Did you like Life is Strange?

I just bought the game, and I was wondering what you, guys that played it, feel about the game.

Did you like Life is Strange?

I've been quite interested by it so far. But it & The Wolf Among Us last year have firmly convinced me that these episodic story driven games just don't work on a 2 month release cycle. Episodic content works on television in a weekly basis. But you give me 2 months in which I'm doing countless other things and then in game ask me about "thing X we did in the game last time" & there's a not minute chance that I will forget it.

It really does the game a disservice. But that's a problem with distribution and not the game itself. It still has me intrigued by where it's going, although I didn't really enjoy episode 2 as much as episode 1. There seemed to be less interactions with people, and that was the first episode's redeeming feature.

I played the first episode. Waiting until they're all out before I pick it up again. The game is interesting, but I can't get over the fact that teenagers are the worst. They captured that well. So much that it turned me into an old man, often saying "these damn kids!". I'm interested to see where it goes and look forward to playing the rest. Hopefully the episodes roll out a bit quicker so I can do that sooner than later.

The Quicklook made me casually interested but like most episodic stuff I'd rather wait until they're all out there.

I liked the first episode of this and I also agree that the wait periods between episodes for things like this game, TWD, Tales from the Borderlands and other episodic adventure games are just too long. I really like the games but in order to play them in them in the concentrated sequence way I want to play them in means I'll likely wait for the whole series to be available before I play any further.

I really liked the first episode, a few personal issues aside (mainly the choice in music for some scenes and some too-clever references to obscure exploitation films that came off as trying too hard), and haven't yet played the second. The characters presented were interesting and laid the groundwork for a narrative that I hope comes together nicely and not in a predictable fashion like I'm dreading. As someone who loved Dontnod's previous game, Remember Me, I'm finding Life Is Strange plays to Remember Me's strengths: the tone, the style, and the unique little abilities that tie into the overall narrative.

Yeah, but I'm finding Life Is Strange more rewarding, for all those segments of non-linearity and the effects to the players actions.

I do like this game, I am very happy other developers are trying this format. Also appreciate they are more open with fans about delays.

I finished the second episode, and I'm really enjoying it thus far. I feel like a number of reviewers are selling it short based on some micro-level problems when this game, at the top level, is hitting so many positive notes. The dialogue is hella cheesy at times, though they toned it down in episode 2. But the art style is gorgeous, the characters are interesting, the story intriguing, and the use of time travel fits in so well with this type of game.

It's a game in an Oregon art school for gifted high schoolers, so one should know what they're getting into. Yeah, the protagonist is a hipster, but I don't find it grating. Teenagers are dumb, so there's that as well. More importantly, there is a complexity to the decisions thus far that Telltale games haven't always hit. The way the game builds to the first set of consequences for your decisions in episode two is fantastic, and there is a scene at the end that is very likely going to be on GB's 2015 Moment of the Year nominations. I can't elaborate much further without going into spoilers, but I've been recommending this one without hesitation to friends, and a number have taken the plunge and enjoyed it.

I think this is the type of game that I would like to see other stories attempted with. Its not perfect, but I think games like Heavy Rain and this work really well. There are so many stories to tell and ideas to express this doesn't need to be how they all works...but some on if we even got three or four a year like this that lasted five episodes that woudl be awesome. I would be delighted with a new Heavy Rain games because too be honest Two Souls never did it for me. I actually like Heavy Rains mechanics and story tone far more, they made sense

I'm really enjoying the game. I've actually been getting into these types of games thanks to Telltales The Walking Dead. I love the story of the game and I love how each choice has it's own consequences. It reminds me a lot of those old Goosbumps books where it gives you a list of choices and for whatever choice you make, you turn to a certain page, first interactive game ever! lol

The only thing I really don't like is the waiting in between episodes... two months (sometimes more) between each episode? It sucks! I would rather them give us all five episodes to play with while they work on the next season. You're left with having to settle with fanfictions and fan art until each episode comes out lol

BTW did anyone end up going to Kate's website out of curiosity? >.>

I liked it at first, but episode 2 really bummed me out. The bit at the end (which I wont spoil) could have been real gut-punch but technical flaws with the dialogue killed all momentum. Characters were waffling between two tones, as if the developers forgot to add in parts where the character actually responds to your choices (man this is really hard to talk about in vague terms). The characters don't seem to be developing the way I had hoped they would, with Chloe in particular being an annoying brat rather than a charming rogue. Writing's a bit corny as well, definitely comes across as old fogies trying to sound hip.

