Recent reviews by andy

"Life is Strange" is an interactive, episodic, and adventure game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix. The release date of this game was January 29, 2015, and was distributed through platforms including the PS4, Xbox, Ps3, and the PC.

I first came in contact with this game when there was a deal on Steam advertising this game by offering the first episode as free for download. Without much thought, I downloaded the game and immediately played the first episode, titled "Episode 1: Chrysalis". In this review, I will cover my general impressions of playing the first episode and my overall experience of playing through all of the other episodes and the subsequent stories, too. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS, SO IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED THE GAME I ADVISE YOU TO STOP READING FROM THIS POINT ONWARDS.

First of all, the entire premise of the game is so captivating for me. As someone who is drawn to the conept of time travel and the interaction between the past, present, and future when a time twisting mechanism is involved, I felt this game really hit home. In this game, you step into the life of Max Caulfield, who transfers to Blackwell Academy to pursue her dreams of photography. After a strange encounter in the bathroom that results in the shooting of her best friend Chloe (whom she has not been in contact with for five years), she realizes she has the ability to rewind time (let's be real, that's pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cool). With this power, she rewinds time and saves her best friend.

This leads to the one of many authentic strenghts of this game: the immerisve and engrossing nature presented by the protagonist and the environment. To me, I believe that the creators of "Life is Strange" placed heavy emphasis on player customization in the world presented in the game. With the freedom of choice that you can wield, I felt that I could effectively use Max as a vessel to exert my own personal values and thereby create my own reality within the game, which I thought was incredibly refreshing. Often times, in the beginning, I thought: "What would Max Caulfield do in this situation?" and followed through with what Max would have done. However, as the game progressed, I found myself questioning my own personal values, my own beliefs, and my own discretion at a subconscious level. An example to prove this fact would be the one choice you have to make in one of many alternate realities -- whether you choose to euthanize your best friend, Chloe, or not. The fact that somewhere during the game it was me who was making the decisions and not Max implies the extent to which the makers of this game attempted to personalize it to each player-base level that makes it so absorbing.

Another aspect that really shines within "Life is Strange" is the authenticity and the effect of the interactive nature of the game. Having played Quantic Dream's "Heavy Rain" as well as Telltale's "Walking Dead", "Life is Strange" does a spectacular job in tapping the interactive medium that a video game can offer. Each decision you make truly does have a consequence on the happenings within the stories, and despite the intricacy of plot and character development, the producres of this game clearly did not slack off with the narrative and follow-throughing of the tale and path you choose to take. This helps accentuate the delivery of the overall storyline.

As with all stories, the conclusion of the story is the most important, regardless whether the plot belongs to a game, a novel, a movie, or a TV show. The penultimate scene featuring Max's "nightmare vision", and the final decision making choice were definitely memorable and also extremely nerve-racking. From the choices of sacrificing Chloe or Arcadia Bay, I personally chose sacrificing Arcadia Bay for my best friend, Chloe. In the statistics screen, I discovered that the split was almost 50-50, and I think this indicates how tough of a decision the scenario presented, and the extent to which the developers of the game worked to mold the friendship between Chloe and Max.

Playing the game also sparked my interest and rekindled my knowledge on things such as chaos theory, and the question of fate. Having also played "Bioshock Infinite" (PLEASE SKIP THIS SECTION IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED THIS GAME), the debate between free will and fate is always a captiviating topic. While I do want to believe that each and every action we make is a conscious doing to create our own future, the narrative of "Life is Strange" made me question whether these actions are actually just a comopsite illusion of free will. Anywho, I'd like to believe that fate, to a certain degree, can be controlled by each and every one of us.

While my experience with "Life is Strange" was certainly amazing in the least, there were (as with all games) certain areas I could see which could have improved the overall experience. Having discussed with a friend who have played this game already, we mutually agreed that the voice acting, at times, did feel a little awkward and even fake. However, much of this was compensated for by the overall storyline which we believed were the main focus of the story. In addition, as a person who played this on the PC, the gameplay did feel a little clunky at times with the interaction between the objects. While frustrating at times, I ended up getting used to it and towards the final episodes it didn't seem to matter that much.

All in all, "Life is Strange" presents to us the power of what an interactive medium can offer. If you have not played games like "Bioshock Infinite", "Heavy Rain", or the very famous "The Walking Dead", I highly recommend those as they demonstrate a similar vibe but with also magnificent stories of their own. Writing this review has certainly been a pleasure and helped me reflect some of the highlights of playing the game, and I'll hope to make more on other games in the future!