The Therapist Gamer

Life Is Strange follows the general mould of The Walking Dead series and tells a player-driven story across five episodes.  You play as Max, a high school senior who has decided to return to her hometown to attend an art school.  Early in the game she discovers that she has somehow acquired the ability to rewind time, but only for a few minutes.  This gameplay mechanic introduces an interesting twist on the "your decisions matter" genre by allowing you to see the outcomes of each available choice.  Well, the short-term outcomes, anyway . . .

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How it works is that at any time you can rewind the last few minutes.  If a major choice comes up then you can make a choice and see how things turn out, and then rewind to try out another choice.  One concern I had before playing the game was that the impact of choice is taken away with such a system, but this wasn't really the case.  In fact, I'd argue that one of the themes of the game is learning to accept the choices you make, and realizing that much of the world is outside of your control.  Before playing I was also concerned that a lot of my time would be spent re-watching parts I'd just re-winded, but the controls are such that you don't spend much time re-watching things you've already seen. 

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Since this 10-hour game is broken into five pieces, the story beats are more frequent than in a lot of games.  I think if a person buys just one episode then they don't want to play something where not much happens.  The developers realize this and each two-hour episode has a lot going on.  They also introduce new gameplay mechanics and things always feel pretty fresh.  It's hard to discuss the game without spoiling things, but suffice it to say that the developers clearly took a considered and thoughtful approach to the story and gameplay mechanics.

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Since the game is so story-heavy I think it's appropriate to share some context: Max lives in a dorm in her hometown, but her parents live in another city - the family moved away five years prior.  Max's childhood friend, Chloe, went through the death of her father and Max's move at around the same time and didn't cope with it very well.  Part of the story involves how Max and Chloe can remain friends despite their differences - and it's a moving part of the story - but Life Is Strange is actually more of a mystery.  Chloe's friend, Rachel, has been missing and feared kidnapped, dead, or both.  Max and Chloe spend the majority of the game trying to solve the mystery. 

 

There are a lot of fun ways that Max's super powers come into play in the context of solving a mystery.  For example, you can talk to a police officer, get information, and then rewind time so they don't even realize that you've ever talked.  If you then share the information with the officer they'll assume you're "in the know" and share a bit more.  You can also learn information about people - from them - and then rewind time to impress them with your knowledge.  Part of the rewind mechanic is that Max stays where she is during the rewind.  What this means is that you can use something as over-the-top as an explosive to get into a locked room, enter the room, and then rewind time once you're inside!  Easy-peasy!

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The game is not without it's faults.  I'm thinking of a part of the game where (minor spoilers) a character was threatening to kill herself and Max is trying to talk her down.  It seemed like the game REALLY wanted there to be a certain outcome to this scene and to make it happen the character responded in ways that were much less realistic than throughout the rest of the game.  Even though I had helped out this girl in numerous ways - and she calmed down considerably as I reminded her of how I'd helped her - my forgetting that she had no brothers suddenly drove her to the very brink of suicide.  It was pretty frustrating, especially when contrasted with how realistically the characters respond in other parts of the game.

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One other relatively minor issue is the cringey way the teenagers speak.  I haven't been a teenager for a long time, but this game feels a little bit "How do you do, fellow kids!"  It's like a bunch of middle-aged guys in a board room had meeting that involved the phrase "So, what are the kids saying these days?"  Some dialogue felt a bit forced, but there were also times when the game seemed self aware so I give it a pass.

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Even with it's faults I highly recommend Life Is Strange.  It's a bit dorky but overall it's an engaging mystery with some genuinely moving story beats.