Life is Strange - Season One Reviews
It's the mix of the mundane and the mercurial that makes Life Is Strange worth living.
From its opening moment until its final scene plays, Life is Strange is a wonderful, beautiful, captivating, touching adventure built upon the undying friendship of two girls trying to find their place in the world.
With her powers to rejigger events to save people from accidents and themselves, Max seems like an incarnation of Holden's catcher. Though sadly, her power is not immutable.
Though the later episodes of Life is Strange lacked some of the strength and poignancy of its earlier chapters, its set-up and world grabbed me immediately, which Dontnod deserves immense credit for creating an experience out of elements that, taken on their own terms, seemed like they never would have worked. You can boil down Life is Strange to a time-traveling decision-making teen girl simulator at its basic level, but it also happens to be one of the most compelling stories of the year with great characters and style, even if its story comes at odds sometimes with its gameplay and core ideas. Even though at this point now I know how Maxine and Chloe's story ends with the conclusion of Life is Strange, I'll happily rewind back to the beginning for another chance at seeing their story again for the first time.
A beautiful, heartbreaking, and surprisingly dark Telltale-esque adventure that betters pretty much every Telltale-esque adventure that's come before it and has enough twists to make it unique. Life is Strange has a few flaws, but that shouldn't dissuade you from hopping on this emotional rollercoaster. And it's okay: you're allowed to cry.
Life is Strange makes some odd design choices, but its ability to make your choices feel important to its strong leading protagonists more than makes up for it. Buy it.
Despite its obvious flaws the reactive story and compelling characters make this one of the best storytelling experiences of the current generation.
Beautiful, touching and messy. Life Is Strange is good—not great—but I'd recommend it to anyone.