I bought this game because it got good reviews and Steam was selling it for 5 bucks. That being said, I don't see myself finishing episodes 2-5. I had to force myself to finish episode 1. Nothing in this game is interesting. Everyone talks like they're on heavy doses of Prozac. If I found out I could reverse the flow of time, my response would not be, "Whoa what was that?" I would leap from my desk and fill the next two hours with obscenities. I would immediately run to a bank and try to reenact Groundhog Day. I wouldn't continue walking around school making small talk about obscure French photographers and teenage gossip.
Max is an insecure, angsty stereotype who walks with her arms wrapped around her and speaks like a Twitter post. "Hella. Nerd alert. Sad face. Chillax." User comments insist this is how people talk now. If that's true then Apollo help us all.
I can't imagine the conversation that led to this game being created.
Game Developer: You're like an awkward girl, right? And you go around making uninteresting comments on various items. For instance you might comment that a picture of a burger looks tasty or make snarky remarks about a dry erase board message you disagree with.
Boss: Why the hell would anyone want to play that?
Game Developer: Uh. Uh. Did I mention she can... um... travel through time?
Boss: What?
Game Developer: Yeah! She can go back in time and change things that alter the future!
Boss: So it's like the Butterfly Effect movies?
Game Developer: Yes! Only much, much worse!
This game is perfect for people who thought Gone Home was a good game and Juno was a good movie. It has slow, terrible music and doesn't seem to really DO anything. How is this a game? I don't care about any of the characters. Max, her poser friend, her metrosexual skinny-jeans love interest, the missing girl. I hope they all die horribly. At least then I can rewind and watch them die again and again. I don't want to experience this game once, let alone reverse time and have to experience it several times. Every time the locale changed I thought, Oh God no. Now I have to walk around clicking on all this pointless crap. Do I really want to hear a teenage girl's commentary on a pile of dirty dishes? Oh great she's taking a photo of them. How very bold. How chic.
Don't get me wrong, I love the walk around point and click games. I love Maniac Mansion (and by extension Day of the Tentacle), Sam & Max, Phantasmagoria, Heavy Rain, Escape from Monkey Island, Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and so on. It's are my favorite type of game because I love how it's like an interactive book. But this game does nothing for me. Even without the boring plot, the game execution is poor. Mouth movement doesn't match words and character knowledge isn't reflected in dialogue options. Even though I was very aware my sketched picture was online my character still responded as if she didn't know. Same with being surprised that Chloe's stepdad was the security guard, something she'd already discovered multiple times.
I believe I'm done playing this awkward hipster's portrayal of adolescent life. This Life is not Strange. Just pretentious and exhausting.