In the game Life is Strange, the player plays the character Max Caulfield, an eighteen-year-old photography student. After her witnessing her childhood friend Chloe get shot, she discovers she has the power to wind back time, and she uses her power to solve the mystery about a girl that disappeared from her school.
The story line of this game is compelling. Since the game is heavily based on the choices the player makes, it makes each playthrough unique, especially if the player goes back and changes different elements in the game, from deciding whether to water the plant in Max’s room to choosing who to blame for the disappearance of the missing girl. It is also interesting that the player can choose different paths within the story and see some of the dialogue, but each choice has its own specialized storyline and dialogue. At the end of each chapter in the game, it shows all of the choices the player made within the chapter, and compares it to the decisions other players have chosen. This feature is intriguing since it compares every choice players have chosen, and it allows the player to see how they stack up with the rest of the Life is Strange community. Compared to other games that are heavily based on choice, such as the Fallout series, this game makes the player feel as though their decisions really matter, and it presents an interesting moral dilemma with each choice, allowing the player to go back in time and hear both morals and make a choice.
The actual gameplay of Life is Strange is weird, but I think it works for the particular story. While it is not high action, the game is set in a small town, often times at Max’s high school, there is not a lot of need for too much action. Rather, the gameplay relies on the player choosing from different moral dilemmas. Once a choice is made in the game and the player is no longer able to change their path, the game creates a unique story with different outcomes for each choice. In moments like when Max and Chloe are about to be attacked by a drug dealer, Josh, dog, the player has the option to throw the bone in the parking lot or in the street. If the player throws it in the street the dog gets hit and Josh becomes an enemy, but if the player throws it in the parking lot then the player risks being attacked again, but they are on better terms with Josh. This gives the player enough action to remain entertained, but since Max can go back in time, they can ponder the different choices and choose the one they want to play with. But most of the choices have consequences later on in the game, and that drives the player to keep playing in order to see how their choices impacted the game.
Overall Life is Strange is not a very difficult game to physically play. Since the main character can never truly die, there is not that threat to make the game hard. Since Max can also travel back in time, anytime a character is close to dying the player can rewind time and not allow the character to die. This makes the game not interesting for the player who wants a major challenge, like in The Last of Us. But, Life is Strange covers very heavy and mature topics that may be challenging for the player to deal with, like the part where Max has to try to save her friend, Kate, from jumping off of a tall school building, or when Max can choose to warn Victoria about a potential kidnapping, it makes the player think hard about their choices and how they affect both the characters in the game and the player in their real lives.
This game in particular is unique since the player can replay this game multiple times and still have the same amount of enjoyment they got from the first time they played. The player can go back through the game over and over again, choosing different paths and different choices to see how their actions change the story line. A player could even make one big change in the game and keep everything else the same, and the rest of the game would change drastically, so there are so many possibilities that players would have a hard time trying every story line.
One thing I did not care for in Life is Strange is how the game was released. Since each chapter is a separate file, it was a bit annoying to download each chapter taking several hours before I could play it. I can see how this game strategy could pull people into the game, making them crave more, but it was also a bit strange for a game, and it made the game feel more like a television show. This made the game seem a little distant from everyday life since the events in the game happen within a very short time period, but with it spread out over the course of several months that connection was lost.
Overall Life is Strange is an amazing game. I really enjoyed every minute I played of it, and can hardly wait to replay through it to see how the story ends up changing. This game is by far one of my favorite games, and there should be more games like it in the future.