Story driven titles usually rub gamers the wrong way. There was a great debate on NeoGAF about this last week, where some gamers were crowing that good stories didn’t exist in the video game field, while others protested and said that those folks hadn’t played games worthy of remembrance. It was a great debate and perfect timing for a game like Life is Strange, which is completely story driven.
The gameplay in Life is Strange is a cut above quick time events, but nothing too outside of that realm. You play as Max, a bit of a lost soul that is looking for something inspiring and great in life. She is driven by the hopes of becoming a great photographer, which works out for her, but she finds at the beginning of her life adventure that there might be more to her skills of an artist than she knows. Max’s other strange gift is that she has the ability to reverse time and undo events that might not have played in her (or her friends) favor. For example, the first part of the game has her friend Chloe confronting a rich kid named Nathan, whom brandishes a gun to help sort out a problem he and Chloe are having. As you might predict, Chloe gets shot and Max freaks out. The freak out leads to Max reversing time and stopping Chloe from getting killed.
What’s cool about the reversal of time is that Max can do it at any given point in the game, so gamers have complete say-so with what works out in particular events. It’s a cool gift for a player to have, but at the same time the game struggles to completely let go of its guidance in episode I and tends to prompt the player when to reverse time instead of trusting the player to know. It’s like the good folks at Dontnod Entertainment have given their kid (us) a car after passing the drivers test, but refuses to let the kid drive alone. They play it safe, so instead of the gamer making conscious decisions on their own, it feels like the game is holding the player’s hand a bit too long.
Is that bad? Depending on what they do next in Episode II in March, it could be fine. Episode I could be a nice long tutorial that doesn’t feel like a tutorial (would love that). I will certainly let you know when the next chapter of Max’s adventure comes out. Until then, the game should give you a bit more freedom and less prompts. After the first two or three events in the game, it needs to let the player go explore their decision-making options. Instead, the game pushes you towards reversing time and even traps you sometimes to do so. As the late Warren Oates as Sgt. Hulka in Stripes, “Lighten up, Francis!”, which is what Dontnod Entertainment should do with the hand holding. Just a bit.
The core gameplay for Life is Strange is exploration. You get several prompts when there are objects of interest around Max. She can usually look at them and give a quip about them or just move on. There are other moments where she interacts with objects to accomplish a certain goal — all just simple button pushing, but more cerebral than mindless fun. For example, there is a point in the first episode where she has to locate tools to help fix her old Polaroid-esque camera. The tools are located on top of a dryer, which she can’t reach. She has to find a way to knock them down and then retrieve them (won’t give it away, but there are multiple steps to the process). All of this is driven by simply pointing Max in the right direction and pushing a button. Order of operation and understanding the environment around you before you make the action is something gamers will have to deal with throughout the game before pushing said button. Again, it’s more cerebral than it is typical controller driven.
Like I said at the beginning of this review, this is a more story driven game, so the lack of controller interaction should be expected. Max’s adventures are interesting because of the story put together. The game gives you some foreshadowing at the beginning and end of the episode and leaves you on a cliffhanger. At the beginning of the game, Max dreams of a violent storm destroying the town she resides in. It’s a destructive force that scares the crap out of her. This is how the adventure begins and sort of how it ends (there is way more to it, so I gave nothing away). Much like Twin Peaks, the game never gives you a comfortable feeling about how the characters are going to end up, nor does it give you complete details about everything and everyone (all of that will become even more apparent during the ending of the first episode). You never know who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist, outside of Max. To make this story even more intriguing, the game actually gives you moments of choice — kind of like ‘choose your own adventure’. How you react in particular situations will dictate the outcome of others. It’s intriguing and engaging and, again, cerebral. I suspect that the choices in episode one will change the story of episode II. At least I hope that’s how it’s going to end up.
Anyway, go into the game understanding that you’re not going to get a lot of interactive moments, rather you’re in the gaming seat to make interactive decisions. You’re the storyteller in Max’s life and if you like that sort of thing, then you’re probably going to enjoy Life is Strange. It’s gameplay might be light, but the story will certainly grab you. I personally can’t wait to see where this goes.
Let’s shift some gears here.
Visually, Life is Strange tends to struggle with itself. It still has the last generation graphics attached to it with stiff hands, stiff facial movements and dead eyes, but at the same time it has a consistent, yet simple art style to it. There are some glimmers of hope with the visuals, especially in the last part of the first chapter, where the style of animation and art really starts to shine a bit, but the overall package certainly doesn’t scream current generation. Had there been a bit more of an effort to translate the visuals to PlayStation 4 standards, wow, it would have been a gorgeous game to stare at. As it stands, Life is Strange has moments of brilliance with beautiful lighting, shading and overall girth of the environment, but nothing visually stands out.
On the audio side there is a lot to crow about.
The dialogue in Life is Strange really does a great job with driving the storyline. You get a real sense of who Max is and the friends/enemies around her. The story is well written, though written for a young adult audience (it’s not Shakespeare, but it’s certainly better than most dramas of its type). Another audible treat for the senses is the soundtrack, which features Angus & Julia Stone. They lead the way with the opening and throughout the game. It’s a perfect fit for a lost soul like Max to travel with on her way to understanding her powers and what fate/destiny has in store for her.
At the end of the day, is this type of game fun and enjoyable? Again, it depends on what your expectations are with it. I think that if you fully understand what you’re getting yourself into, then yes. For me, who grew up with ‘choose your own adventure’ books and Dragon’s Lair-esque arcade games, I love the style of Life is Strange. I like the story that the game presents and where it might lead to by the end of it. I don’t like the fact that I have to wait nearly two months to play the next chapter (I’m not a huge fan of episode-driven games), but the story is good enough right now to warrant the purchase and the wait.
So, in short, I think it’s worth it because I like these sort of games. Anyway, onto the summary!
