Life Is Strange

[Art Blade]

It was the 3rd of July of this year when I noticed an irresistible steam offer for this game including all five episodes, "full season," for just 9,99€. Then, I was busy with other games but I knew I would find time for it, eventually.

The key feature is the ability of the player to go back in time (just a few minutes max) at almost any given time. This allows for very interesting conversational options (picture asking someone where they went to school, rewind and shout, "hey I know you from <said> school!") and situational options (picture a tree falling over about to kill you, rewind, get out of the way, let the tree fall, and just continue to walk past the fallen tree..) -- conversational options will adapt to your new knowledge acquired through "rewinding." Very cool.

Basically it is a point-and-click adventure. I know this will put off many of you: LOTS of dialogue and narrative cutscenes.

Mostly dialogue with options to choose from and they WILL have an impact sooner or later. Your choices matter. They will change the course of the story. You may cause death without wanting or maybe you'll manage to help someone to stay alive, just to mention the dimension of your choices.

But man, it is so intense to be able to choose and to steer through the unfolding thriller.. excellent.

And this game is VERY EMOTIONAL. I know that players were crying. I know that the developer even offers help and access to some type of local psychological trauma groups, if you're really affected.

So.. it's not a game for pussies, even though you're playing as an 18-year-old female student of the art of photography. :-D

This is you (aka Max)

[smg id=9300 type=preview align=center caption="Life Is Strange"]

Here a YT link to a vid of some 8 hours straight, if you want to point and click into the vid for some random impressions

the vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sHZcyx7iF8

So past Friday, I started to play it. Until now, Sunday night, I've already racked up 39 hours playing time. I admit, the game kept running when I fell asleep in front of the PC past Saturday morning. When I woke up, the game had switched to pause mode by itself (cool feature, works like a screensaver) so I got up, brushed my teeth, grabbed a fresh coffee and continued to play. :-D

It is one of the most intense gaming experiences I've ever had, very immersive, too. :-X

I came across a steam recommendation by one Georgin that made me laugh:

Episode 1: typical teen school drama

Episode 2: uhmmm.... wha..?

Episode 3: What. The. Hell.

Episode 4: WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!

Episode 5: I'm... Sorry.



On a slightly more serious note: I cannot thank you enough, Dontnod. GOTY.

4,576 of 5,055 people (91%) found this review helpful
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Release Date: 30 Jan, 2015

I'm somewhere around the beginning of episode 4, so perhaps 70% into the game.

Bloody amazing. :-X

[Art Blade]

If you need help regarding which decisions to make, this is an excellent place to check

http://dontnodentertainment.wikia.com/wiki/Choice_and_Consequence

[Art Blade]

it just occurred to me that some of my playing time can be explained like this: after the first episode was complete, I was a bit shocked because I had caused the death of someone I really didn't want to die. Plus I had gathered enough experience to see mistakes I committed. I decided to play the whole episode again, so basically start anew. One thing I learned which I wanted to get right this time was: take your sweet time and check out EVERYTHING and try not to miss a thing. Takes more time. But it is so much more rewarding. And it gives you insight and opens up options you wouldn't have without. So my second time around, no one died.

The second episode, well, I fell victim to my own rewinding excesses. The problem was: I talked to someone (I warned that person) and then I talked to someone else. I rewound time, still standing in front of the second person, but I rewound too much so that I went back in time beyond the last marker that marked my conversation with the first person, so I went back to before warning said person. I didn't see it as I kept standing in front of the second person (time travel does not involve motion which is why you can "dodge" falling objects and things like that) So I was not aware of the fact that I had just erased the first conversation. At the end of the episode, when I was presented with some stats, I noticed with shock and disbelieve that I had never warned the first person. Well, I did, but I undid it. So.. the game gives you the option, after finishing an episode, to select specific checkpoints and play from there. So I kind of again went back in time to replay from there, warning the person and then having the conversation with the second person without screwing up the first. Yeah, time travel can be tricky.  :-D So that's why I spent more time than actually necessary if playing straight through.

