11.2.2016

I apologise in advance for the essay you are about to read but this game deserves it. Since I finished playing it over a week ago it has been on my mind every waking moment. It left an impression on me that no other game has done.So here’s a quick overview of the game for those not familiar with it. Life is Strange is a five part episodic, point and click adventure game that centres around Maxine Caulfield. She discovers she has the power to rewind time after having some horrifying visions of a disaster falling upon her home town of Arcadia Bay. After reuniting with her childhood friend, Chloe Price, the two of them team up to try and understand Max’s powers.They also investigate the disappearance of a missing girl from Max’s school while at the same time a series of freak natural occurrences are occurring around Arcadia Bay.I’d like to get through some minor gripes as not to spoil the relentless gushing that will commence soon. The biggest problem is in the presentation. While the art style of the game is great, it’s a little rough around the edges. The lip syching isn’t the best and (depending on how much you tolerate it) can be a little distracting. Oh there’s also a rather annoying section where you have to find bottles in a junkyard. It might sound simple but boy is it tedious.In Life is Strange the player is able to make decisions within the conversations and interact with the environment to alter their experience with the story. Whilst the overall plot will remain largely unchanged, your choices can directly influence how other characters interact with you. This is all typical stuff in recent games of this genre. What makes Life is Strange stand out however is the central plot device: time travel. The player is able to go back in time up to a few minutes, resetting everything to how it was. This can be used in multiple ways such as using a newly learned piece of information against someone; navigating your way through a space and to change your actions after seeing the immediate consequences.For me, the decision process was made even more difficult due to the time travel mechanic. Unlike other adventure games where you often have to make each decision within a number of seconds (which is effective in its own way), Life is Strange let’s you see the immediate consequences of each decision before you make a choice and move on. In other games you rely partially on gut instinct, here you don’t have that excuse. You have to think not just about the immediate consequences, but how that may affect your relationship with characters down the line.Speaking of characters there are a brilliant array of them throughout the story. A quick note on the supporting characters first. After the first episode you’d be forgiven for thinking all of them are two dimensional stereotypes. The bitchy popular girl, the school psycho, the paranoid step father...they all seem like lazy side characters. But as you go through the game (and especially if you explore your environments) you’ll find these characters are much more complex than they appear at first. Almost all of them are grey, rather than black and white.The character that has arguably the biggest arc is Chloe. At first she’s a bit hard to get on with. She’s a brash, rebellious teenager who could do with a bit of a kick up the arse. But as the game and story progress she is shown to be someone struggling with loss in her life. By the time you get to episodes four and five she is a changed person and in the most natural way given the experiences of the week or so the game takes place in. You grow to love her as someone who went down the wrong path but ultimately becomes a better person upon rekindling her friendship with Max.Which brings me to (what I think is) the crowing achievement of this game: Max Caulfield. She is far and away the most well realised character I’ve ever played as in a video game. When the game begins she is not looking to save the world, she just wants to get through high school life unscathed. She is not a courageous, kick ass heroine. She is a shy, introverted teenage girl. Unlike other characters of her ilk she is not romanticised or idealised. You understand why she would be shunned in a high school environment by her peers. Not because she deserves it, but because kids are cruel. While she is filled with doubt and insecurity she has a remarkable and refreshing sense of self. That is, whilst she may long to be more popular she has no intention of compromising who she is to get there. She has compassion for people around her, even those that are mean to her. But she’s also not a living saint either. If the player so chooses she can partake in more selfish actions. Not only that but her wanting to help does not always end up making things better.So Max and Chloe are brilliant characters in their own right. Together, they are one of the best duos in gaming. Whilst the game is filled with dark and supernatural plot points, the game is really about these two. This relationship between two teenage girls is represented flawlessly. They are both the best versions of themselves around each other. It is beautiful to see them reconnect and their relationship grow throughout all the madness and tragedy that unfolds.Which brings me to the key reason why this game has rocketed to my number one spot. I have never felt such guilt when I failed to help someone. I have never been so moved by watching two characters go through hell. I have never shed so many tears over what is simply a collection of pixels with some music and voice over. Quite simply, I have never played a game that had such an emotional impact on me as Life is Strange. The story deals very maturely with sensitive issues and never feels like it’s exploiting them for shock value. Seeing the relationship of Max and Chloe grow stronger and stronger and to see what they are willing