Just finished episode 1 *SPOILERS*

So what does everyone think of this game so far?

I found it pretty neat. It has a good balance of the TellTale styled dialogue stuff and more classic adventure game puzzles while still being decently written and acted. I really liked the time travel mechanic. It fit in fairly well. Almost every choice I went back to see what the other possibility could have been before deciding which one to take. Once I finished the game I noticed a lot of stuff I could have done that I didn't do. I might go back and see what those things are.

The character of Max reminded me a lot of April Ryan from The Longest Journey. Artsy gal going to an art school, first time away from her family, and she has a super natural power.

My main hope for the rest of the game it that it doesn't get to ambitious and stays fairly small scoped. It'd be pretty disappointing if Max ends up having to save the world or some nonsense, but I'd guessing there will be something like that.

After completing the first episode I'm excited to see where the game goes.

I loved Remember Me so if this has a similar tone to that game then I'm pretty sure I'll dig it.

I wonder if they'll let you time travel between episodes to see how your decisions would play out in the long term.

@corevi said:

The time travel mechanic so far has been limited to scenes. Once you progress passed a scene change.

Just finished this and I'm really interested in seeing how the story plays out! Usually I stay away from episodic games until they're finished but the basic premise for this game seemed too good to pass up.

I like how more open it is compared to the Telltale games. It feels like there's a ton of meaningful optional stuff to check out in most of the areas. The time rewinding mechanic is actually pretty sweet! It's cool to be able to see how the characters react to each decision without having to commit to a single choice.

The only negative things I could say about the game are that in some spots the dialogue is really cheesy and sometimes the lip syncing isn't too go just straight up bad.

@d_w: I haven't played the game but I'm interested in it. My main question is how does it actually play? I didn't really understand how the gameplay looked from any of the trailers. Is it like an adventure game or..?

@humanity: A lot of looking at objects and pressing Y or A. The time travel mechanic is done well. You hold the left trigger to rewind time after you have made a decision. Your inventory stays the same after you rewind so if you read a file and it gets dirty, you could rewind time so that the file is at its original location but you have read it. Also one puzzle uses it to avoid falling objects.

I think we definitely need a Life is Strange non-spoiler impressions thread. I'm interested in being interested in the game, so I don't necessarily want spoilers up in my face.

@beachthunder: You wont be disappointed, check it out positively.

@s80007: Sounds similar to the memory scrubbing in Remember Me.

@humanity: Yeah, @s80007has the gist of it. I played with mouse and keyboard and it controlled how you would expect. My only major issue was that it interacting with objects can be wonky sometimes. Especially when multiple are nearby. You have to very close and sometimes angle the camera in an odd way. Other than that it controls fine. WASD to move, Shift to run, Mouse 1 to interact, Mouse 2 to rewind time.

A lot of the writing in this game is just *bad*

Also Max going off on that tangent about Final Fantasy Spirits Within being a good movie was pretty funny

SOLD

Besides the occasional poorly done teen-lingo (who uses "hella" unironically?) I thought it was pretty well written. At its worst, it's still better than a David Cage game (and I love his games). The acting is mostly on point too. I'll just ignore the poor lip-synching, because the rest is the game is gorgeous.

I really like Max. She has a slight awkwardness to her speech that makes her a believable high school character and weirdly charming.

I really like the vibe and think the premise is great, but holy shit is the writing forehead-slappingly awful at times: egregious usage of the word 'hella,' mentions of e-cigs and Kickstarter just for the hell of it, and just a bunch of teen speak that feels forced or out-of-date. That, plus the very inconsistent voice acting, makes it a hard game to love at times. I'm certainly onboard until the end, but I'm a bit disappointed in how much like Remember Me it is--beautifully ambitious at times but very rough around the edges.

It took me a solid minute of sitting there to believe that line actually happened. It seriously almost broke my ability to comprehend reality. Who the fuck decided to put that line in there? It almost feels like some weird Square mandate thrown in at the last minute

this game is fucking Pretty in Pink meets Twin Peaks and i really dig it. it played well and being able to see how people reacted to decisions was great because i remembered a few times in the walking dead where an option was just not at all what i thought it would be. hope it lives up to the high standard set by episode 1

@humanity: It basically plays like a TellTale game but with more stuff to interact with and a bunch of optional things to do.

