Life is Strange

I'm the next on the docket to beat this game. After Stan has said so much -- covering a lot of great points about what the game has to offer -- I don't really know what else to say. At least I don't think I can contribute anything without dropping some SPOILERS. Yes... this is a SPOILERS post, and believe me that this is a game that's likely best experienced with a fresh mind when entering. So, no peeking. (I'm talking to you, Sween. Or you can read ahead. What do I care?)

Overall, I loved this game. Playing roughly a chapter a night, I beat this in just under a week. What kept me coming back again and again was the story, because, well... that's really all this "game" has to offer. It's story. Sure you can walk around and explore your immediate surroundings, but this game is like a rail-shooter for a narrative. You talk to the people and interact with the objects in your immediate surroundings and that leads you to make decisions which will affect how the story and further interactions with characters unfold. While I enjoyed the story a ton and was completely caught up in the moment, I can't help but wish my decisions mattered more in the long run.

What that boils down to is that no matter how you play the game, the story will always end up on the same one decision -- whether to save your friend, Chloe, and let thousands in your hometown die, or kill your friend and save the town. I will say that as invested as I was in the story, this was a heart wrenching decision for me. While I obviously wanted to perform the action that served the greater good (besides the fact that your character, Max, and Chloe would just die along with the town if you didn't try and stop its destruction making the choice a total exercise in futility), it was tough to pull that trigger that would end the life of the person you've been struggling to protect throughout the entire course of the game. 

So, that leaves me kind of split on where I stand with this game.

On one hand, I loved the ride the narrative took me on. Every episode ended with a great cliffhanger making want to come back for more and more, and I really felt like the characters (at least the main ones) were diverse and well fleshed out.

Yeah, Stan pointed out that some of the dialogue for the teenagers felt awkward and out-of-touch from what kids would really say -- almost as if writers from another country were trying to tap into what American teens sounded like (this being a French game, stands to reason that's exactly what was happening). But that's more of a pet peeve than an actual fault with the game. 

My real complaint with the game is that I wanted MORE. I wanted them to really push the envelope on the variety of ramifications that would occur as a consequence to my actions and decisions throughout the game. Sure, this likely makes the game would be far more challenging to construct from a development side, but I think that's what they should strive for. I mean, it's not like games haven't accomplished this in the past, right? Didn't Chrono Trigger have something like 13 possible endings depending on how you played the game? I get that Chrono Trigger might not be the best comparison as it wasn't keeping tally of decisions you made throughout the whole (or did it? -- I can't really remember), but considering Life is Strange focused on nothing but your choices, it seems like it should have played a bigger role in shaping your own unique experience within the game. 

There are interactions with characters that will play a role in deciding how future events will unfold later in the game, but those results were fairly underwhelming in the large scheme of things. The one example that comes to mind is a girl whom you're constantly saving from getting bonked on the head from something each and every episode. While I failed to save her in the final episode, Stan explained that she would save you from getting killed by a falling sign during the catastrophic storm at the game's climax -- which is exactly what happened to me! But that means shit considering your character can rewind time (sorry if I didn't make that element of the gameplay explicit earlier on) thus making it a trivial accomplishment. 

All these minor complaints aside, I was left speechless after the game ended. It's only upon further reflection that the game's flaws start to come to light. But is it really that much of a flaw if the game was capable of getting me all caught me up in the moment. Fuck, the story brought me to the edge of tears on a couple of occasions! Ah, screw it to all my nitpicking. I guess when something gives you gold, you become greedy for more. There are definitely ways the game could evolve from being good to becoming great... but as it stands right now, I consider it a definite must-play. And we'll leave it with that.