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    Life Is Strange

    Game » consists of 19 releases. Released Jan 30, 2015

    An episodic adventure game based around time manipulation from Remember Me developers DONTNOD.

    If you were to replay, what would be your LiS strategy?

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    monkeyking1969

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    With the fifth episode out and the whole collection complete with a box copy, how would you replay the game? (Warning to new players: This thread may have spoilers that will ruin it for brand new players.)

    Would you do a make other choices to see a different Max? Or would you make a series of choices that were your 'optimal' choice path? Would you concentrate on getting all the photos or saving Alyssa each time? Or, would you just to one run through the whole game in one sitting?

    I have replayed the first three episodes three times already, I used an 'optimized' run to go into ep 4 and then into 5. But, I'm itching to get all the photos, which is not really that important, but I feel like a complete notebook would be nice. I'm also keen to read the notebook in the alternate Chloe reality, because I didn't look closely at all in my first few playthroughs.

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    Shivoa

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    I think I played it wrong to answer that. For me LiS was a 20-something hour long series (HLTB says 12-18 hours is normal) because I wanted to read every journal entry and take every photo as I played. (This is far from unique to LiS, just finished Rise of the Tomb Raider and I didn't get to the post-credit stinger until about hour 31, HLTB says the story is about 13 hours long.)

    I looked at a lot of the dialogue trees, seeing what options existed before progressing, with that single play-through. So any replaying I do is more about looking at the ripples of the big choices, seeing what changes. My choices at the time were always "optimal" for the moment they were being made (the the game only has one moment where you don't get to choose what decision happens and Kate lived in my play-through so I "passed" that moment) and I like to think of that as my canonical narrative for the game.

    As the dialogue system allowed for more exploration than other games, I actually think LiS is far less conducive to replaying for reasons other than going back to a good TV series and watching it through again to catch anything I might have missed. So I wouldn't aim to change a thing. I do enjoy Let's Plays (like the GBEast streams) so I've seen how things do work out for different permanent choices via that and with critical commentary on top to help broaden my view of the game. So maybe without having done that, I'd be more eager to go back and see the game playing through with different choices.

    But I can't say enough good things about the dialogue system that allowed me to explore and play with the range of options in the moment rather than leaving it to a second play-through.

    I did a paragon and renegade play-through with Mass Effect, because that series started so well, but I can't say I got that much out of the later games by going through them twice just to see how they could go differently. I have enjoyed playing inFamous games twice for the two paths, although they really don't make that much difference beyond unlocks, so narratively that's pretty weak - but I do come to the inFamous games more for the traversal and skills so am happy they split along those lines. I never completed evil play-throughs of the Fable games despite starting them and then deciding I just didn't care. And those were games with very binary paths to them, so they sort of are two different consistent stories from which you can jump back and forth (but the game systems do generally explicitly punish players who don't try to maximise in one direction or the other - so it's not a platter of options (as some RPGs offer) but two different paths and the game does say you should generally follow one or the other). I don't feel like Life is Strange has two paths that are clearly marked out. So a different play-through would be different but just picking the opposite binary choices to the ones I did wouldn't make me think of it as the "evil" or "other" path as much as just making different choice. A game that has exactly the same binary mechanic as inFamous "A to save hospital; X to burn orphanage" feels so completely different when removing the simple moralistic choices - you're asked to choose between two real (often somewhat shitty) things and that's so refreshing compared to so many stories in games. Really glad the GBEast stream (and all Let's Plays I've seen for that matter) do show that it's pretty universal that the choices you're asked to make are a mix of "well I have to pick this, even though I hate to" and "damn, I can't; these are both terrible" but, crucially, those lines are drawn individually (so they're different for every person - and the stats at the end of each episode back up that split decisions in many cases).

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    Zeik

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    #3  Edited By Zeik

    I replayed it not too long ago, about the time GBeast were finishing up their playthrough. It was mainly to get all the photos and Platinum the game, but I did check out a few alternate paths I didn't the first time, although not completely. I still friend-zoned Warren in favor of Chloe and I still more or less befriended Victoria and I still saved Kate from jumping, etc. My curiosity only goes so far. I did end up going for the ending I didn't pick the first time, but I almost immediately reloaded and picked my original choice, as it didn't feel right.

    It's definitely one of those games where my playthrough is THE playthrough, and it's hard to mess with it too much without the experience feeling off.

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    laserguy

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    I'd be bangin all the ladies in that town.

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    clagnaught

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    I'm not keen on doing the inverse choices, just to see them. Like the only thing I looked up on YouTube was the other ending I didn't select, which was the Save Chloe ending. I don't really have any interest in doing things like not preventing Kate from committing suicide or being mean to Victoria whenever I could.

