Alright to start, I’m not really one for choice-driven games. I think they’re fine but the game’d have to be mostly carried by the story, characters etc, I just prefer other types of games a lot more. It’s also set in the 2010s, a time period that I hate. Sure the innovation and whatnot was great, but my god the actual humor and people in that time period were abysmal. I’ve always hated it. So I was thinking, the core audience for this game seemed to be either millennials, teenage girls or both, of which I’m obviously neither. That’s at least what I interpreted from what I’ve heard over the years online, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but with that in mind I was already thinking beforehand; “this game’s probably not gonna be for me” and I was completely right. One thing that’s more of a personal complaint is how mental illness is treated. There is one character in particular; Kate, I fucking hate her. Kate is basically your super depressed suicidal “friend” in the game who mostly only emotionally manipulates you. The theme of mental illness is just so on the fucking nose that it pains me. A lot of games try to handle shit like this, and a lot of games (including this one) fumble completely. It feels bad to compare this mediocrity to a masterpiece like Silent Hill 2 but I got to. That game knows what it’s doing, it knows how to handle this stuff properly, even some heavier stuff than the shit here in Life is Strange. If anything it’s just subtlety that’s really needed, and this has none. If a character is depressed, the game shouts at you telling you they’re depressed instead of showing you that they are. Basically the phrase “show don’t tell”, which this game certainly doesn’t. And yeah I know that how people deal with their depression varies, but speaking from my own experiences this just feels so stupid and over the top. So yeah, just a personal complaint.

Something that I’ve seen most people like about this game are the characters, specifically Chloe. But I gotta say… I fucking hate these characters. Honestly, I don’t even like Max and I absolutely hate Chloe (she was only okay when she was crippled), Warren, Jefferson (more than you’re supposed to), Victoria (also more), Nathan (again even more) and Kate (I just fucking hate these people). The one positive I can give to them is that Max was probably intentionally as bland as she is to make people relate to her, and make her their “literally me” character, but I also wish she had something to make her stand out as the protagonist. Some people think like this with Chloe as well, I do not understand those people at all, she is literally the worst character in the entire game in my opinion. But all of this isn’t really based on their designs or voice acting (for the most part), it comes down to the writing. I dislike a lot of aspects of this game, but I HATE the writing. It is just so god awful honestly, every character interaction is so annoying and awkward to sit through. And it’s not purposeful David Lynch awkward, it’s just normal awkwardness alongside stale characters that I can barely stand, let alone a whole game with it. Every dialogue makes me want to turn off the game and just sit in silence, which I kinda did by pausing in scenes with shit dialogue cuz I couldn’t stand it. It has, for lack of a better term, “millennial writing”. It feels like it’s written by 35+ year olds who think this is how teens in the 2010s sounded like, also throwing in some pop culture references just like every annoying millennial. Some people love this and feel nostalgia for it, I feel kinda nostalgic for it as well and I fucking hate that. I hated it then and I hate it even more now. Every bit of humor is so unfunny, every pop culture reference is annoying to listen to, every 2010s phrase is so shit and there was no one who actually talked like that, it’s more just “look how relatable we are youngsters!” it’s all so fucking annoying to listen to.

For what it’s worth though, I at least want to mention how good the soundtrack is. It doesn’t matter if a game is bad, mediocre or good, the soundtrack can always vary in quality no matter what game it is. So even if I personally think this game is mediocre, I gotta give credit where it’s due, and say that this soundtrack is pretty good. It obviously has its meh tracks but overall it’s decent, with some great stand-outs here and there. Something else I want to mention in a somewhat positive light is the art style, it’s fine. The graphics can sometimes look pretty bad but at certain times the art style peaks and looks pretty good. Another thing is the time travel mechanic. I don’t really care for it, it’s just okay in my opinion, but talking to someone and then going back in time to talk to them again with that new information can be kinda cool (even though it barely happens). Although with it there’s no stake in your decisions, which sucks. These types of games give you crucial decisions over and over where you gotta adapt to the choice you made whether it benefited you or not, here though you can just go back in time and change it, immediately making the actual decision making feel less important.

