Go! Go! GOTY! '15 ~Day Six~ (Life is Strange, E1 & E2)
By Mento 4 Comments
Day Six
- Game: Life is Strange (DONTNOD).
- Release Month: January (E1) & March (E2).
- Source: The Steam Explorer Sale (Season Pass).
- Quick Look: Here. (Brad/Jeff.) GBEast LP: Here, here, here and here.
- Started: 03/12.
Bit of a departure today, since Life is Strange is very light on mechanics and heavy on narrative. The first three paragraphs are going to roughly summarize the game, how it plays and how I feel about it so far, and then I'll spoiler-block off some deeper introspectives on the first two episodes which I played back-to-back today. Maybe it's because I've gotten into binge watching TV shows - online-only fare like Jessica Jones and Mr. Robot has turned me into an obsessive serial watcher - but that's how I always intended to tackle the hot Indie favorite for GOTY that is Life is Strange. I was a big fan of Remember Me, DONTNOD's prior and only other game to my knowledge, but I couldn't see myself waiting for months between each of this game's five episodes. Those waiting times might be the aspect of the episodic adventure game format that I dislike the most. Heck, I'm sure that isn't a rare sentiment.
Life is Strange is one of those adventure games that's light on puzzles and inventory management (very light) but draws its audiences in with tough decisions that will no doubt have all sorts of consequences further down the road. These decisions seem to incur changes as minor as additional lines of dialogue to major ones that affect the rest of the story, or a character's perception of you. I always find it fascinating to look back on all the branches that may or may not have happened due to how I handled a situation, but truth be told this is the first game of this type that I've ever had the cojones to play. I skipped The Walking Dead because I don't care for zombie fiction, but as soon as it got murmurs about its approach to storytelling I checked an LP and... man, I do not envy anyone making those life-or-death choices. It's an adventure game both simpler than anything that came before it, simpler than "Choose Your Own Adventure" books (to which these games are often pejoratively compared) yet somehow more difficult than every Roberta Williams moon logic puzzle put together. How do you choose between telling a friend to go to the cops about her possible date-rape, or to hold off until you've gathered more evidence in case her accusations get her into more hot water?
The key element of Life is Strange, introduced almost straight away so no real spoiler here, is the main character - mousy but gifted photography student Max Caulfield - and her newfound ability to rewind time to a small extent. Not only does this feature heavily in a lot of the game's puzzles - Max can effectively "teleport" around, gathering items and clues before rewinding the clock in situations where time is of the essence - but also allows the player to reverse any of their big decisions before they "confirm" it. You can see how either side of a decision plays out in the moment and Max's feelings on the two results, but once it's locked in place the consequences will be unavoidable. It's an elegant approach to the "did you mean to go this way on this big important choice, or do you have cold feet?" approach, especially in the few games of this type where a decision will be made for an impatient player, robbing them of the dubious pleasure of being responsible for their own fate.
Naturally, what follows are major story plot points and so I've safely hidden them away behind a big ol' spoiler block. I think you've gotten a decent enough impression of how the game plays, if not what the game's about, from the above (and those GB vids I've linked to, if you're not seen those yet either). Personally I'm hooked so far, though I won't have anything decisive until I've beaten all five chapters. I'm not sure if that's what I'll focus on tomorrow, or if I spread it out a bit between other games. Shit is certainly getting weird in Arcadia Bay, though, and I'm in for the ride. (Also, is it crazy that I've picked yet another game filled to the brim with cute and/or dumb references to pop culture? Is everything Buffy the Vampire Slayer now?)
Episode 1: Chrysalis
Episode 2: Out of Time
I'll keep these up for as long as I have chapters to go. If I play something else tomorrow, though, you'll know why. These episode appraisals are a lot more work.
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