Having played through the first two episodes of Before the Storm, this seemed like a great time to revisit Season 1 of Life is Strange and to think about what makes it such a great game… scratch that, a great life experience.
Obviously, spoilers ahead.
With Life is Strange, Dontnod surprised the entire gaming world with an episodic adventure inspired by the likes of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, only better. More meaningful, more impactful, with a great but enigmatic cast of characters thrown into extreme situations. The highlight of the game is the time rewind ability that our shy photography loving character Max Caulfield discovered, and this turned a potentially normal adventure into a deluge of back and forth, of confidence and regret. It was choice, and none of it came without some sort of consequence.
Life is Strange isn’t all black and white; in fact, most of it is grey, and in another sense, dark. The decisions you make are permanent and affect you or other characters in some way later on. There is no good choice, only what you assume would fit best with your persona.
There are a couple of impending mysteries that Max has to explore, but will she find the answers? The big one is her dream of a huge tornado destroying everything in Arcadia Bay, and the second one is why she has these time rewind powers. But there is one other mystery that will eventually play a bigger part in all of this: just where the hell is Rachel Amber, the most popular girl in school? Amidst all this, she has to deal with the always troublesome high school life and the tribulations that come with it. It won’t be a walk in the park, that’s for sure.
Honestly, Life is Strange’s beginning is a bit mild, and during the first hour it’s not easy to see what is so special about it. Face it as you would the start of most movies – it’s setting things in motion, telling you about the characters and welcoming you to this new world and its mechanics. Not that there isn’t some excitement right there, with some blue-haired girl getting shot in the bathroom.
Persevere and soon you will find that Life is Strange balances the trivial with the awkward, the familiar with the shocking, and it will punch you right in the stomach at the end of each episode. The cliffhanger is usually violent – the ending of the second episode is intense, and YOU have a say on it –, and I understand why many players hated the wait between the release of each episode. It’s nerve-racking, but it’s a valuable part of the process and adds a significant dose of anxiety to the story. Playing the entire season one now, without the previously mandatory interruptions, is a good thing as it eases the mind, but I would dare to say that it lessens the impact of the cliffhangers in just a tiny bit.
If Life is Strange started as an apparently harmless piece of young adult sci-fi, it soon turns into a grim tale of deception and suspense, with a bit of detective work thrown in for good measure. The game keeps you guessing, taking sides and despite mostly clichéd personalities, it’s a flamboyant mix of genres, one that works on most levels.
If there’s one criticism to make, it is that Dontnod didn’t have the guts to stand behind some of its most daring decisions. Chapter 4 begins with a true turn of events that could spin the game in an entirely different direction, but this is one of those moments where everything will magically be back to “normal” in a while. Business as usual, and a major kick in the nuts for every player who was already lauding the writers for going with true consequence.
The final chapter goes extremely dark and its title – Polarized – fits like a glove. This chapter “polarized” players’ opinions, and while I mostly liked it, there’s a certain repetitive nature to its proceedings. Gone is the cheerful high school atmosphere, with the impending tornado and the Rachel Amber mystery about to be fully disclosed, for better and for worse. And that leads us to the most disappointing part of what was, overall, a wonderful experience…
The ending.
Get ready to feel crushed. To feel deceived after all those choices, all those roads that you chose to walk on, only to come to a conclusion that doesn’t take any of that into consideration. Instead of an outcome where your actions led to a certain consequence, both to you and the persons that you have affected, you’re given a binary choice: “A” or “B”. Pick whatever you want.
This isn’t to say that the two endings aren’t soul-crushing in some way, particularly one of them. They just don’t feel like they belong in this game. After working so hard for the entire five episodes, the writers chose the easy way out. It was disappointing, but I can also understand that it would be a nightmare to make sense of all the decisions and creating seven, eight different, smaller endings.
Don’t let this distract you from the bigger picture, though; Life is Strange is a wonderful experience, a game that is surely flawed but that is the perfect example of what an episodic adventure should be. Before the Storm may be charming and mysterious, with one episode to go, but it’s far from reaching the heights of Season One. Play this right now if you like good, twisted and mysterious stories with your games, or forever regret missing on one of the best games ever made. Oh, and that soundtrack… Perfect!
