Thought I’d add my review to the new game “Life Is Strange” in case people would like to read it:
Life Is Strange is an episodic interactive drama graphic adventure video game developed by Dontnod Entertainment, and published by Square Enix.
I played episode 1 on my PS4 yesterday and after finishing it, I had a few thoughts running through my mind. This review doesn’t contain spoilers about the storyline (besides the summary), but I will talk about the gameplay and how it functions.
Here is a quick summary of episode 1:
18-year-old Max Caulfield leaves her family in Seattle to study photography at Blackwell Academy in her hometown Arcadia Bay, Oregon. In a lesson, she experiences a vivid nightmare. After that, she discovers her ability to reverse time and saves her former best friend Chloe from being shot.
To make it all a little easier, I am going to write down the good- and the bad things, about this game. A pro’s and con’s list, if you may.
Pro: The general idea is interesting. It’s not practiculary a new idea, but going back in time to change the outcome is often a very fun power to have.
Con: The obvious questions with this; Is it gonna work? While it does what you might expect, that time traveling feature doesn’t do anymore than that. That is to say, you can go back maybe a minute or two, but mostly- it doesn’t really change anything, it’s just something you have to do, to get further into the game.
Pro: BUT, this is a multiply choice game, where you can choose your actions and decide what kind of person you want your character to be. Furthermore, if you quickly realize you made the wrong decision, you can go back in time and fix the “mistake”
Con: That is to say, most multiply choices, won’t actually have an affect later, it will simply change the dialogue. Furthermore, the actions that actually do have consequences often– if not always - only gives you two options. Either do x or do y. Either check that bag or don’t. This is understandable as every decision has to have a different outcome, which would leave to the developers having to make a sh*t-load of outcomes.
Pro: The story is build up nicely, the settings they place you in can be bone-chilling and the music is oodly satisfying.
Con: The graphics and not the worst I have seen from a PS4 game, but it comes close. The facial expressions are not the best, the movement seems a little off and the lip-syncing is actually… really bad. It doesn’t ruin the game in my opinion, but this game could have the potential to be such a beautiful game. Sadly, it fails.
Now, I am not a professional reviewer, so my rating don’t have any actual authority, but in my personal opinion; I will give this game 7.0 out of 10.
I did buy the season pass, to get all five seasons as they come out, because I am hoping they will improve in the con’s and hopefully, they will blow me away even more in the pro’s.
Thank you.