The problem with Remember Me was the gameplay. I liked the world, the design, story and music. However, all those things fell flat. Here they are focusing on their story, which is aided by great style. I've played about an hour, and have enjoyed my time.

Good stuff! My pretentious alarm buzzed a little at the beginning of the game but as soon as I got over it and into the story and characters some, I was happily immersed in Max's world. The art style is also really nice in spots, and fittingly a lot of scenes are just framed perfectly. Voice acting was a little off here and there but overall I had a fantastic time.

Can't wait for episode 2!

how long is the first episode?

@syndrom: 2 hours or so.. not long.

Wait, I just finished the episode and didn't hear this but I HAVE to. Around when is it?

@epidehl: When you're in Victoria's room you can look at her TV and Max'll say a little something about it.

There's also a Tomb Raider mention if you head into Chloe's backyard and sit on the swing.

Interesting to see the contrast between this thread and QL discussion where most of the opinions seemed to lean towards negative.

@geirr: I think the episode has a pretty "ugh" opening after that dream bit. But as someone who has taking art classes, that teacher almost spot on as an art teacher. The only issue is that he's too successful and not bitter yet, but he's clearly like 23 so he probably hasn't had the career downfall that most teachers of art related classes had have.

I had the exact same response as Jeff when I first saw that teacher.

@syndrom: 2~3 hours. If you really explore and look for stuff probably about 4.

@ghostiet: Chloe, the blue haired character, is also a bit like April too. Though she hasn't quite move out. There's a couple parallels between this game and TLJ. They're both set in the Pacific Northwest, have an artisty female main character with magic powers, and have a cast of colorful characters that mostly real life kinds of problems. At least that it from the early parts of TLJ and this first episode. Now if only Life Is Strange had the line "Shelves... Still just shelves."

@crommi: mechanically the game is fine and interesting, and the overall story seems to be building towards something that I at least want to see the conclusion of, it's just that the dialogue is *rough*. It's fine at times, and sometimes even good, but sometimes it's just unbearable. If something like the quick look is your only impression of the game, or just seeing the game and not interacting with it, it's probably not going to come off as good.

I just finished this myself and I thoroughly enjoyed it, very much looking forward to episode 2 coming in March.

Was also fairly surprised at how it approached some pretty heavy, mature subject matter, handled very well, I think.

I never played Remember Me, and I recall reading that it had some problems, but after playing this, I'm seriously considering going to check that out too.

I think its very well done. Bought episode 1 on a whim tonight. Fuck I'm on the hook now aren't I? I need to know where this goes. Some very potentially interesting stuff setup in the first episode.

The conversation with Warren about movies is exactly the kind of shit I hate in all those hip indie movies, characters standing around talking about obscure exploitation films just so the audience knows that how hip and shit the writers are. Which I guess is kind of fitting since so far the game is like an indie teen movie filtered through the eyes of people who are not at all teens. But then there are moments like the thing with Dana that I think are genuinely good. I guess what I'm saying is the writing is spotty as fuck but I am intrigued to see this whole thing through to the end.

This has to be on youtube soon. I need to know how this is delivered. XD

I wish this game was on mobile. It seems perfect for it and the Telltale games work fantastically on phones and tablets.

Having now finished the first episode, I'm certainly on board for the rest of the game, and I'm really hoping it doesn't become some world-saving spectacle and instead is more focused on the students, since they are definitely hinting at something with Kate Marsh and shit. I think the best part, in the "Haha, what really?" sort of way was when Chloe put on music to "thrash this place!" and what she put on was this dream pop Sparklehorse song instead of anything that someone who would want to thrash and punk around would actually put on. Like, I know the game has this indie film vibe to it but come on, really? Really?

Still, there's just enough there to latch onto and I'll be playing the next part in March.

@corevi: Yes, it is a good idea. Its easier to show it to people who don't play games. I tried to show gone home to many friends but their laptops were not able to run it.

@donchipotle: yeah, i totally agree. the part where he said he couldn't stop laughing during cannibal holocaust was the worst part of the game for me

@donchipotle: I was disappointed that Chloe's "punk rock" was the least punk rock thing I've ever heard. PUT ON DILLINGER FOUR AND BREAK SOMETHING, DAMN IT!