I'm a sucker for these types of coming-of-age stories, this one's just an OK version of that. The gameplay isn't even worth discussing but it's not really the draw either. You do make some interesting choices though, and I'm curious to see how far they'll go with it.

@getz: I actually like that the second episode fleshed Chloe out to be something of a misbehaving brat, because guess what? That's what a lot of punk rock teenagers are! They're antiestablishment, but not for like any political reasons, more just because they're angry about or discouraged by some aspect of their life. Like yeah, her stepdad is a bit of a dick, but also she makes everything WAY worse even though the stepdad and mom kinda mean well most of the time.

Sure, she got dealt a rough hand losing her dad and then Max moved away. But if she's the charming rogue without fault, then she's just the Han Solo to Max's Luke Skywalker, and that's too easy, too convenient, too "high adventure". If she was just the cool, adventurous foil, I've seen that a zillion times before.

I think it's way more interesting that this isn't some lifestyle choice that Chloe has fully thought out. She's just lashing out and making stupid life choices because she doesn't know how to cope with losing her dad, and her plan to just go to California with Rachel Amber was hella stupid, because that's the kind of dumb plan teenagers might cook up.

Also if you poke around Chloe's room or on her computer or something, she took a selfie of herself taking a huge bong rip, and that's still pretty funny.

I'm really liking it so far. I'd say it's the first game to not only properly adapt the Telltale formula, but also actually improve on it.

The biggest thing I think it does right is the choices, I feel like they matter a whole lot more compared to most walking dead or wolf among us choices, where in those games the choices mostly seem very shallow and only result in minor narrative differences that ultimately end in nothing more than whether or not Kenny is snarky with me in later episodes. While Life is Strange's narrative choices have mostly all been very unclear personal moral choices that I could debate either way, and ultimately as much as the rewiring mechanics lets you reverse those choices the full affect of every major choice isn't actually felt for a good while after you are no longer able to flip-flop on your decision, which is why I feel like the seemingly common criticism that Life is Strange's rewind mechanic cheapens the choices, is just fundamentally wrong in the long run.

This really bugged me too. I know what this scene was going for, a big culmination of your choices paying off for better/worse. The execution was off though. I would answer correctly, things would be winding down and then suddenly back to square one. It felt like that happened three times over, and I'm glad that I succeeded in it because I really didn't want to have to replay the episode. It would have further killed the momentum for me. I felt like the scene a little later dealing with the aftermath was handled better, at least in my experience.

This game definitely has its problems. Little nagging things that I feel like I normally wouldn't forgive, but, I don't know, there's just something about the overall package and its presentation that's got its hooks in me. It's got charm, and going through the episodes have been entertaining thus far. I like many of the characters and the mystery seems interesting. I'm already in for the season, and while I'd prefer it if they somehow managed to iron out the little issues that I have with it, if it continues on as is I feel like I would have had at least a decent experience with it. I just feel like it's close to being so much better.

@exiledvip3r: Yeah, the choices in Life Is Strange are solid. They're finding interesting ways to have characters acknowledge what you've done and have it affect the severity of how certain people react to Max.

In Walking Dead Season 1, all the choices amounted to was who was willing to futilely help you search for Clem at the start of Episode 5, and then you eventually go it alone anyways. Also, seriously, I was pretty fucking nice to Kenny *most* of the time, but I guess some Ep 3 stuff didn't reflect well on me and he wouldn't come with me.

In Walking Dead Season 2, the choices amounted to FUCKING NOTHING. You can let one or two characters die, but if you do something to keep them alive, they die one episode or less later so who cares. Entire character arcs go nowhere. And the finale is a fucking binary choice of who to kill and it's SO CONTRIVED AND STUPID.

I've enjoyed it a lot. But I really dislike the episodic nature, breaks up the flow everytime. Guess I should've waited for all of them to come out, but I'm already two episodes in now and want to know what happens next :/

I really respect what they're doing. The tone, situations and writing are really good (except every once in a while when they really aren't). The gameplay at best just exist and at worst is tedious. But I really like what they are going for and for the most part they succeed.

