Life is Strange - Season One Reviews
The perfection of the Telltale's Adventure Game formula comes from Dontnod, a company who gives the players permission and the ability to go back and try out multiple different choice paths before deciding which choice they wish to use moving forward.
On the other hand, the game feels like it tried to do more than it could and as a result weighed down and did not focus at its strongest point.
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I remember finishing the game, and for the whole week, all I could think about was how amazing this game actually was. I had been through a lull-period with gaming this year, but Life is Strange, truly re-invigorated what I love about gaming in 2015. A passionate tale, about great characters, with great gameplay. It’s seriously, a must play.
Life Is Strange is a masterpiece. One of the best story-driven games I have ever played, and one that gave me real emotions in an unprecedented fashion.
While the game gives the player numerous choices to make, its biggest detriment is that it ends up pushing all of them aside for its conclusion. That having been said, the story in Life is Strange is still one that everyone should make time to experience.
There are so few narratives in this medium that even approach what Life is Strange manages on so many levels, that even if it had to happen within a game which often couldn't decide what it considered important, what it accomplishes despite all its flaws should speak for just how much this game matters, and how important it is to experience for yourself.
Life is Strange is a great, drama-heavy adventure game with the unique twist of controlling time. The story is touching and ultimately gives you a very compelling, rich and unique experience, which is a worthwhile visit.
I am no stranger to episodic games that rely heavily on story and setting to pull a person in. Life is Strange has a lot of similarities to titles from Telltale Games or the King's Quest chapters, but it does enough interesting things of its own to stand out as a unique and generally enjoyable experience.
At its heart, Life is Strange was a game about making you feel something. It evoked something in so many gamers. It elicited a passion that is so often missing from modern gaming.
A refreshing take in the adventure game genre, there is a lot to appreciate in DONTNOD's handling of mature themes and emotional gravitas. In its finality, the journey is well worth experiencing.
Life Is Strange is an ambitious story that doesn't shy away from difficult and controversial topics, and it allows the player to become attached to its vibrant characters. Due to excellent voice performances, a mysterious, sleepy little town that has plenty of intrigue and secrets, the added benefit of some exploration, and the undeniably appealing rewind feature, the game has a unique and extremely absorbing feel. The characters seem real and interesting, the individual stories tend to be remembered long after experiencing them, and the continual decision-making keeps us thinking.
Life is Strange is an endearing adventure title where time folds naturally around two good friends trying to uncover a dark mystery.
Life Is Strange is an imperfect video game and the actual mechanics of playing it, including the time rewind, can become annoying of frustrating, especially when the development team tries to borrow from another genre. But the game makes it easy to create a connection with Max and to care about her choices and trials, a rare feat, and that means any fan of narrative-driven experiences should try it out to see how he deals with the feelings of the protagonist and the impact they have on Arcadia Bay.
By cobbling together cliches, Dontnod have somehow created an earnest supernatural teen drama with clunky-ass dialogue but a real sense of love behind it. I actually like the weird distance between the game and reality, likely also due to the writers' disconnect from their subject material. The cliches are played with such heart that I can't get mad. After hitting the episode's Magnolia-esque ending, I'm genuinely excited to see where the story goes from here.
Dontnod Entertainment's first effort at cracking the choice-driven episodic format in a video game almost results in a near-perfect experience, which is shocking when you consider how well they've grasped the concept, created a solid structure for each episode, distributed a variety of subplots across five episodes and executed the series at the same — or even higher — level that a veteran developer like Telltale Games has done for many, many years.
Life Is Strange is an impressive mixture of great writing, great voice acting, and interactive storytelling that'll pull on your heart strings like it's going out of style.
The game doesn't quite live up to other similar games in the genre, but it's worth the time and energy to check out if you're a fan of these type of games.
If you have the patience to overlook a few pacing issues and dodgy lip syncs, Life is Strange offers up a mature, nuanced story which centres on female friendship (and maybe romance) and the effect our actions have on others.
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.
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.