I'd like to address a few of the complaints about Life is Strange since I disagree with many of them. Unfortunately, 2 of them I cannot discuss without spoilers so I'll put a page break in for those of you who still want to play these games. The first 2 are spoiler free though so have at it.
Not sure if I'm saying I'm smarter than everyone but....
1. The Secondary Characters are all Cliche Stereotypes.
On the surface, yeah, they are. You have a rich asshole dude, a popular alpha-bitch, reserved bible thumper, arrogant science/nerd girl, famous arrogant art teacher, creepy "I wanna draw you" guy, even creepier janitor who talks to squirrels, asshole security guard former marine, asshole drug dealer, and even Chole is a bitchy punk girl, who is only that way because her PERFECT father died in a car accident years ago.
Almost all of these characters get fleshed out and have many layers to their personality, some more than others, but still a lot more than your average video game character. Throughout the games, Max discovers more and more about these characters backstory and their motivations. Characters that seem like outright villains at first start to look more sympathetic once you discover more information about them. Some of the nicer characters might be a little darker than they seem at first. They have depth. Most video games ignore this kind of characterization, which makes this complaint mind boggling for me.
"But he's a Chief. A MASTER Chief."
2. There is no Gameplay
I swear this is the last time I'm going to mention this in regards to this game but please, stop. I know "walking simulators" exist in this grey area that is between full fledged video game and visual novel. It doesn't matter. Making this argument when there is still SOME gameplay is absolutely stupid.
How about a Sleeping Simulator? Happy now?
When people make this complaint, what they really mean is that the gameplay sucks (which is very subjective) or that there is not "enough" of it. Enough of it? I don't even know what that means? Did you want a combat section? The type of people who make this complaint tend to do it exclusively on games without combat, or at least traditional puzzles. Life is Strange has plenty of puzzles, most of which are far more cerebral than traditional puzzles. I'd argue LiS's puzzles are more cerebral than Portal and I LOVE Portal. I found out that I NEEDED the journal at times to make sense of things. This game made the journal a part of gameplay way more than any RPG's codex.
No gameplay. Get the fuck out.
Spoiler section below.
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3. Nothing is Explained
No but at least the characters address it instead of just letting it be (Like Final Fantasy always). It was weird that Warren accepted Max's confession in the diner outright, but I'm glad he was able to provide the explanation of, "Damned if we know". I'm fine with characters leaving explanations as "I don't know". At least they are aware of the weirdness.
It's a type of storytelling you don't see often. Either, things are explained, or they are not explained and never even mentioned by anybody. I like seeing the middle ground from time to time.
I know time travel = mega tornado is weird and I know we never learn why Max gets time travel powers in the first place. I don't care.
4. None of Your Choices Matter
I respectfully disagree, but I see why you can make this argument. Even a convincing one.
Recommended musical accompaniment
If you decide to sacrifice Chloe at the end of the game, a series of photographs show how events transpire after travelling back to the fateful restroom. Nathan is arrested for killing Chloe, he is interrogated by police and spills the beans on Jefferson, which then leads to Jefferson's arrest. So what was the fucking point? He would have been arrested if Max had done nothing.
In this universe, death and fate has a very "eye for an eye" feel to it. By stopping Chloe's death, Max then has to repeatedly save Chloe from a train, from accidentally shooting herself in the junkyard, possibly from Frank shooting her, and then from Jefferson ACTUALLY shooting her. It's as if the universe demands her death or it will destroy an entire town for fucking with it's rules. Save Chloe's dad and the alternate reality cripples her and attempts to have you kill her yourself. Her dad, BTW, is the only other death before the end game that Max can attempt to alter and the universe again demands payment.
"What about Kate?" I hear you asking. Kate is the only person you can save because she is the only one you save without time travel powers. I think this was done on purpose. Like the universe's rule in this game is, time travel is cheating.
The game almost seems like a 5 episode moral on accepting death. In a way, I do think that is actually the point too. The ultimate question this game asks in it's final choice is; "Just how far would you go to save a loved one?" The game foreshadows this pretty well considering how often you have to save Chloe, writing on her walls about how she wants to die, her past motivations about wanting to leave Arcadia Bay with Rachel, and her speech at the end pretty much says THIS IS THE ENDING WE WANT YOU TO PICK PLAYER. Either accept your friends death, or we kill everybody.
And since I recognized the butterfly photo (I see a lot of people didn't know what it was at first), I sort of saw the ending in another way as well and it's the fundamental theme I got from this game....
Learn to live with your choices because either way, you have too.
If you sacrifice Arcadia Bay. your smaller choices stick. If you sacrifice Chloe, your choices are erased...except for, you know, that last one.
Obviously, we don't have time travel powers in real life but this game makes the argument that even with time travel powers, we still have to accept our choices. You KNOW killing Hitler would end up being something to do later. You'd use those powers to create a better life for yourself first. Come on. Admit it. And, wouldn't going back to save a friend from murder be a selfish act? Wouldn't you be doing it to improve your own life considering said friend is gone? I...don't know. It's a tough question. This game says yes, it is selfish, but it's an interesting question to think about.
Possibly more than any other choice orientated game, yes, your choices matter. Life is Strange is great in that it ends up not really questioning (most) of your individual choices, but instead asks the harder question of if those choices should be changed if you had the power to do so.
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