    When I do play through it, I would do it in order to:

    • Relive the story again, more or less the same way I did it earlier. The only things I would change would be random stuff like saving the bird that flies into Chloe's house and trying to figure out how to prevent David from getting beaten up when he enters the Dark Room.
    • Show somebody else the game or watch somebody I know play through it. This option I always thought it would be fun to do with certain games. Like I always thought my family would have really liked The Walking Dead Season 1 if they saw it.
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    ch3burashka

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    I haven't had the chance to play a Tell Tale adventure game with a friend/girlfriend yet. I would not want to replay it myself because I already have an established LiS canon; I cannot change it. But, I can watch someone else, and either guide or see their natural playthrough.

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    TreeTrunk

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    I would probably streamline it while reading every page of the journal, because I pretty much completely ignored it throughout the whole game.

    I remember replaying the party in Ep 4 a couple of times in the lead up to Ep 5's release though. For some reason it is a fun game to play for me.

    I have the beautiful box of it too but I don't want to give away my second copy :)

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    deactivated-57d3a53d23027

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    I played through it a second time and here are the things that I did differently:

    • Rejected Warren
    • Took the fall for the weed (then later snitched on Chloe to both parents)
    • Did not rearrange the photos on Victoria's wall
    • Did not write "wash me" on the camper-van
    • Defended David Madsen (or whatever Chloe's step-dad's name was)
    • Not shoot Frank Underwood
    • Blamed Mr Jefferson for Kate's attempted suicide (instead of David)
    • Eat pancakes at the Diner and Bacon & Eggs at the house
    • Stopped Warren from bashing Nathan
    • Did not tell Victoria that we should have been friends
    • Saved Alicia's ass every time (instead of none of them)
    • Did not save the bird; I rushed past or missed each moment for this
    • Took few photos
    • Not snoop around Chloe's parent's room
    • Not invade Chloe's privacy and ignore her when she needed her water etc.
    • Watered the plant only once
    • Signed up for the party
    • Saved the person from being electrocuted when you turn on the sprinklers
    • For some reason this time I had a tonne of trouble figuring out how to stop the diner explosion
    • Same ending but there was some romance between Max and Chloe

    I feel like my first playthrough is my "true" one, as everything was new to me back then.

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    Wemibelle

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    I already did a second playthrough (to solidify my thoughts on it before GotY stuff). All I did was "fix" the things I did wrong or didn't like from my original playthrough: I didn't fuck up with Kate, poked into the gay relationship stuff between Max+Chloe (despite that feeling entirely out of place), and finished up the pictures I missed. Unlike Telltale games, I felt that LiS did a pretty good job of telling me exactly what my dialogue choice would bring about--or at least gave me the option of rewinding if I messed something up. As such, I had already found my path through the story that felt most accurate to how I imagined Max.

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    monkeyking1969

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    @shivoa said:

    ...

    As the dialogue system allowed for more exploration than other games, I actually think LiS is far less conducive to replaying for reasons other than going back to a good TV series and watching it through again to catch anything I might have missed. So I wouldn't aim to change a thing. I do enjoy Let's Plays (like the GBEast streams) so I've seen how things do work out for different permanent choices via that and with critical commentary on top to help broaden my view of the game. So maybe without having done that, I'd be more eager to go back and see the game playing through with different choices.


    @shivoa I agree with you, there ain't much you can change in many ways. I don't fault the game for that, but I would have loved true alternative branching paths....who wouldn't. But, I will give props to Dontnod for have a few tweaks that actually did matter is very interesting ways. I think depending on how you play it you might get two runs, maybe even three out of the game if you don't flip flop to see all the choices in the first play th rough. But, you really can't put a reverse time mechanic in a game and not expect people to flip-flop, so I think that path of looking at all alternatives in one play through is just as valid as any other way.


    @Everyone
    Does anyone know what the 'Directors’ commentary' is like in the Limited Edition box? I would love to hear that Directors’ commentary as I played it again, and for me a huge fan. spending another $40 might be worth it. The licensed 13 track soundtrack and art-book alone might make it worthwhile. Yet, I would like to know how much commentary there is in that edition. Is every scene commented on for each choices or do they just discuss all choices at those junctures?

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    Zeik

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    @monkeyking1969: The commentary is only like an hour of pre-recorded footage that covers a handful of different topics. There's some interesting stuff in there, but they glossed over a bunch of subjects I was hoping to know more about. Not really worth $40.

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    ollieg_94

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    I think the only change I would make would be to make sure I took all the photos, as that would be a pretty easy platinum trophy. A lot of the main narrative points from my playthrough, (Kate's death, taking the money, making sure Frank didn't have the gun), I saw the other side played out on the GBeast playthrough, and I'm happy enough with the other choices I made that I don't really see myself playing it differently.

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    monkeyking1969

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    @zeik: That's a shame....hmm, I guess someone will bootleg it.

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    Zeik

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    @zeik: That's a shame....hmm, I guess someone will bootleg it.

    It's already on Youtube.

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    Shivoa

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    @monkeyking1969: If you own the game, you've got the commentary videos. They patched the game with it for everyone when the Ld. Ed. released.

    Just activate the free DLC.

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    Beehelp

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    I've tried to play the game for the second time, it's still amazing but it just din't have the impact it had on me the first time.

    Now i wish i actually could rewind time and play it over again without knowing what will happen

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