UPDATE: I finished Before the Storm about a week ago and that thing is still messing with me. Episode 3 leaves things on a somewhat positive note until the post-credits kick in the gut. And the "Farewell" bonus episode - don't even get me started. The performances of both leads in the closing scenes just gutted me.

No other game series has hooked me so emotionally. I can't wait to see where they go from here.

***tried to keep this vague, but there may be spoilers ahead***

Almost a year ago I played through episodes 1 and 2 of the original Life is Strange. I was really into it, but fell off for some reason. Recently I had a compulsion to go back, and in the last week I finished the game and then immediately watched the Vinny/Alex/Austin GBeast playthrough in full. This thing kinda floored me.

It still looks great, has an incredible curated indie soundtrack as well as a fantastic guitar-based score, the writing is solid and punctuated with some outstanding moments, and the performances are great across the board. If you've slept on this thing and are even remotely interested in the modern Telltale-style games I can't recommend this enough.

For context I'm a 33 year old dude who lost both his parents at a fairly young age to cancer and illness. I don't consider myself a sufferer of anxiety on a day-to-day basis, but I have definitely wrestled with thoughts of impostor syndrome and am prone to extended bouts of procrastination. Sometimes I wonder how different my life would be if my mum and dad were still around, especially given that my childhood was largely a very loving one. The "what if" idea of changing the past and playing out the consequences of that has always been a compelling one to me; Back to the Future was a formative film even before my parents passed.

Games are a different beast though, and modern choice-based adventure titles tend to present a huge spectrum of possibilities (especially when time travel is involved) while inevitably boiling down to only a handful of possible endings. In much the same way as Telltale's breakout The Walking Dead season one, Life is Strange invests in its characters first and foremost. Where it bests TWD for me is in the extra-trippy episode 5. Here LiS channels the tropes of Twin Peaks and takes the time to explore Max's anxiety and self-worth, even in the face of imminent destruction. I have heard this segment of the episode was divisive (apt, given that it's titled Polarized) but I honestly feel it was the perfect emphasis of what the game is all about - acknowledging that what you've experienced in life has helped define who you are, and that accepting loss allows you to grow. Despite the gravity of the final events portrayed on screen, it felt triumphant.

I may be years-too-late to it, but I'm so happy I gave it another look. I just picked up Before the Storm and am hoping to eventually get to Remember Me which I also missed at the time. DONTNOD Entertainment made a hell of a thing and I am grateful to have played it.

Life is Strange had a very strong impact on me as well, in part because I lost my own father to cancer a couple years ago. The choices you make around Chloes father and the choice you eventually are forced to make at the end of the game, were really moving for me, particularly because the game spends so much time empowering you to change the world around you.

When you realize you can't change what is going to happen, or that it's a bad idea to (particulalry with Chloe's dad but also at the end of the game.), it hit me harder than any piece of media ever has.

Wishing you could flip a switch and bring a loved one back is a natural part of grief, but so is accepting that life doesn't work like that. Life is Strange made me feel those emotions again, in a healthy way which also added some clarity and i'm so glad to have exprerienced it. Don't Nod made a fantastic experience that i would recommend to anyone, gamer or not.

I agree with your assessment of TWD. This game tops it for emotional impact, although both games deal with human issues in highly fantastical settings, LIS just feels relateable in a way nohing in TWD ever did.

I played 3/4's of Remember Me, it really isn't doing the same thing as LIS but is fun to look at and hss some cool moments, definitely play on easy though! Really looking forward to Vampyr, it's an ambitious project but perhaps it could bring some of LIS into an action game?

Thank you for the write up, dude.

@mikemcn: Thanks for reading! Yeah I'm keen to see what Vampyr even is; I appreciate that Dontnod is trying different stuff and not just settling into a groove.

I'm sorry to hear about your dad :( 2 years isn't that long ago, hope all is well.

Sorry about your losses. That must be so incredibly hard, but it sounds like you've had great resiliency to contiue on!

I'm 33 male also. My first exposure to this game was GBeasts playthrough and I also watched KayPlays on youtube, as she was doing a playthrough at roughly the same time as the fellas.

Both playthroughs absolutely spun me into an emotional mess.

I finished Before the Storm 3 days ago and I'm still recovering from the emotions of it all.

Before the storm is a prequel and with that you ultimately know the fate of most of the characters. This could amplify any grief you may have from the first season so it may be wise to space out your playthroughs if you are at all feeling a little bit fragile!

@butter_rump: Thanks for thr heads up! I might just check out that KayPlays playthrough as well, cheers :)

@fram: Cool! She's super detailed explaining her choices and exploring every little detail of games. Sadly she stopped doing Lets Plays quite a while ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlyKNplHAAs&list=PLFPEDTXyQKoONjvivIxWZ2Z-w46_ZkWcV

Would be interested to know what your choices are in BtS. Hope you post an update when you finish.

My only issue with this game is the teenage dialogue feels so phony half the time. like "how do you do, fellow kids" tier.

Very solid game otherwise. I should play before the storm sometime

I really liked LiS too, though I've been lucky enough to avoid any great tragedies in my life. The part where LiS became special to me was - and I'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible - when I realized it wasn't just content with being a time travel story about hipsters. A big part of this is episode five as mentioned by the OP, but it's also some of the straight up "yo, that's dope/weird/soul crushing" moments from episodes 2, 3 and 4. A good simple example - though STILL A SPOILER everyone - is the part where you have to talk Kate down from the ledge. Yeah, it's a little corny with her relating all the "your choices matter" things you did in the game, but damn does it feel genuine, and nailing that your first try knowing you could have failed feels great.

Also, wow, I didn't expect to hear about KayPlays today. Yeah, she's great and its a damn shame she stopped LPing. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned on this very site before that her LP of Dark Souls is FANTASTIC; there is something she does in the late game using just her notes and her memory and... well, it's one of the coolest fucking things I've ever seen an LPer do.

It was a game that I REALLY couldn’t relate to, but enjoyed all the same.

I mean, I was a boarding school kid from the 90s, but that wasn’t enough to bridge the twee-gap.

Great game.

@nutter: @frostyryan: Yeah I agree on the dialogue not really being relatable. I remember it took me most of episode 1 to come to terms with it, and by episode 2 the story had its hooks in and the dialogue became more a part of the heightened reality of that world. All bloomy lighting and indie guitar and such. That helped make it work for me!

@poobumbutt: Yeah that Kate part was rough in a way that I totally didn't see coming. That whole sequence could have been so melodramatic and ham-fisted but they really nailed the tone. I also thought that event reverberated through the school/town over the following episodes in a way that felt totally genuine.

Oooohh, I never finished watching Kay Plays Dark Souls. Sounds like I have something else to go back to! Also your username is amazing.

The first couple episodes of Life is Strange definitely did not prepare for me what was to come. The last few episodes of LiS + parts of Before the Storm and the Farewell episode are some of the more emotional moments I've had gaming. There's some powerful stuff there, IMO.

I don't dispute the sometimes bad dialogue though. Only truly pulled me out a few times. It's much worse in LiS than Before the Storm I found.

edit: Also for those put off by the quick look of Before the Storm, episode 1 is the weakest episode (like LiS) and the second half of ep. 1 is better than the first. If you liked the original it's definitely worth it.

@fram: They went for a style and nailed it, for sure. No arguements here.

Loved both "Life is Strange" and "LiS: Before the Storm" for their emotional impacts. From a technical angle, these games really made me wish Telltale would ditch its proprietary engine for UE; it's so much easier to get caught up in a story when you're not having to worry how the game will ask too much of the engine, causing it to break.