I enjoyed this a great deal! The dialog is clunky at times but for me, at least, that was part of its charms. Chloe and Max have good chemistry together, which is the crucial thing seeing as how this whole game is set to be about their friendship with one another--almost every conversation between the two was well acted and actually carried some emotional weight. Then again, I'm a big fucking softie at heart, so maybe I just want to see those two former friends become friends again. AH, YOUTH.

I get the feeling Chloe and Rachel were more than friends. The wider mysteries (WHY DO YOU HAVE TIME POWERS? WHAT HAPPENED TO RACHEL? ARE THE PRESCOTTS ALL FUCKING DICKS OR IS IT JUST THEIR SON? DOES ANYONE SAY HELLA UNIRONICALLY (SPOILERS: I hella do)?) are compelling, but the game did a good job of getting me to invest in the two protagonists' efforts to repair their friendship.

There was some texture pop in when I'd load into a new scene sometimes, and occasionally I'd direct Max to look at something and the game would take its sweet fucking time before she said her description or moved things around or whatever, but it was never anything other than a minor annoyance.

Next episode appears to involve a train! I guess we'll find out in March what that's all about.

I definitely used my time powers to sound like I knew what skateboarding was and got a guy to rack his nuts.

Wait, there's a 2 month wait between episodes? That's rough.

@corevi: well tomorrow (meaning Sunday) is February so it's technically a one month wait. Possibly.

I really enjoyed it. Quite pleasant. Really cool game.

Marking off what some might see as spoilers.

I really like it so far. Apart from the whole boarding school thing and the magic powers and the crazy rich kid drug dealer with a gun it's reminding me a lot of my high school experience, mostly due to the characters. Max, personality wise is almost exactly like one of my best friends was in high school so it's very easy for me to relate to her, and I can see shades of myself in most of the side characters, especially Warren and Daniel, which makes them endearing even though I think they're both poorly acted (especially Warren). The writing isn't the greatest, sure, but despite that I really like the dynamic they set up between Max and Chloe as separated best friends who are trying to mend their relationship while both their lives are going crazy in completely different ways.

I also really like the time manipulation stuff, and how you can choose to find things in the world, go back in time to put them back but Max will retain the knowledge she probably isn't supposed to have, examples being knocking down the pictures of Kate you find in Chloe's garage or finding the pregnancy test (unless you believe Max is morally inclined to keep them that way, of course). During the major decisions I found myself going back and seeing both options, and rather than do what I would do in real life, I thought about how Max would react in that situation, which in my opinion is a good sign and proves to me that the developers are crafting a character I can care about.

It's easy to draw parallels between this and various other things I absolutely love like Twin Peaks (Rachel is basically Laura Palmer) and Donnie Darko (shy high schooler is given a mysterious power for no apparent reason and is unwillingly tasked with saving something. In Maxes case it appears to be her home town from the tornado she keeps seeing).

Overall I liked it very much, and I'm dealing with the (generally) poor writing and voice acting to see where the story goes. Right now I'm seeing a Donnie Darko-esqe conclusion on the horizon, which I wouldn't mind, really, but I'm hoping there are some good twists and turns that ultimately culminate in something unexpected.

Considering what a sucker I am for 1. The Longest Journey and 2. the flighty identity-seeking female teenager character archetype (The Dreamlife of Angels, Blue Is the Warmest Color), I could not be more erect right now. I'll get the whole package when it's on sale by maybe 30%.

I just finished the episode myself and man, there is a ton of stuff to like in this game. It feels like a real evolution of the Tell Tale style of adventure game. Visually it's gorgeous (non existent lip synching not withstanding), and the atmosphere and style is really well realised. The characters are colourful and interesting, and are for the most part quite well acted. The story so far is intriguing, and the time manipulation mechanic is well implemented.

The dialogue is where some people may get tripped up. A lot of characters speak like insufferable pricks, which feels completely intentional, but it's easy to see how that might not go over well with some. I've seen a lot of chatter about the jargon the kids use, and while I think a lot of it hits the intended mark, they use too much of it and some lines feel unnatural as a result. More often than not though the writing feels "real" and charming, in a way. I will say having also played through Grim Fandango this week, the line about Spirits Within was legitimately funnier to me than anything in Grim so take that as you will.