Also the story could’ve definitely benefited from having less shit in it. Maybe take out the serial killer plot or something and make it a coming of age story, I don’t know it just feels too much. Then we get to my third least favorite thing, the entirety of Episode 5. Jefferson is probably my least favorite antagonist of all time. I thought he was meh in the beginning, he had the “millennial writing” but everyone else did as well so he was just meh, in Episode 5 though he turned into the worst written character ever. Everything after your time travel shenanigan that gets Jefferson arrested made the story so unreasonably and unnecessarily convoluted that my brain kinda just turned off for the rest of the game. The time breakdown after David rescues you is just so mediocre, there’s nothing cool, fun or even unique going on. I also want to clown on one final thing that bothered the hell out of me. For this choice-driven game there are two endings. “Okay okay that’s fine I guess”, no it isn’t. Not because two endings is a bad thing but because how you get these two endings in this choice-driven game where all your choices (should) matter isn’t through your decisions beforehand, it’s from two choices at the end. What the fuck. These two choices as well suck absolutely ass, either sacrifice the shit character Chloe or sacrifice the entire town. Hmm, whatever shall I choose? All the choices you’ve made up to this point just don’t fucking matter in this choice-driven game. I thought people learned how to do these games after Telltale but apparently not. This ending sucked ass.

To conclude this review, as much as I’d like to at least like this game because of how much it means to some people, I can’t. I do not like this game and I never will. I don’t like the characters, mechanics, writing, plot-twists, graphics at times, and ending. There are aspects that I like that I haven’t mentioned still, but that alone cannot carry this game for me because there’s too much that I hate over that. If you like this game and it changed your life, sure you do you, I just can’t agree with you. I’m sorry but this was just so disappointing personally. I’ll still try Before the Storm, 2, True Colors, and Double Exposure cuz I’m a masochist or something, but yeah.

3.5/10

Alright to start, I’m not really one for choice-driven games. I think they’re fine but the game’d have to be mostly carried by the story, characters etc, I just prefer other types of games a lot more. It’s also set in the 2010s, a time period that I hate. Sure the innovation and whatnot was great, but my god the actual humor and people in that time period were abysmal. I’ve always hated it. So I was thinking, the core audience for this game seemed to be either millennials, teenage girls or both, of which I’m obviously neither. That’s at least what I interpreted from what I’ve heard over the years online, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but with that in mind I was already thinking beforehand; “this game’s probably not gonna be for me” and I was completely right. One thing that’s more of a personal complaint is how mental illness is treated. There is one character in particular; Kate, I fucking hate her. Kate is basically your super depressed suicidal “friend” in the game who mostly only emotionally manipulates you. The theme of mental illness is just so on the fucking nose that it pains me. A lot of games try to handle shit like this, and a lot of games (including this one) fumble completely. It feels bad to compare this mediocrity to a masterpiece like Silent Hill 2 but I got to. That game knows what it’s doing, it knows how to handle this stuff properly, even some heavier stuff than the shit here in Life is Strange. If anything it’s just subtlety that’s really needed, and this has none. If a character is depressed, the game shouts at you telling you they’re depressed instead of showing you that they are. Basically the phrase “show don’t tell”, which this game certainly doesn’t. And yeah I know that how people deal with their depression varies, but speaking from my own experiences this just feels so stupid and over the top. So yeah, just a personal complaint.

