Developer: DONTNOD
Entertainment
Publisher: Square Enix
Rrp: £FREE (Steam) and £FREE (Square Enix Store)
Released: 30th January 2015
Available on: Steam and the Square Enix Store
Played Using: An Xbox 360
control pad.
Max has left home to join a prestigious college and focus on her dream of being a famous photographer. Starting a new life can be stressful though, what with new people, social situations, bullying, homework, people getting shot and newly discovered time manipulation… wait, what?
Life is Strange is DONTNOD’s entry into the Narratively Driven Interactive Adventure genre (we really need a shorter name than that). You remember DONTNOD right? Well in case you’ve forgotten they were the ones who created Remember Me, the interesting but somewhat flawed 3rd person action game. This time you play as Max, a young girl with a passion for photography and seemingly the ability to reverse time.
I’ll state this here, this review is going to spoil the first episode. This is your warning right here. If you wish to play this game with no prior knowledge stop reading now.
Like in the Telltales narrative focused games (such as Walking Dead or The Wolf Among Us) the choices you make sometimes have consequences, even the seemingly meaningless ones. The main difference is that in Life is Strange’s case its less obvious what the consequences will be.
I’ll be honest I found much of the dialogue cringe inducing, perhaps this is because it brings back memories of my old school days but more likely it’s because it is actually cringe worthy. This unsettled feeling is compounded by the fact that the lip-syncing is slightly off. Not by a great amount but adds to a whole uncanny valley effect that comes with the more realistic looking art style.
Sadly this game gets my ire up, for example (and yes I know SPOILERS), but after having prevented someone’s death by gunshot by using the fire alarm I report the incident to the Principle. The Principle then explains about how the ‘supposed’ gunman is a very influential person etc etc and that he’ll look into it. Your character just accepts it and moves on, at least outwardly, I know the inner monologue says she’s angry but she still just moves on. THAT, that right there angers me. I’m sorry, but to me that isn’t believable. If the Principle had fobbed me off like that he’d find me telling him to do something more drastic AND that I would be calling the police.
I think the reason why this bothers me so much is because later on this same character can stand up to a security guard who’s bullying a friend. When I did this action all I could think was ‘WHERE WAS THIS EARLIER?!’.
Even though this game ticks a lot of boxes that should make this a dead cert, in this case I’m just left cold on this one.
Perhaps its the stunted dialogue, maybe its the setting, the characters or even just the pacing, whatever it is I don’t think I’ll be buying the rest of this series.
If this appeals to you
perhaps try;
Blues and Bullets
TellTales Walking Dead
(Season 1 or 2)
Dreamfall Chapters