to do to help one another is incredibly moving. The game actually peaks at the mundane, everyday moments. When the supernatural elements are put to the side and the focus falls on things that can happen to anyone the game really connects with you. Graphics an gameplay can age but the emotional ride this game took me on can never be spoilt.The music and direction in this game is also fantastic. There are some beautiful shots during some of the cut scenes which only heighten the emotional impact of some of the more powerful moments.There are so many highlights from this game’s story and just for fun I narrowed them down to my ten most memorable moments from my first play through. Here they are (with mild spoilers) in reverse order:10. Episode One - The opening credits.Max puts in her headphones and listens to some music as she walks down the corridor of Blackwell Academy. That’s kind of it. It may not sound exciting, but as you look around at the high school happenings going on around you and listen to Max’s thoughts it gives a perfect sense of the experience that is about to follow. It’s a wonderful introduction and sets the game up perfectly.9. Episode Three - Discovering a new power.Towards the end of episode three, Max discovers a new aspect of her power that completely opens up the possibilities of what she could do. It comes into play later in a big way. For now though, she gets a real chance to shape things the way she wants them to be.8. Episode Three - The pool scene.Light hearted, mundane scenes become almost non-existant past episode three. So it’s nice to see Max and Chloe take a little time out of their investigation to just relax and hang out in the school swimming pool. They talk about life and Chloe in particular opens up a bit more, giving you much better understanding of her character. Scenes like this are exactly why Max and Chloe are so brilliant together, their relationship captured perfectly in the writing and performances.7. Episode Five - Reminiscing.In the midst of an unrelenting mental ordeal for Max, she and the player are given the opportunity to remember everything she and Chloe have been through over the past week. It’s a beautiful and moving walk through their relationship. You see how much it has grown through the episodes and it cements Max and Chloe as the base on which the rest of the game stands on.6. Episode Four - Discovering the dark room.A word of warning during episode four. Once you reach the barn make sure to cherish all the positive memories you have received up until this point in the game. Once you discover the aply named dark room the story is one big spiral down into despair and emotional agony.5. Episode Three - The ending.Specifically the final image. It will forever be burned into my retina as the most upsetting sight in the entire game. It hits you like a train and leaves you absolutely devastated.4. Episode Five.Yes, the whole of episode five. It’s a rather different beast to the other episodes. A lot of emphasis is placed on the pre-determined narrative with not as many player choices available. Though this lacking a sense of control does actually fit with the theme of episode five. As Max continuously tries to fix everything it all descends into one giant, terrifying and unending nightmare.3. Episode Two - the climax.In one moment, several of your decisions throughout episode one and two come into play in a very dramatic way. It’s probably the best example in the game of how the player’s own decisions can influence the narrative. I won’t say the specifics except that unlike the rest of the game you have got one single chance to get things right. If you get it wrong there is no going back. I got it wrong. I felt utterly sick for doing so.2. Episode Five - The ending.I don’t want to pre-empt expectations by discussing a common problem other people have had with the ending(s). All I’ll say is there was no problem for me. The ending I saw tied in so well thematically to everything that had come before. It also left me a crying, sobbing mess. Whilst I would have liked to have seen a little more of an epilogue to see the supporting characters’ stories conclude I will still never forget the utter sadness I felt as the screen faded to black and the credits began to roll. A beautiful end to a beautiful game.1. Episode Four - The opening section.The top two moments changed places constantly while I was writing this. Whilst I cried harder at the ending, the opening section of episode four is the epitome of what Life is Strange does so well. It create characters you truly care about and then let’s you feel the hell they go through. If you grow as attached to the characters as I did then this section is beyond heart breaking. It deals with something that can happen to any family at any time and portrays it in an accurate and moving way. If you explore the environment fully it paints a devastating reality for those involved. To top it off it ends with you having to make a very upsetting decision that is difficult to shake off and will leave you utterly drained as you get back on track solving the mysteries around Arcadia Bay. A phenomenal moment in a phenomenal game that delivers on raw emotion.So there you have it, why Life is Strange is my favourite video game of all time. I’ll be replaying it soon to pick up the achievements I missed and I honestly can’t wait. I will have no urge to rush though to see what the story holds next. Instead I will take my time to soak in all the details this brilliant game offers.So whether you’re a gamer or not I implore you to experience it. This has nothing to do with skill level, reaction times or knowing the buttons. It is about experiencing the story and the wonderful characters it follows. It might not have the same effect on you as it did for me but it’s something you have to try.Life is Strange...it’s hella dope.