Something that I’ve seen most people like about this game are the characters, specifically Chloe. But I gotta say… I fucking hate these characters. Honestly, I don’t even like Max and I absolutely hate Chloe (she was only okay when she was crippled), Warren, Jefferson (more than you’re supposed to), Victoria (also more), Nathan (again even more) and Kate (I just fucking hate these people). The one positive I can give to them is that Max was probably intentionally as bland as she is to make people relate to her, and make her their “literally me” character, but I also wish she had something to make her stand out as the protagonist. Some people think like this with Chloe as well, I do not understand those people at all, she is literally the worst character in the entire game in my opinion. But all of this isn’t really based on their designs or voice acting (for the most part), it comes down to the writing. I dislike a lot of aspects of this game, but I HATE the writing. It is just so god awful honestly, every character interaction is so annoying and awkward to sit through. And it’s not purposeful David Lynch awkward, it’s just normal awkwardness alongside stale characters that I can barely stand, let alone a whole game with it. Every dialogue makes me want to turn off the game and just sit in silence, which I kinda did by pausing in scenes with shit dialogue cuz I couldn’t stand it. It has, for lack of a better term, “millennial writing”. It feels like it’s written by 35+ year olds who think this is how teens in the 2010s sounded like, also throwing in some pop culture references just like every annoying millennial. Some people love this and feel nostalgia for it, I feel kinda nostalgic for it as well and I fucking hate that. I hated it then and I hate it even more now. Every bit of humor is so unfunny, every pop culture reference is annoying to listen to, every 2010s phrase is so shit and there was no one who actually talked like that, it’s more just “look how relatable we are youngsters!” it’s all so fucking annoying to listen to.

For what it’s worth though, I at least want to mention how good the soundtrack is. It doesn’t matter if a game is bad, mediocre or good, the soundtrack can always vary in quality no matter what game it is. So even if I personally think this game is mediocre, I gotta give credit where it’s due, and say that this soundtrack is pretty good. It obviously has its meh tracks but overall it’s decent, with some great stand-outs here and there. Something else I want to mention in a somewhat positive light is the art style, it’s fine. The graphics can sometimes look pretty bad but at certain times the art style peaks and looks pretty good. Another thing is the time travel mechanic. I don’t really care for it, it’s just okay in my opinion, but talking to someone and then going back in time to talk to them again with that new information can be kinda cool (even though it barely happens). Although with it there’s no stake in your decisions, which sucks. These types of games give you crucial decisions over and over where you gotta adapt to the choice you made whether it benefited you or not, here though you can just go back in time and change it, immediately making the actual decision making feel less important.

Also the story could’ve definitely benefited from having less shit in it. Maybe take out the serial killer plot or something and make it a coming of age story, I don’t know it just feels too much. Then we get to my third least favorite thing, the entirety of Episode 5. Jefferson is probably my least favorite antagonist of all time. I thought he was meh in the beginning, he had the “millennial writing” but everyone else did as well so he was just meh, in Episode 5 though he turned into the worst written character ever. Everything after your time travel shenanigan that gets Jefferson arrested made the story so unreasonably and unnecessarily convoluted that my brain kinda just turned off for the rest of the game. The time breakdown after David rescues you is just so mediocre, there’s nothing cool, fun or even unique going on. I also want to clown on one final thing that bothered the hell out of me. For this choice-driven game there are two endings. “Okay okay that’s fine I guess”, no it isn’t. Not because two endings is a bad thing but because how you get these two endings in this choice-driven game where all your choices (should) matter isn’t through your decisions beforehand, it’s from two choices at the end. What the fuck. These two choices as well suck absolutely ass, either sacrifice the shit character Chloe or sacrifice the entire town. Hmm, whatever shall I choose? All the choices you’ve made up to this point just don’t fucking matter in this choice-driven game. I thought people learned how to do these games after Telltale but apparently not. This ending sucked ass.

To conclude this review, as much as I’d like to at least like this game because of how much it means to some people, I can’t. I do not like this game and I never will. I don’t like the characters, mechanics, writing, plot-twists, graphics at times, and ending. There are aspects that I like that I haven’t mentioned still, but that alone cannot carry this game for me because there’s too much that I hate over that. If you like this game and it changed your life, sure you do you, I just can’t agree with you. I’m sorry but this was just so disappointing personally. I’ll still try Before the Storm, 2, True Colors, and Double Exposure cuz I’m a masochist or something, but yeah.

3.5/10