Yo what up internet fam. In honor of Life is Strange: Double Exposure coming out soon I thought I would share my review of my number 1 game of 2015, No, possibly my most fave game in general ever. Life is Strange. An episodic game released by Dontnod Entertainment that was published by Square Enix. A game that lucky for you, if you do decide to check it out now, all the episodes are readily available for. (Back when I first jumped into it only the first ep was out. Imagine that!)
In it you follow the character of Maxine Caulfield, everybody just calls her Max. An aspiring photographer attending Blackwell Academy located in the seaside town of Arcadia Bay. You see one day while in class she has an unusual vision of the future(although I suppose ANY vision of the future would be weird ) of an approaching tornado/storm. She doesn’t know what to make of it and is confused as you would expect. But then if that wasn’t enough to make things weird, it gets WEIRDER. Afterwards she finds herself with the power to stop and rewind time! Then add to that an intricate mystery of a missing girl too. Curiosity peeked yet?
Well, that’s only the tip of the iceberg, there is so much more to the story. I won’t say what though because I want you to enjoy the experience like I did obviously. So instead I will gush over the things that I liked in general terms.
First up, the plot. I found the story to be nicely written and there are many moments that will leave you at the edge of your seat. You will want to binge play this game just as you might wanna binge watch one of your most anticipated Netflix shows. The game itself is very cinematic and has a good pace to it. It was like playing through a slice of life indie movie. You are constantly moving around learning new things, character wise and plot wise to keep you engaged.
Again the game has a bit of a mystery element in it that you try to get to the bottom off with the help of those time powers I mentioned previously. Now you might think this would make it too easy “to Beat”. Like, just rewind time if you mess up. There are boundaries set up early on to make sure that doesn’t happen though and so you aren’t some overpowered superhero.(Though SuperMax does have a nice ring to it) Most of the time anyways you will be using them to solve puzzles or to navigate through previously had conversations. The joy is in pushing the narrative forward by going back ever so slightly with newfound information you get from interactions with fellow students. There are quite a bit of moments where you will feel like such a boss bish because of this. Plus at the end of the day this is more about being an interactive drama than it is about gameplay per se. Which makes it more easily accessible if you’re not a gamer yourself.
You also then have an awesome cast of characters that are brilliantly voice acted. It’s cool seeing these characters pop in and out of the story and getting to learn more about them. There are many and so you might wanna skip out on talking to some but don’t because talking to everyone really makes this world feel real and fleshed out. Aside from the main character my fave character was Chloe. Chloe was Max’s childhood friend. They had been separated for awhile when you start the game. What I liked most was seeing them two rekindle their friendship. Because while Max is a mature, geeky, and introverted protagonist, Chloe is pretty much the opposite. She is outgoing, mischievous, and rebellious. Yet somehow they work well together and seem so perfect for one another. Both of them grow as characters throughout the game and oh my gosh is their back and forth banter so much fun even if somewhat cringe at times. But hey weren’t most of us cringe at that age… oh just me? Lol. Well I think this game has one of the best portrayals of friendship I have seen in a game thus far.
There is also really good art/graphics and music in this game. They had a fully licensed indie soundtrack for example(the music really sets a cozy atmosphere) and the game ran on an improved version of the unreal engine 3. They sparred no expense, like sure money doesn’t mean quality but if you know what you are doing and really care about your product it can really help. Plus there is a remaster out there but you don’t need it!
Now to try and find some negatives. lol I guess there where questions I had about the time powers that I didn’t get answers to that I kinda wish I had. Umm, there was also a couple of super cheesy lines that could have been delivered better. Other than that I think the game was as solid as can be. These negatives that I mentioned probably wont even really bother you. Any negatives are really nit picky.
So yeah check out the game. It’s available on ps3, xbox360, ps4, xbox one, and pc, and more. The first ep is even free on Steam. At least check that out. The rest of the eps are only 20 bucks and even cheaper if you catch it on a sale. I promise you will be fully immersed by the world because it is truly fully fleshed out. You will have loads of fun simply walking around talking to new characters, going into new areas, and if your like me you will spend hours clicking on every clickable object. Max also has a journal and reading it adds a lot more layers to the game in fact reading it is essential. Don’t be lazy explore everything and you will be rewarded with good story.
With that I leave you with this goated soundtrack. Listen to it and tell me it doesn’t make you feel nostalgic for a small-town you have never been to. :p
Thanks for reading my post.
Story Trailer