Final rating: 9.5/10
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Wow nice games and great post, thank's for sharing and for the hard work I like you post am waiting for your new posts and reviews upvote for you and follow , am also posting about games if you want to read my reviews I will very happy , thank's again and good luck for you @aymenz
I will definitely check your stuff, you have some interesting and detailed reviews there. I followed you too, curious about your next reviews.
I see our little discussion shaped some aspects of this review. Or am I arrogant in saying so? I mostly agree, the atmosphere is superb, with beautiful music an vistas giving life to the in game world. Unfortunately, most of the characters are very one-dimensional. Even the main villain, which I'll admit was unexpected, once he's discovered, it feels that nothing you already knew about him matters at all. He goes from one stereotype to the complete opposite.
It's an overall great game that succeeds more on portraying teenage angst and tease deception, then goes supernatural, which feels like a cop out. It does raise interesting issues, but as you put it, it doesn't have the guts to explore them, and ultimately shits on all those choices that gave the game a soul.
You're not wrong. Our conversation made me think about some aspects that I wasn't really going to touch upon, particularly the rich/bad vs poor/good guys. It's not all like that, but overall it rings true. But the game still deserves praise because it kept me guessing, we were being led to believe the villain was this dude and it turned out to be the other, unexpected one.
I don't think the game went supernatural, it was supernatural from the beginning :) The looking at photos thing (which I guess is what you meant), in fact seemed like an easy cop out from some tough situations, and the final chapter abused this.
Flawed, sometimes idiotic and cringe-worthy, but in the end I loved the experience, as it still had a lot more courage than other similar games.
What I meant was the whole tornado thing. Honestly, I was expecting some weird conspiracy of how the town is under some corporation's thumb or something, not a natural disaster that somehow is stopped in the last 2 minutes of the game if you choose your friend over the town.
And yeah, the whole looking at photos / time travel was also a cop out, but it was implemented well enough throughout the game to explore concequences. But yeah, the last chapter abused all the mechanics that were great in moderation, but just awful the way they were implemented.
Yes, again, I don't think it's a bad game by any means. I enjoyed it, for the most part. Maybe that's why I hate some shit it did. If it was completely awful, I probably wouldn't care at all.
I think the tornado was related to Max's powers somehow. Going even further, (spoilers to anyone who didn't play Before the Storm) I'm hoping it is related to Rachel Amber in some way - Before the Storm is hinting at some weird wind thing when she gets angry. Maybe her death could have triggered the whole tornado thing and Max's powers, so that she could find Rachel.
It's weird, but I prefer something like this instead of some Lost kind of "oh, it happened because we said so" thing.
A corporation could also be an explanation, but that would take the plot into conspiracy territory and it still wouldn't explain Max's ability.
As for the ending, my reading is that the tornado didn't stop, it destroyed the town (killed many?) and moved on to other, greener pastures. Or I could be wrong :)
Well, conspiracy theory could've involved the killing of her dad or Rachel. The game did kind of hint at that anyway (at least for Rachel). And maybe some X-Men kinda thing. Still supernatural, but slightly more grounded. Either way, the tornado existing and not, makes no sense, not even in the game world, which is mostly normal, with an allure of powerful people doing shit under the table.
The tornado makes as much sense as the smoke monster in Lost xD
You have a point with the killing of Chloe's dad and Rachel missing, it could go that way, more of an X-Files kind of thing.
Yeah, some weird conspiracy with shady goings-on would've been cooler in my opinion. This is the same issue I had with Fahrenheit. Could've been so cool, aaand it goes all coo-coo. Oh, well...
PS: In a way, the smoke monster in Lost makes slightly more sense, considering that world is purgatory or something :p
While you saw the ending a weak point of the game, I see it as it's strongest point... Either everything you did din't happen. or you get to live knowing that you destroyed an entire town including few people you care about. It's sad.... and powerful!!
well, I agree that it could've been better... but it's already amazing game.
(waiting for Before the Storm to complete before I buy it, hopefully it'll be discounted by the time)
The two endings are powerful, but they are out of place in a game about choices. It should have offered other conclusions in tune with your actions.
Binge-playing Before the Storm would be the best choice (as I did with LiS), but I just couldn't wait this time :)
I´ve played only the Demo of this game and i like it very much. There is a nice story which entertains me more than the most movies.
Maybe i will buy it in the next weeks, when i finished my other Games.
Best regards
Definitely do, it's a great game.
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STOPNice post.Thanks for sharing
I played this game, its interesting. nice post! keep it up :)
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