Sunday, March 20, 2016

Life Is Strange Episode 1 Review



Life Is Strange is an adventure game by Dontnod Entertainment and was published by Square Enix in 2015 for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC. It is similar in style to Telltale games like Game Of Thrones or Minecraft : Story Mode. Life Is Strange is made up of five episodic chapters and my review is based upon the Xbox One version.



In Life Is Strange you are Max Caulfield, a senior at Blackwell Academy who as just moved back to her hometown of Acadia Bay in Oregon. The game starts with Max daydreaming in her photography class. She sees a huge tornado heading for her town.

That's a big Wizard Of Oz tornado.


After she wakes up from the dream she makes her way to the bathroom where she sees a shooting. She then realizes that she can control time when time runs backwards to before the shooting takes place.

The way that you can control time is both simple and fun to do. Time is represented by a spiral that disappears as you rewind time. The spiral also has dots on it that represent important plot points. You rewind time until you go past the point and then let time resume which then allows you to change the major event. I like that the game allows you to rewind time as many times as you want so you experience every different way an event could go.

The game handles dialogue in the standard way, buttons choices for different things to say.

This guy is portrayed as a little creepy, I wouldn't want my daughter hanging around him.
This episode starts out feeling like a TV show geared toward teenage girls, which is fine but is not something I would want to play. As this game is about a teenage girl it makes sense but don't worry because very quickly the game gets interesting and draws you in. I know nothing at all about going into this game so it's fun seeing what happens next as the story unfolds.

The game is very nice looking. It's not going to tax your console to run it but it is nicely done. I like the way pictures look in the game and since Max is big into photography you'll be seeing a lot of them.



The music in this game sounds like dopey wuss rock. It is fitting in this game but it didn't do anything for me.



I had a few issues with Episode 1, nothing too big or game breaking though. Just like in the Telltale Games I've played Life Is Strange has some issues with character voices syncing up with lips. I don't understand why these types of games all have this problem.



The other issue is with some of the dialogue. Even with being out of high school for a few years now I know that the dialogue is lame or jive or whatever the kids say nowadays. The characters in this game say things like "pop a cap" and "hella". The game is set in October 2013 so I believe teenagers would not talk like this. They do swear in this game like truckers so don't play around any young kids.

You get lots of texts.
The game also has a commentary which is a new one to me. I haven't checked it out yet so I don't know how that works.

I agree.

I enjoyed this game a lot and am looking forward to the next episode. It took me 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete this Episode which isn't bad for these type of games. Episode 1 did have a few minor issues but they aren't enough to ruin the game. I give Life Is Strange Episode 1 an 8 out of 10.

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