It's one of those games, like the first season of The Walking Dead where I really look forward to new episodes. And the ending to episode 2 was incredible.

I played the first episode, but as others have said, even though I liked it I'm just not down with the size of the periods of time in between episodes so I'll wait until the whole season is out before buying and playing the rest.

Fair enough. Sometimes, I do wish each episode came out a bit faster, but I really do enjoy the games. I'm going to play them as they come out, but I do plan to come back around after number 4. There is something nice about the anticipation of the each game coming out slowly that is fun too.

There is a ton of content you don't see or can miss in a first or even second play through. Some of it matters, but a lot probably does not matter as much expect to add 'flavor'. But, you only see it with trial and error and stopping to chat with people even though the game seems to imply you are in a rush.

I'm not gonna say the Chloe is an unrealistic depiction, I'm saying that I hate her and cringe every time she opens her mouth.

I Really like it so far.

The writing is hit or miss (Two "Hella"'s in one scene?!?), the gameplay is pretty shallow (barely more interactive than The Walking Dead/ Wolf Among Us), and yeah that shit at the end of episode 2 where I was answering every question perfectly and the girl was all happy and then 2 seconds later she's Way more upset than she was just a moment before; Yeah that shit sucks and is completely immersion breaking.

... But I dunno man! I really like it! I'm more excited for episode 3 of this than I am for the next episode of telltale's Game of Thrones game. And I fucking Love Game of Thrones.

The time travel stuff in this is a nice touch. I always hated choosing a dialogue option in a telltale game, not having that dialogue option pan out the way I thought it would (Dammit Wolf Among Us, I thought "Glass Him" meant like tink your glasses together like a toast, Not smash the glass in his head!) and have to quit the game, load the last checkpoint (Which was always the beginning of whatever scene/ conversation I was in and took forever to get back to where I was) and hope I choose a better answer, or i have to reset all over again. Life is Strange just letting me hold left trigger to undo recent choices is absolutely fantastic, and made me resent the Telltale games i'm still playing now.

It ain't perfect, and might even be more bad than good: But I hella can't wait for the next episode!

I just finished ep.2, and I can tell I'll be going all the way. It's something I definitely wasn't expecting from SquareEnix.

yes

Nope. But I can't really go in depth why because I'll spoil a lot of stuff. Let's just say it's extremely predictable and clichéd, with a few plot holes. It's like they watched a bunch of time-traveling movies and picked bits of each storyline, mixing it together poorly. Besides that, the animations are atrocious. I'm fine with the artstyle, but the animations are on PS2 level.

I liked it, but man did they drop the ball on the last episode.

I watched GBeast play one and half-ish episodes and I just couldn't wait for them to play more so I bought and played through the whole thing in about three days. I loved every minute of it. I can't wait to see the reactions to curtain things from GBeast if they ever get around to playing more of it (or all).

I liked it. The story needed a few alterations, but kept me interested. I almost wish the last episode was shorter, because right at the end I was telling this one character to shut up and just give me the thing so I can move on to the last bit. Lot of filler in that last episode.

No

Its my Game of the Year. Nothing else has effected me the way LiS has. I spent days after it was over still thinking about it. Love every bit of it. It was everything I could have hoped it was.

My wife and I played through the first episode and a half and kind of fell off from there. We like a lot of things about it, but a couple of things are bumming us out to the point where we haven't played it at all in about a month.

So many of the characters are completely insufferable. I completely hate about 3/4 of them. There's only a few I even feel ambivalent about, and Max is the only character I would say that I like. On top of that, we've found that about half of all the voice acting in the game is... inconsistent. Some characters are voiced pretty poorly, and some (Chloe especially comes to mind) go back and forth. These characters are convincing most of the time, but have one or two lines per scene that have really questionable line reads.

Very much so. I finished it a few days ago and I've been slowly unpacking it since. The last episode had a number of problems and I wished a lot of things were handled differently at the end, but I really enjoyed the story they told and I'm happy with how my personal narrative choices played out. Definitely in my Top 5.

I played each episode as it released since the first one, and I loved it. Episode 5 was a bit rocky, but I still enjoyed it a lot, I'm glad they played it risky and finished with a weird bang instead of something boring and safe. The writing was a bit awkward at first but it got better as it went along, and the voice actors did a great job.