10.8.2017

It's my first time playing this kind of scenario and choice based story game and I must admit that it was very interesting and a great diversion from my usual (sometimes stressful) RPGs. There are a lot of branching plot lines although the main story is the same with only 2 endings, which are decided literally at the final choice of the game so you do not have to worry about game choices affecting the ending. However, based on your choices and actions (such as examining objects, talking to NPC's writing or erasing things etc), Max's relationship with as well as the fate of the other characters is affected hugely, which was what I found most fun. I found the story to be quite tragic and emotional in many ways but extremely well written,really striking the players emotion.The story itself is pretty short and very easy, taking about 10 hours to clear one run. However, you can use collectible mode to replay bits of the story and pick different choices to see different outcomes as well as take photos of things you missed. Another feature which I really liked was Max's ability to rewind time and pick different choices or redo actions if you make a mistake which I feel makes this game highly accessible to anyone, as in most visual novel/ adventure games you would have to restart from a previous save or do another playthrough if you wanted to see a different outcome. I did feel guilty at times for choosing the mean options, but with Max's rewind powers you can effectively change your choice and listen to all the responses.The story itself is based in an American high school and seemed quite realistic (I can't really judge as I live in the UK). The characters are well designed and developed, the voice acting is excellent and the game is great for people who aren't into battles and fighting like in most other games. The visuals were alright, not as good as other PS4 games which look extremely real, but the quality is still high. There is the option to enlarge to text for short sighted people like me, and Max keeps a diary so you can read bits of the story along the way to refresh on what happened.The trophies are super easy, I would rate the difficulty a 1/10. All of them are just for taking pictures, so no skill or grinding required and no missable trophies with collectable mode where you can replay parts of the story. There are 3 save slots as well.A word of caution: There is a good deal of swearing, not excessive but if you can't stand bad language, then you would be in for a treat with this game hence the age rating.I have deducted one star for the save function which I found really annoying. It is auto save only, but you can only resume the game at specific or significant story points like moving to a new area or chapter. If you stop the game in the middle, you have to redo that bit despite the auto save icon popping up which I found odd.Overall, evocative story, short and simple gameplay, well developed characters, interesting dialogue and easy trophies.

6.4.2018

Life is Strange puts you in to the shoes of Max(ine) Caulfield, an awkward and geeky photography student at the prestigious Blackwell Academy, where future photographers are born. So far, so normal. It feels like an indie movie, even, but it soon transpires that Max actually has time travelling abilities and the story only throws more surprises at you from there.The good news is that the story itself is well done, which is just as well since Life is Strange is so plot heavy. The game has good writing, the plot points do a great job of engrossing you in the story and the twists and turns are superb, with most episode endings standing out the most and completely blowing me away.

25.12.2019

This game came in perfect condition, quick delivery with prime and I have found no issues since playing it all the way through.A couple of years ago I bought this game through steam for my PC and absolutely fell in love with the breathtaking graphics, multi layered story and fantastic sound track which makes this game an absolute delight to play.I'm not normally someone who agrees with age limits on game (swearing, shooting etc) but after reading some reviews that 12 and 13 year olds were playing this game, I am not surprised the review is often negative. This game is rated 16 for a reason.This game is absolutely breathtaking but with subjects such as suicide, mental health problems, kidnapping,

22.1.2016

I love this game!I pre-ordered, got it today (day of release) and already, I'm someway through episode two.I have found myself feeling and becoming attached to a few of the characters, which makes my role as the gamer so much more immersive. The choices you make through Max force you to think on what could be. What it is you would truly do.My only negative would be that I felt episode one was over way too quickly. Perhaps episodes increase with length. I don't know (yet). But whatever. Buy. Buy it like you mean it.UPDATE:It's the day after release and I've completed this fantastic game. I would love for there to be much more and that remains my only gripe; but besides that - this game has stolen me from life for several hours over these past two days.

4.2.2017

The limited Edition contents are a great add on and what I expected. Although in photos I at first thought the book would be Max's diary, though I am happy with getting the very nicely designed art book. The soundtrack is beautiful and is great to play on a lonely summer day. I am deeply interested in the directors commentary as it will give me so much insight into the making of the game and the minds of the developers.As for the game itself, I fell in love with the incredibly relatable characters and situations. The emotional moments and issues hit close to home and truly made me care for and feel for the characters. In particular I grew very attached to Chloe Price as she reminded me of someone I know close in real life.

