Review: Life is Strange (2015)
'With great power comes great bullshit.'
★★★★
Time travel is a superpower we all want, or wanted at one point in our lives. We've all had our embarassing moments and hoped to go back in time to change it. We've also wished to go back in time to tell our younger selves what to do, and what not to do. Can we blame ourselves though? I don't see a reason to do so. Time travel is a cool superpower. "Back to the Future" and Superman: The Movie probably sparked more interest in the power.
Many movies have incorporated the "time travel" superpower, but what about video games? Well, I think one of the best games that focus on time travel is none other than "Life is Strange," developed by DONTNOD Entertainment and published by Square-Enix. Which may to be one of the best games I've ever played. You may be thinking, "really? This game?" Yes, I've played other great games, but I was pleasantly surprised with this one. I've never heard of the game upon release, it wasn't until, I believe in 2019, when someone recommended it to me. I was curious, and got the first episode, because Steam offers it for free. And the rest is history.
The game is set in the fictional town of Arcadia Bay, in Oregon, where we play as Maxine "Max" Caulfield (Hannah Telle), a shy 18-year-old student who returned to her hometown to study at Blackwell Academy. A private academy that is both a high school and a college. But it's confirmed to be a boarding school. Max is shy, quiet, and a bit awkward around her peers. She does have a few friends, but like others, she gets bullied. One day in class, she has a dream, more like a nightmare, where she was near a lighthouse, in the middle of a storm, that's going to destory the town. When class ends, she goes to the bathroom after embaressing herself infront of her classmates and Mr. Mark Jefferson (Derek Phillips). In the bathroom, Max overhears an arugment between a boy and a girl. The boy pulls out a gun and shoots the girl, Max then wakes up in class. It turns out, she can travel back in time. Max saves the girl, which turns out to be her best friend growing up, Chloe Price (Ashly Burch) and the boy who had the gun is named Nathan Prescott (Nik Shriner). The game has Max and Chloe reconnect and figure out who is behind the Vortex Club and the disappearance of Chloe's friend, Rachael Amber.
What makes this game special are the story and the choices. It keeps the player engaged. After each choice, the game will tell you, “This action will have consequences…” regardless if they're good or bad. It's game's way of telling you that any choice you make, will have an outcome. The characters also are memorable. All of which play a role in the story. They aren't random NPCs that take up so many assets of your computer, they serve the story. Other games just cram in many NPCs that can easily get out of hand and I still don't understand why developers even bother putting them in. And the other thing people talk about is the ending. It follows the "sacrifice all to save one or sacrifice one to save all" formula, otherwise known as "the trolley problem." Do you sacrifice Chloe to save the town, or do you sacrifice the town to save Chloe? It's a hard choice, and it was a smart move on the DONTNOD to include that.
What bothers me about this game, isn't the the game, but the fans. There are too many fan girls who ship Chloe and Max and get mad at anyone who ship Max and Warren (Carlos Luna). What's wrong with the guy? He was the only one willing to listen to Max when she wanted to tell him about his powers. Not only cause he was a nerd, but he was someone Max could trust. Sure, he did get the silent rejection, but only cause it wasn't the right time. I find this similar to people hating on Carth Onasi from "KOTOR 1." But are disliked by fans, who consider them to be "annoying." I feel like these people don't really give others a chance in life before drawing conclusions. Other than that, why do you guys have to hate on my guy, Warren? He's one of my favorites, plus, who could forget when he beat the crap out of Nathan? Talk about a nerd becoming a chad.
Overall, this is a wonderful game, with it's great plot, great characters, its variety of choices, and morals. This game is known for its many choices and opportunities. In my review of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I said that games like that need to be played twice. The first playthrough is to understand the story and the second is to see the different choices and opportunities. Which I would recommended for this game. In my case, i've played this about 5 times. It's just that damn good.