The only reason I started playing Life is Strange to begin with is because I had a little bit of money left on a gift card and decided to spend the rest on episode 1. And wow, am I glad I did because Life is Strange is one of the best games I've played this year and easily the best story-driven episodic game I've ever played.
This game is about Maxine (Max) Caulfield who moves back to her childhood home of Arcadia Bay, a fictional town in the Pacific Northwest, to attend the prestigious Blackwell Academy which I think only teaches art and science.* She soon after has a vision of a giant tornado destroying Arcadia Bay, then after witnessing a blue haired girl get shot in the bathroom, she learns that she has the power to rewind time. Max uses her new found power to save the girl from getting shot who just so happens to be Max's childhood friend Chloe. Despite Max's years long absence, the two quickly re-establish their friendship while doing detective work on Chloe's missing friend Rachel Amber.
This poster is plastered everywhere.
*I say art and science because it's the only things we really know about this school. They also have a swim team and maybe a football team because I doubt some of the dudebro characters are that into Monet or Kepler.** Well, unless the game is trying to break jock stereotypes...but I kinda doubt it.
**Look at me name dropping.
This is where the heart of the game is; in Max and Chloe's friendship, while also solving the mystery of Rachel Amber. The friendship itself wouldn't be so good if the characters were not absolutely fantastic. Max and Chloe are very well written, excellently voice acted, and so incredibly likeable that it's hard NOT to get emotionally invested in their adventure. People who read this blog will know I put a high priority on character in stories and these two might be in my top 10 for a video game. I'm not kidding. Video games often have bland characters because the worlds they live in are so fanciful. Max and Chloe are very grounded into the real world, time travel powers aside, and it's so refreshing to see a video game accomplish making characters that feel real.
That said, occasionally a line of dialogue will seem out of place. A certain line will seem a little TOO witty and clever for a teenager. Also some of the slang seems out of place but that might admittedly be due to my age and geography. Dontnod, the developer behind the game, actually studied teenage slang in the Pacific Northwest for their writing. That's pretty impressive since most games think about writing and dialogue like long time Republicans think about Donald Trump. Regardless of this occasional weirdness, the writing as a whole is very, very good.
The mystery around Rachel Amber is also very well done. Most of the game is around this mystery while the doomsday vision Max has is almost an afterthought. Very little time is spent on Max's vision, which is actually a good thing, because it's kind of lame. All the best parts about this stories gameplay come from the mystery surrounding Rachel and from certain "problems" Chloe and/or Max get into while sleuthing. There is one part in episode 4 that is especially good and really a great example of how a detective game without combat can be fantastic. Spoiler, highlight to read (the corkboard where you piece all the clues together in fantastic. I wouldn't say it's hard, but I actually had to bring up the journal for one clue. It was so well done).
Speaking of gameplay, this is the style of game that is light on it (I've written about this before, sorta). This style of game is very choice orientated. The game lets you know on major choices by stopping time "wah wah" style, but even minor choices can affect the story like watering your damn plant (I killed it. Just like with real life plants). Most of the gameplay is around talking to people, rewinding time to get them to tell you what you need, or snooping through people's stuff to find clues.
Gameplay
The gameplay does branch off at times, like a stupid scavenger hunt in episode 2 and some AWFUL stealth sections. Tell me, what is the point in a stealth section if I can just rewind time from any location? Move forward, get caught, rewind time until dude on patrol is somewhere else while Max is still in the same location she got caught at, and move along like nothing happened. There is no penalty for getting caught. Luckily, there are only two of these, and the first one at least makes contextual sense, but the second one is completely unnecessary. Outside of these few stupid gameplay moments, the rest of it is solid, especially anything having to do with solving the mystery of Rachel Amber.
The biggest reason I love this game so much is because it gave me two of the most emotional reactions I've ever had in a video game. The first came at the end of episode 2. Without spoiling anything, I failed pretty hard here and spent the rest of the night pacing my living room trying to fight off the urge to replay the whole thing. I had never really felt failure that hard in a video game. It wasn't something where you just respawn at the last checkpoint or you can reload your last save. You have to live with it.
Goddamnit
The 2nd part comes about 1/3rd of the way though episode 4. The first part of episode 4 is a long, brutal, slog of depression (in a good way). You just feel like absolute shit through all of it and every little detail you learn in this part just adds to the misery. Each piece of info you find just makes it worse. It's really well done. Then, you get a reprieve after being able to reverse all this misery (time travel remember) and....I have never felt so, GENUINELY HAPPY in a video game. It's not the same kind of happy you get from defeating that super hard boss or overcome a really difficult level. This was different. This was like seeing somebody you care about pull through from something horrible. It was unique. It's...hard to explain.
...
Your millage may vary however and you may not think the characters are as good as I do, but if you get invested, those two moments won't let you down.
Unless something surprises me in the last two months, this will likely be my personal Game of the Year. Looking through reactions to the finale makes me think a lot of people HATED the ending, but I actually dug it quite a bit. Your choices do matter, kind of, but this is a topic for it's own blogpost for obvious spoiler reasons (coming soon). There is a lot of lessons here about the real world and I think the ending pisses some people off because they can't get everything they wanted. Also, the apocalypse tornado's explanation is completely glossed over but honestly, I didn't really care about that. The great characters, solid story, and overall charm won me over. The flaws are easily forgivable.
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