28.4.2017

I was almost put off by a couple of negative reviews for this game, but then I saw that you can get episode one for free on PSN, so I gave it a try and ended up buying the full game shortly afterwards.This is such a different style and pace of game that it was in itself refreshing compared to the over-saturated sandbox FPS genre. It's hard to talk about the story without spoiling the game, so I won't. I'll just say that the story will be the focus of the game; not the gameplay or the graphics, so if that doesn't appeal to you, then you have been warned.The only gripe I had with the game was because of it being choice-based, meaning that there was some trial and error involved,

11.10.2016

Really nice game.The art style is wonderful. The setting and characters are really well done.You are an 18 year old girl called Max Caulfield. Aspiring to become a world renouned Photographer you find yourself at a prestigious school for the Arts.Max moved away when she was younger, leaving her town, school and friends behind. This is the story of how Max returns to her home town and has to pick up where she left off. Not an easy task at the best of times but when visions of your town being destroyed by a supernatural tornado and time manipulating powers make themselves known it makes it even harder.If anyone has seen The Butterfly Effect, this is very similar to that.

16.8.2018

The disk contains all 5 episodes of season 1, plus a bonus director's commentary.Set in an elite academy, which hides a darker side, you play Max, a girl who discovers she has the power to manipulate time. The core of the story is about her using her power to uncover clues regarding the disappearance of fellow student Rachel Amber, but the game offers many great subplots along the way. I felt it was clear the writers were influenced a lot by shows such as the Twilight Zone and Twin Peaks.What keeps you enthralled with this game is that the writing is so well done that you easily buy into the game world. The character development in particular gives you a real connection with the two main characters Max and Chloe.

12.6.2019

I'm a fan of role-playing type games; immersive storylines and compelling characters are important to me. Based on reviews I tried Life Is Strange and I wasn't disappointed. Got me really emotionally invested and super addictive. Game play was challenging enough to not be boring but not so difficult that I had to be super-on-the-ball which to be honest I cant be doing with when I want to be playing this game after work or to relax! Shame it wasn't longer or sequels available!! I would perhaps prefer more realistic animation but that is really nit-picking and overall the game was visually pleasing with some gorgeous accompanying music.Note that there were some adult themes so I'm not sure I'd want my 10yr old niece playing,

24.4.2016

The game life is strange is great game and a true emotional rolercoster with plenty of twists and turns along the way and is by far one of the best games that I have played all year and would highly recomend the game to anyone intrested in a good episodic gameSimilar to a tell tales game you take control of the protagonist and produce a story that changes depending on the actions that you take as "for every action there is a reaction"Although the the game is a slower pased than a tell tale game it still leaves you double guessing yourself as to did I make the correct decision and the thought is this going to come back to haunt you with a great game and a powerful story the developers at dontnod

16.2.2019

It's difficult to think of a way to convincingly recommend Life is Strange without including a multitude of caveats. It's an interactive drama, but the story isn't always well-written and the dialogue is frequently clumsy. It strikes at an audience other games rarely consider, but there's a lot of half-baked teen angst going on. It has a gorgeous, unique art style, but the graphics are nothing special. Some episodes are fantastic - others are not. But, for every reason I think someone might not get along with Life is Strange - it features piss-poor lip synching and its gameplay and story are sometimes straight-up not talking to one another - I still have to recommend it,

9.6.2017

Well it's a drawn game very similar style to Tales From The Borderlands but it's a very dark. It deals with some akward topics such as drug addiction, bullying, depression, suicide, murder, rape, religious abuse and mental illness. Your character herself eventually goes through really rough phases first hand so I'd say it's a phycological horror. It's not gory or scary but horific in the topics/situations that it deals with and shows how your decisions throughout the game created these scenarios. It's got a very Silent Hill feel to it so for me I absolutely loved the dark design and imagery. I would have happily paid the full price of a new game £40 for this so to get it free on PlayStation

18.4.2017

I bought this for my teenage daughter and she loved it. This is one of the first more 'grown up' games she has played and enjoyed being able to make choices within the game and to rewind time. She became attached to the characters and became quite emotional at times however that is all credit to the story line and the characters. She did have to really think about some of the choices she had to make due to how it would affect the characters/plot.She has only recently finished playing the game but said that she wants to play it again soon and to make different decisions to see how it will affect the story. She even wants me to play it.

26.4.2017

Picked this up on a whim after reading one recommendation. Good god what an absolutely crushing cinematic game! I don't remember the last time I felt so destroyed by a game, throughout the whole game so many event are pretty soul destroying. It's not without it's flaws: the dialogue is at times painfully cringeworthy, it can be a bit glitchy and the rewind mechanic can get a bit over the top (when you're rewinding for the fifth time to remember everything that happens in the future you sort of want to just get passed it and back to the story) but the story is excellent, it's presented brilliantly,

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