'Life is Strange' Game Review

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What would you do if you had the superpower to reverse time just for a few minutes? After a cup a coffee spilt on your project you’ve been working on for 2 months, simply reverse. Get caught cheating on a test, reverse (Although it would be best to study!). Like Hermione in the HP series using her necklace to reverse time and get to more classes, the game ‘Life is Strange’ is about a girl named Maxine Caulfield who discovers her new ability to rewind time. She uses her new power to unravel the mysteries going on in Blackwell Academy with her old friend Chloe.

The game was developed by Dontnod using Unreal Engine 3 and published by Square Enix with the release of the first episode on January 30th 2015. Post release the game was a huge success receiving positive feedback and was further popularized by Pewdiepie on Youtube receiving 7 million views. Since then ‘Life is Strange’ has won many awards and out of the many, one was from the Develop Awards 2015 for use of narrative. So if you enjoy story based games you’re in for a treat. Mind you that the game is 16+ because of unpleasant language and violence.

In this game your choices and actions have their consequences either big or small. This is where your ability comes in handy as you can always redo when needed. And being the confused teenage girl you are you’ll be using it frequently. There are many puzzles to be solved via rewind time and other than slacking off with Chloe yours skills will be used for the greater good.

Without trying to spoiler too much, the game begins as Max awakes in a storm. She heads to the lighthouse for safety until she spots the massive tornado that is about to storm through Arcadia Bay. Not long after she awakes from her nightmare and notices she is in class. The bell rings and Max heads to the bathroom only to encounter another student Nathan as he stumbles in. Nathan being mentally unstable shots Chloe in the stomach when she confronts him. Max lifts her hand in retaliation and in doing so turns back time to save Chloe. Max gathers the courage to tell Chloe about her power and proves it by telling her near future events. It turns out the tornado is a reoccurring event that happened before in the past and is foreseen by Max to arrive next week. Together with Chloe they try to prevent the end of the world. Life is truly strange.

This game succeeds in capturing the atmosphere of the average American High school. I even got a bit of nostalgia as Max walked through the corridors. The first episode was released in January with the next episodes being released 2 months apart totaling to 5 episodes. What lures the many players to buy each episode is the amazing storyline. And after last week’s chapter 4 I don’t think anything can compare to it. The plot twist threw many people off including me, even though it was very well foreshadowed. Second to the storyline is the scenery and ambience. The soothing music and sun shafts passing through the windshields of the truck, it’s the minor things that shape the game. The unreal engine 3 never fails to appease. We are well beyond the uncanny valley and good graphics puts a solid foundation to accompany the gameplay.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/319630/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_Strange