Life Is Strange is an episodic adventure game, similar to TellTale’s game model that they popularised with The Walking Dead back in 2012. However, to set itself apart from TellTale’s work, Life Is Strange incorporates a time rewind mechanic that allows Max Caulfield, who players take the role of, to rewind time to solve puzzles to unravel the mysteries that are occurring in Max’s hometown of Arcadia Bay.
The rewind time mechanic is the big draw to the game. As Max Caulfield, the player can rewind time at the press of a button to undo actions and conversations with NPCs. Only a small amount of time can be rewound but it’s enough for the player to learn a critical piece of information from an NPC, rewind time and then use that information to affect the outcome of the conversation in a different way. Environmental puzzles will require the player to observe their environment and find way to manipulate the chain of events in a way that allows the player to progress past an obstacle. Sometimes this will require multiple rewinds to get the series of events correct but it does feel satisfying working out what needs to be manipulated to achieve Max’s goal.
The art style is another strong point for the game. It’s evident that Life Is Strange was made on a relatively small budget, given how stiff the facial animations are and the limited motion capture of the NPCs. However, the game has a brushed water colour painting effect used in lieu of high resolution textures and the effect really makes the game standout on its own. If you take the time explore the environment to get familiar with the world of Arcadia Bay, you’ll certainly get an appreciation of the art style, especially how it’s used for the letters and photographs the player will come across throughout the game.
Voice work is a noteworthy positive of the game. While the dialogue can throw out some cringe inducing lines, most likely from the writers doing their best to replicate the common vernacular of teens in the early to mid-2010s, the voice actors do a good job with the lines they are given. A special mention goes to Ashely Burch, voicing the scene stealing Chloe Price, who delivers her lines with such conviction that she manages to break beyond the cringe barrier and convince me that they’re something that Chloe would actually say.
Despite the game being, for the most part, a teen drama, the game isn’t afraid to explore dark and difficult themes that I have not seen in other games. However, I felt that some of the themes and story moment weren’t as fleshed out as I would like, most likely due to the short episodes that the story had to adhere to. It felt as if the writers had a lot of good ideas that they want to include but didn’t have the runway to fully explore them.
There are a few things that may turn off to the game to some players when getting acquainted with the game, especially with the first episode.
The game has a slow burn to it. While I personally didn’t mind the slow pace, as it allowed me to take in the world and little character details that you pick up from exploring the environment, some people may lose interest before the story kicks it up a notch.
I enjoyed using the time rewind ability throughout the game but I feel the game could have done more establish the rules with how this ability works. Max will also demonstrate time travel abilities without any foreshadowing, such as the ability to use photographs to travel to several years in the past. While this adds interesting twists and turns to the story, it feels if the writers were adding new abilities for Max when it was convenient for the story. Maybe there wasn’t enough time or budget to provide explanation to these powers, given the length of each episode is only a few hours.
I did also have a few technical problems with my latest playthrough on the Xbox 360. Aside from some lighting oddities and lip sync issues that cropped up here and there, the biggest technical issues that frequently occurred for me was vertical tearing of the image across the screen. This issue seemed to be most noticeable when Max was in the more open environments, such as outside her school.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Life Is Strange. While there are a few issues I had with the game, most likely due to the limited scope the game was built within, I believe that the positives of the game greatly outshine the problems. I wouldn’t mind seeing Life Is Strange revisiting the time rewind ability, if only to have to see it fully fleshed out. If you’ve enjoyed TellTale’s game, I would strong recommend giving Life Is Strange a go, especially as the first episode is free to playthrough.
The rewind time mechanic is the big draw to the game. As Max Caulfield, the player can rewind time at the press of a button to undo actions and conversations with NPCs. Only a small amount of time can be rewound but it’s enough for the player to learn a critical piece of information from an NPC, rewind time and then use that information to affect the outcome of the conversation in a different way. Environmental puzzles will require the player to observe their environment and find way to manipulate the chain of events in a way that allows the player to progress past an obstacle. Sometimes this will require multiple rewinds to get the series of events correct but it does feel satisfying working out what needs to be manipulated to achieve Max’s goal.
The art style is another strong point for the game. It’s evident that Life Is Strange was made on a relatively small budget, given how stiff the facial animations are and the limited motion capture of the NPCs. However, the game has a brushed water colour painting effect used in lieu of high resolution textures and the effect really makes the game standout on its own. If you take the time explore the environment to get familiar with the world of Arcadia Bay, you’ll certainly get an appreciation of the art style, especially how it’s used for the letters and photographs the player will come across throughout the game.
Voice work is a noteworthy positive of the game. While the dialogue can throw out some cringe inducing lines, most likely from the writers doing their best to replicate the common vernacular of teens in the early to mid-2010s, the voice actors do a good job with the lines they are given. A special mention goes to Ashely Burch, voicing the scene stealing Chloe Price, who delivers her lines with such conviction that she manages to break beyond the cringe barrier and convince me that they’re something that Chloe would actually say.
Despite the game being, for the most part, a teen drama, the game isn’t afraid to explore dark and difficult themes that I have not seen in other games. However, I felt that some of the themes and story moment weren’t as fleshed out as I would like, most likely due to the short episodes that the story had to adhere to. It felt as if the writers had a lot of good ideas that they want to include but didn’t have the runway to fully explore them.
There are a few things that may turn off to the game to some players when getting acquainted with the game, especially with the first episode.
The game has a slow burn to it. While I personally didn’t mind the slow pace, as it allowed me to take in the world and little character details that you pick up from exploring the environment, some people may lose interest before the story kicks it up a notch.
I enjoyed using the time rewind ability throughout the game but I feel the game could have done more establish the rules with how this ability works. Max will also demonstrate time travel abilities without any foreshadowing, such as the ability to use photographs to travel to several years in the past. While this adds interesting twists and turns to the story, it feels if the writers were adding new abilities for Max when it was convenient for the story. Maybe there wasn’t enough time or budget to provide explanation to these powers, given the length of each episode is only a few hours.
I did also have a few technical problems with my latest playthrough on the Xbox 360. Aside from some lighting oddities and lip sync issues that cropped up here and there, the biggest technical issues that frequently occurred for me was vertical tearing of the image across the screen. This issue seemed to be most noticeable when Max was in the more open environments, such as outside her school.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Life Is Strange. While there are a few issues I had with the game, most likely due to the limited scope the game was built within, I believe that the positives of the game greatly outshine the problems. I wouldn’t mind seeing Life Is Strange revisiting the time rewind ability, if only to have to see it fully fleshed out. If you’ve enjoyed TellTale’s game, I would strong recommend giving Life Is Strange a go, especially as the first episode is free to playthrough.