic with paths having only two options, it in someway hit the theme perfectly. 
Am also a sucker for Black Mirror so when failing and interacting with people a second time and there was a change that was exactly what I was looking for, sadly there werent enough of those moments and after some time after failing and redoing things again , it didnt really matter.
Also the waiting time between decisions was a bit of a drag , it could have happened a lot faster when you immediately click the path you wanted to take.

But overall really cool, very enjoyable experience.