Episodic, interactive, graphic adventure video game indie movie
The word 'indie' gets thrown around a lot nowadays, as indie games have found the kind of success through digital distribution they could never have imagined before when physical releases were pretty much the only way to find real success. However, Life is Strange is perhaps the first game that really feels like one of those stereotypical indie movies with an unknown cast, soundtrack filled with non-mainstream bands with melancholic music and set in smaller towns with a more personal slice of life type story than something bombastic & epic.
All that said, the story starts out with a bang. The main character is Maxine Caulfield, a somewhat self-conscious teenager who has just returned to her hometown recently to study photography and you are near what seems like a destructive tornado approaching her old new hometown Arcadia Bay, until she suddenly wakes up. Just a dream or a vision of what's to come? That is a bit unclear as Max wakes up from the dream in the middle of a lesson. Startled by the vivid dream, she decides to go to the bathroom after class to freshen up. In the bathroom, she witnesses an argument between a boy and a girl that leads to the boy shooting the girl. Freaked out by what she just saw, she suddenly notices she's in the middle of the lesson that she thought had already ended. It seems Max has somehow gained the power to move through time.
What follows is the slow-building first episode of a five-episode indie drama. The first episode's 3-4 hours are mostly spend with introducing the people of the town and setting up the main mysteries of the story; mainly, what was that tornado all about, Max starting to experiment with her new-found powers and starting to unravel all the behind the scenes shenanigans that are going on in this small town, some of which might have something to do with the disappearance of this Rachel girl whose Missing-posters are all over campus.
The writing in this first episode is a bit uneven. Most of the time it's serviceable enough that it shouldn't take the player out of the experience and they succeed decently well at giving characters distinct personalities that feel natural, but there are some jarring lines of dialogue here & there. Luckily even though they don't always quite talk like actual real-life people, the characters still mostly feel like actual human beings with a past that has shaped their personalities & lives and the game sets up potential storylines for most of them that seem like they are worth seeing till the end There's some not-so-sunny things going on with many characters and we'll undoubtedly get to uncover a lot of secrets many of these characters have, which will hopefully make up for some good drama.
Welcome to Arcadia Bay
So what do you actually do in Life is Strange? Well, it's a story-driven game, but with quite a lot of exploration and optional discussions. One thing that sets Life is Strange apart from Telltale's games in a positive manner is that it does feel a bit more like a traditional graphical adventure game and less like just an interactive movie. You are more in control of your character & her actions and there are even some puzzles to solve. Exploration is rewarded with all kinds of objects & things Max will comment on, easter eggs about Square Enix games and meeting more people that will shed light on the dynamics & going-ons of the small town. There's also a side quest of finding certain events, moments & things to photograph. A lot of Life is Strange is about the interaction between Max and Arcadia Bay's inhabitants. Getting to know people, finding ways to get more information about certain things and figuring out what you should do in surprising situations. The game does also have some hidden things you can find to do that could affect future events and which you can only find by thorough investigation of the different locations.
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| There's plenty to interact with in the game, most of it not in any way integral to the story |
Max's time-rewind skill comes into play a lot during the game. The time-rewind skill is handy in that you can remember conversations you have even if you rewind time. For example, if you don't remember someone's name immediately and they complain about it to you, you can just rewind time and use your newly gotten information to get a better reaction. Items are carried through time, which is mostly used in puzzle-solving. You can also alter your decisions based on the immediate reactions of other people to your actions, though what long-term effects they'll have aren't clear, so most of the time you are still forced to live with your choices not knowing what kind of ramifications it might have in the future. Is the goodwill of a bullied girl better in the long term when you angered the security guard to get that goodwill? There are some fairly strickt limits as to how much you can rewind. Most of the time you can only rewind until the beginning of the discussion and there are some bigger decisions that are locked in after certain checkpoints the game will notify about in a "after this point this decision made cannot be changed anymore, do you really want to continue?" manner.
Tunes of a small town
Life is Strange isn't the most technically impressive game, but it's adequate enough to carry the experience and to not affect the experience too negatively. The art style is the kind that it looks good even though the budget isn't on AAA level and everything runs perfectly fine on at least PS4. It has some areas that could use some improving, like lip synching, but otherwise the art style comes together with the small-town feel & soundtrack to successfully create the perfect kind of atmosphere for this kind of indie movie imitating game. At best it feels like Twin's Peak, even if the writing isn't up to par. Speaking of the soundtrack, it's quite good. It's exactly the kind of indie folk music that can create that kind of melancholic sense of nostalgia of small town life that fits the vibe Life is Strange is going for. The soundtrack is the perfect companion to the whole Life is Strange experience.
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| The game does have its pretty moments despite budget restrictions |
Verdict: INTRIQUING. This first episode won't blow up anyone's mind, but it is a strong enough start for this episodic small town drama that you'll most likely be left wanting to see more, especially if moody, melancholic low-key indie dramas are your thing. Unlike Telltale's games and despite the dramatic beginning with tornadoes & school shootings, Life is Strange so far is less about who lives and who dies or making constant life or death decisions and more about a somewhat slow-building drama about life in a small town hit by a tragedy in the not so distant past with many people who have something to hide. You aren't fighting against impossible odds against a zombie apocalypse and you aren't fighting to stop the downfall of the whole Fables society as much as you are seeing Max slowly getting used to living in her old hometown again, growing a bit more confident as an independent young adult person and gathering knowledge of the town, its inhabitants and all the campus & small town drama and politics/intrique as they have become since she first moved out of there. Based on the first episode, this seems like something that could grow to be quite special if they can just keep the awkward dialogue to a minimum and build on the promising premise adequately and end it up with a suitably climactic & intriquing, yet personal finale. Even if you aren't ready to jump in just yet, this is one episodic game to keep your eyes on.
INFO BOX
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer(s): Dontnod Entertainment
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Playstation 4 (tested), Xbox 360, Xbox One
Release
Date (Europe): January 30th, 2015
Number of players: 1
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