I feel like this episode could have used at least one more area to flesh things out. It feels like the process of meeting Chloe to the Chloe/David argument to the ending is all a little rushed. At least every setting gives you plenty of stuff to interact with and poke at. Then again while that poking around felt totally natural when Max was alone, it felt out of place at Chloes house. I'll be interested to see how they handle that stuff in future episodes.

As a side note those complaining about the use of the word hella specifically should consider which website they're currently on. I've heard Jeff and Alex say it earnestly a bunch of times over the years. My time on Giant Bomb has totally desensitized me to hella. Granted the game is set in Oregon and not California. I dunno this game is pretty good.

For those that missed it:

I like time travel and dumb high school shit so this game is right up my alley. Not much to say about the story after the first episode though, it seems neat but I gotta see how some of these choices play out long term. That dialogue though. So that's what 40 year old's think millennials sound like. She says hella! All the time! Often incorrectly! I hope the dialogue does not improve, this is too good.

I just finished it, the credits are going right now. I thought it was really great! I think the thing that could have used the most work was simply lip sync. The character detail in general really could have been better, and when loading up a scene of a wide shot of an environment (which only happens a few times), it'd have pop-in textures with a slower frame rate for a couple of seconds, but otherwise visually I thought it looked great. I'm excited for the next one. Hm, I may have to go back through it just to change a couple choices. The stats at the end are interesting. I saved the bird, but I'm surprised very few did. The game isn't really unique, but it takes a lot of aspects from other games and does those aspects well. The way the choices are handled through time change is different however, and I think the way it's used is nice, so it lets the players know exactly how the characters will react, and change it if you'd like, or get a better answer, as well as have a different outcome (like making sure someone doesn't get hit by a football).

Max reminds me of Ellie from The Last of Us, and the voice actress even sounds like her to an extent, making me wonder at times if it was Ashley Johnson. The game plays similar to Dreamfall actually. And again, like The Last of Us, walking around the setting, it kind of reminds me of those down times in The Last of Us. I loved the references to real life Seattle stuff, like the Fremont Troll and the Thunderbirds hockey team; it's not that I have any interest in those things really, but aside from mentioning my home city, I just like the attention to detail, instead of them using fake names. Also, some of the places in the game remind me of titles of places or characters in adventure games I just recently played, like Blackwell, which is the school Max goes to, and Arcadia, which is the town she lives in. They probably aren't easter eggs, but I found it interesting considering how recent I played them and how similar they are in some ways.

I like that her journal updates according to your choices too. I can see some peoples comparison to Gone Home, though I like this more, way more. To me, the styles represented in the game, like clique styles and what have you just aren't something that interest me in film, book, or reality really (I certainly wouldn't listen to any of the licensed music that's in the game on my own doing), but in game, if it's really well done like this, I'm all for it. I like the simplicity of the gameplay as well, where you don't have much to worry about, while it still has you wondering what will happen later if you choose one option over another. Great characters and interesting events so far that make me care to see what's next. The sound in general was really well done in my opinion; if some of the writing and voice working were just slightly better, it'd match (again) The Last of Us.

It actually as quite a few fun references to games, movies, and music. I guess we have to wait until May to finally play the next one. Now it makes me wonder how long it'll take to do the entire thing! I got the season pass before I bought it, since I thought if I was going to play one, I might as well play them all.

It amuses me greatly when I read the reviews for Life is Strange seeing men in their late 20's / early 30's complaining about the "cringeworthy, unrealistic" dialogue spoken by 18 year old girls.

Ah, man! I missed that too. Now I have to play it again. I'm not missing that.

I really liked the first episode. Although I am now a cranky old man, who cares little for the silly, insignificant problems of youth, and the writing wasn't always great, I got sucked it. Roll on episode 2.

Compare and Contrast (With Ryan!)

Having finished watching the walkthrough it seem pretty impressive. It feels like the opposite to how Telltale does their game, they have great dialogue but the world building seems to be lacking. Life is strange seems to great world building with thier "Gone Home"-esque objects around the world and Max's thoughts about the characters in the story. However the dialogue is very lacking but overall it's not bad enough to ruin the whole experience.

Cuz the consequences of not telling him the truth means that there's a potentially unstable dude with a gun roaming around.

Telling him the truth prevents the next 4 episodes being "prevent gun dude from killing people!!!!"