Also, I think the rewinding mechanic works really well in this context because you get to see the short-term effects of every dialogue branch before you commit to a decision. I've only played the Game of Thrones series from Telltale, but I found that my story branched off a lot more from other peoples' while I played Life is Strange, even when the cliffhangers were the same for everyone.

@demoskinos said:

Same.

Yeah, it's coming on two weeks since I finished Life Is Strange, and I cannot stop thinking about it. It's really taken a hold of my mind. Nothing (and I don't even mean just games) has affected me like Life Is Strange has. I didn't even know what I was getting myself into when I bought this game. I bought it on a whim on the 24th. All I knew was that some people thought it was good or something. I was hella surprised once I started playing it. I was floored by the end. It was such a powerful experience.

Side note: I was pretty miserable before playing Life Is Strange, but then those three days where I played through the game, everything was right in the world. Now that it's over, it's like I'm in the shadow of its glory and I'm feeling more miserable than before I even started. If only I could rewind and play through Life Is Strange for the first time over and over again for the rest of forever.

Loved it, tied for GOTY with The Witcher 3 for me. Such a unique and awesome experience.

Apparently it has. ;)

It's the best game i've played in years. I finished it a week ago and i can't stop thinking about it and there are times i wished i never played it and others when i wish i could play it again for the first time.

Game don't affect me, movies don't affect me... and yet this game hit me pretty hard. I'm in a pretty bad place right now, have been for a while and i didn't really know what i was getting myself into when i started. But then i got hooked and just had to keep playing and see things through. Some scenes hit pretty close to home in a way i was not prepared to deal with.

The episodic nature might have been frustrating, especially with the massive cliffhangers of EP 3 and 4 but on the flip side playing it all in one go meant having to take in a LOT in a very short period of time. This game hurts and yet i love it.

This game did remind me that i shouldn't wait 5 years to see some friends though and tonight i spoke to one for the first time in a long while and i'll see her sometimes soon after about 2 years so there's that. She's playing it too at the moment.

Wow, I honestly didn't expect to see such a positive response in this thread (expected the usual internet based jade/bullshit). I just finished it and I absolutely agree with the other people that called it their game of the year, it is 100% at the top of my list now. I never expected something so emotional and well thought out from this game and it blew me away every single episode. The way it played with the time mechanic is incredibly clever, and usually fun (other than the few times they have you hunt random objects in big environments, fuck you bottle hunt). But with all games like this it was the characters and story that really make it stick. Even though Max is given these amazing powers the story remains incredibly personal and close the entire time. All the characters are well realized and voice acted, and while I don't think the entirety of episode 5 was perfect (no spoilers) the ending was. What an amazing experience, I'm sad it's over. No way any other game tops that for me this year.

Yes I loved it, played part of episode 3 and the entirety of episodes 4 and 5 in one sitting monday night. The characters and the story are amazing and really wel written and the game takes care to not go set-piece crazy and instead uses little moments which remind us of when we were teenagers growing up. Sure we didn't have time reversal powers, but the personal story hit pretty close to home in some spots. Easily one of my favorite and maybe my favorite game this year. I'm still sad it's over and right now am thinking about starting a second save. I just don't know If it's possible to recapture the feeling I had once I put the controller down and watched the credits to episode 5.

It's my Game of the Year and definitely one of my favorite games, period. I loved the beginning of Episode 4.

Only a monster would answer negatively to this question

Loved it. Game of the year.

Its a flawed game, but I really love it (possibly one of my favorite gaming experiences ever). The first episode is pretty slow, but it picks up after that. The way it is presented it seems a slight, cute, hipster game; but it hides one of the most emotionally brutal games I've played. A lot of the events and themes of the game get pretty damned dark, I left certain episodes emotionally exhausted.

Agreed.

It's really growing on me. There are just enough truly endearing moments to make me appreciate and enjoy what it's going for - and they help to balance out all the terrible Warren interactions.

I guess I'm a monster then.

I'm enjoying what I've seen in the GBeast streams. For as much as it's totally Twin Peaks/Donnie Darko by way of France, it's also very earnest and genuine in a way that most video games aren't. That helps level things out whenever the dialogue falls into a burning crater of adult writers trying to figure out "how the kids talk these days"