Teen Life Gets Crazy in Life is Strange Episodes 1-3
A Game Review by Glitchiee:
WARNING!
WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! EVASIVE ACTIONS
NECESSARY IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME.
OTHERWISE, FULL STEAM AHEAD, CAPTAIN.
Ah,
teenagedom, when emotion rages like the ocean, pimples are an often occurrence
and drama oozes from the pores. What
could be better than that? Well in Life
is Strange, a good amount can be better.
Unfortunately, like everything else in life—even cookies—you have to
take the good with the bad. Life is
Strange is an episodic storytelling experience focusing on human interaction
with a twist.
"I just wi...I just wish I got that retweet today, ya know?"
"I know exactly how you feel. Yesterday, I lost my chapstick. Life is hard."
"Yeah..."
STORY AND
THOUGHTS:
Episode 1, titled
Chrysalis, opens with the players meeting Max Caulfield, a photography student
at the prestigious, seniors only Blackwell Academy in her hometown of Arcadia
Bay. Waking up in class from a vivid
dream, she goes to the bathroom and clears her mind. While there—after attempting to stop a girl
from being shot—she discovers she has the ability to rewind time. Cool
huh? Imagine saying the wrong thing to
someone and having the ability to go back in time to be able to say the right
thing. For a good portion of this
episode that is exactly what Max does.
She rewinds time to say just the right thing or to do the correct
action. And not only does she save the
girl in the bathroom, but it turns out that that girl is her childhood best
friend, Chloe.
But
this is not the only time that there are strange coincidences abound. Earlier in the episode you'll see Kate Marsh
being bullied by the school security officer, who also happens to be Chloe's
stepfather, David. The girl in the
missing posters? Yup, Chloe's best friend,
Rachael Amber, who disappeared after meeting someone who “changed her life”, as she put it.
The boy who shot Chloe? Nathan
Prescott, the rich kid who gets away with pretty much everything and seems to
have a hand in all the shady events taking place.
And at
the end of the episode, Max is once again whisked into a dream, though now she
realizes it is actually a vision.
There's a massive tornado that is destroying the town, but the event has
yet to take place. So how do all of
these things tie together? Why does Max
have these abilities? And where is
Rachael Amber? Chrysalis sets up a lot
of questions that need to be answered, building the tension and drawing you
into wanting to complete the story and invest in the rest of the episodes.
"Ever wonder what life would be like as a porcupine?"
"Every day, Max...every day."
Episode 2, Out of Time,
begins right where Chrysalis left off: Chloe wants Max to prove her powers; Kate
Marsh is a mess as she's bullied by other students; and Rachel Amber is still
missing. Opening with Chloe excited
about Max's abilities, she asks Max to prove her abilities multiple times, and
becomes officially psyched to be the sidekick of a superhero. Max, as usual, is much more reserved and
contemplative on what it all means to have the power to rewind time in the
first place.
And
then Kate Marsh turns to Max for help with her situation. As a straight edged, devoutly religious girl
who preaches abstinence, Kate has been caught on camera making out with
multiple boys at a party. Unsure of what
to do, but fairly certain she was drugged by the prick, Nathan Prescott, Kate's
life quickly descends into one of ridicule, depression, and anxiety. Who wouldn't be stressed after dealing with
all that? So the episode's main focus is
on Chloe and Kate, even going so far as forcing the player to decide between
the two.
And
after dealing with Kate, Max once again saves Chloe's life by freeing her leg
from railroad tracks with a train booming down on them. This time, however, the player starts to
realize that there is a limit to Max's abilities. She becomes physically drained, even blacking
out to her vision world at times. And at
one point in the episode she begins to bleed from the nose, struggling to even
walk as her powers fail her.
Then
things turn much darker as the situation becomes urgent. Acts that were assumed to have occurred are
now spelled out for you here. With more
important decisions to be made, the tone is serious to a fault. There is very little in the way of a comedic
break which can wear you down. Even
where Max is just hanging out, things take a turn for the worse rather
quickly. This may seem unrealistic, but
terrible real life events do tend to happen in strings, often beating a person
down. And the conclusion of the episode
further pushes the dark tone, ending on a depressing note depending on how you
play things out.
"Whoa, Bro, please don't shoot me in the Emo."
Episode 3, Chaos Theory, begins
with Max sneaking out of the dorm to meet Chloe. Deciding to become detectives after the
events of the day, they break into the principal's office looking for
incriminating evidence, or anything really, as to what happened to Kate and
Rachel. And mysteries abound after what
they find. Things are even further
complicated when Max starts snooping around people's garages and RV's,
uncovering rather startling information.
This
episode is a lot more upbeat. Allowing
the story to take breaks to swim in a pool and have a nice breakfast. The change of pace is greatly appreciated
after the events of the second episode.
And the ending of Chaos Theory is mind blowing as Max's powers are
kicked up a notch, giving her the ability to change events far in the
past. This is a much happier ending than
the previous episodes. So Max not only
rescues someone, but doesn't even visit her vision world once.
"This'll be a great photo for the grandkids to see some day!"
"I know, right? Snap another just in case"
GAMEPLAY AND
GRAPHICS:
Now
that the episodes have been discussed individually, let's take the time to talk
about the game in general. What does
Life is Strange do that makes it worthy of your money? First off, the art style is quite
lovely. Cell shading and realism combine
to make an artsy representation of the real world. And controlling the character from the third
person point of view makes the controls much easier to master.
When
it comes to character development, DONTNOD has done an astounding job of not
only making unique characters, but realistic characters. The angst, cattiness, better-than-you attitudes, and suffering are all palpable. In a story driven game, well written
characters are essential and Life is Strange knocks it out of the park. Conversations are even believable—though the
subject matter may seem trivial to some players—and the life of a teenager is
represented magnificently.
The
main game mechanic, which also makes Life is Strange entirely unique, is the
ability to rewind time. This gives you
the opportunity to rewind a previous choice you have made and try out a
different one. You can do this multiple
times until you achieve your desired result, rewinding anything like having a
better conversation or intervening in a scene or just taking a picture. This can directly impact the story as
well. So depending on the choices you
make throughout, the game will change the future events, conversations, and even
character interactions within the story.
This gives the game a lot of replay ability since you can go through and
make different choices each time, ending up with different story paths. One of the disadvantages of this is that
sometimes rewinding to pick a different option in a conversation doesn't affect
the outcome as much as you would hope.
The
only real downside to the game is the massive lack of humor to break up the
angst, depression and serious events taking place. While Life is Strange strives for
realism...it is still a game. And it
never really gives players a break to collect themselves; instead, it
continuously ups the seriousness. The
only comedic relief comes in the form of Warren who makes very few
appearances. And since he seems to be a
potential love interest—he is definitely swooning over Max—hopefully he will
start popping up more in the last two episodes.
"Damn. What did I come out here looking for again? Was it eggs? Or batteries? Or beer bottles?"
CONCLUSION:
With
the surprise ending to episode 3, Chaos Theory, the direction of the game has
now changed. There are still many
questions that need to be answered, like the biggest one of them all, "How does everything connect?" And with only two episodes left, a ton of
ground still needs to be covered in order for players to feel satisfied. But if you like story based games steeped in
drama and mystery, then Life is Strange is definitely for you. If you're looking for more comedy in your
life, then you might want to sit this one out.
3.5 out of 5 Stars (minus a 1 ½ stars for too much sadness)
Editor: Hank – Twitter / Twitch
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