Also, I had a lot of fun with certain events that I kept repeating in different ways, playing with time, like this:
[smg id=9301 type=preview align=center caption="never happened"]

Taking that guy's plate with his breakfast beans and spilling them in front of him really, really pissed him off 

And I spent a lot of time trying out all conversational options by going back in time and starting over, taking different options every time. Interesting what you can find out like that. :)

[fragger]

Looks interesting with an innovative concept, but I'm saving my dough for Civ VI. I'm afraid if I get into Episode 1, which is currently available for free on Steam, I'll end up getting drawn into it and spending more money to get the rest of it - and then I'll be spending even more money in a month's time on Civ :-\\ As things are, I've had a rather heavy financial month and I need to take it easy for a bit. The complete series of LIS is now selling for $19.99 USD on Steam (about 27 bucks AUD), a bit more than I want to risk paying for something I might not like, especially so soon after coughing up $80 AUD for No Man's Sky.

As a general rule I'm not crazy about point-and-clickers, but that's not set in stone :-() It's good to see something where your choices really do have an effect, not like some games which make that claim but don't really deliver on it. Deus Ex: Human Revolution was an example of the latter - your dialogue choices could make a temporary difference, but they were more like detours than genuinely story-changing events and you'd soon find yourself back on the predestined path to the same weak multiple-choice ending.

I'll keep this one in mind though as something to look at in the future, it does look like it could get involving.

Cheers Art :-X

[Art Blade]

You're most welcome, fragger :)

In case you haven't probed the vid, I should say that "point and click" as I knew it would have meant a static room, like a screenshot of a room, and objects to click on with your mouse. Here it's different. You walk around and snoop around. If you get close enough (say a metre or two, sometimes more) only then you'd see a highlighted object with an arrow pointing at it, as well as a name of the object. When you get close enough, you'll have one or usually two options, as in "look" and "use." There are sometimes specific options, like (take a) "photo" or some such, too. So you're actually walking around in a confined space, what we'd call a level or a map, and there you'd be checking out every bit of furniture or the likes. Maps are like the first floor of a house. Or a room. Or a scrapyard. Stuff like that. Keeps you walking most of the time, I can tell you as much :-D

It's not boring at all :)

[PZ]

Looks interesting, AB.  Glad you're enjoying it  :-X

[fragger]

I see, Art. I haven't looked at the video yet, but I did get an idea of how the game worked from looking at the trailers on Steam :)

[Art Blade]

 :)

prepare for really tough turning points.. man, the story hits hard and unexpectedly sometimes. And there's also some dark humour to be found. And a few funny situations like spilling the beans, when that guy goes, "I was eating those beans.. I.. WAS EATING.. THOSE BEANS!!

The game is really well thought out and there are a few riddles to be solved that are sometimes not that easy but still entertaining.

OK, bloody hell, bed time -- 4.25AM and I got to go to w@&k in a couple of hours. :-D

[Art Blade]

Today I finished the game, I've made it, yay -- a great experience, sadly so it's over. But there is actually some replay value to it. Going random or perhaps evil. If you want, you can have quite a few deaths and griefs happen, it would seem  :-D

It was EPIC.

Man, I can't believe how I was so immersed in the game.. so longing for the next session, wanting to know how it was going to unravel its mysteries.. and how creepy it was at times, and how emotional, how funny and sad it was.. amazing. Absolutely fantastic game.

I can wholeheartedly call it a truly great gaming experience and indeed, one of the best I've ever had. :-X

[smg id=9306 type=preview align=center caption="excellent game"]

[fragger]

Nice one :-X I'll have a look at that game sometime after the Civ VI release. Or maybe even earlier if Civ turns out to be a let-down.

One question - what is the save-game situation in LIS? Can you save anywhere, or are there checkpoints, or limited slots? Okay, that's four questions. Or one question with three branches. And I'm talking rubbish. Need more coffee :-()

[Art Blade]

'tis OK, mate :-D

The game has got an unusual way of doing that, actually. When you start, you'll see three empty slots. You pick one and start. From then on, you can't control the saving, it's checkpoint-based. But if you bail out to the main menu, you will find an option to continue or to pick a chapter that you already played, out of the episode(s) you already played. It will prompt you to either continue from there as your current game whereby you'd lose any possible progress if you chose a chapter prior to those you played or to continue from there using one of the remaining two slots. Sounds complicated but it allows you to keep three different save games of your choice. It's not as easy as, "OK, let's quickly reload save #3" as you might want but it is alright as you shouldn't worry about that, just play on, letting the game do its auto-saves. And there is an option to continue from the last checkpoint which is something like reloading a quicksave. Oh and there is a collector's mode, if you will, which allows you to hunt down achievements without changing the course of the game you're playing. You can do that in-between or whenever you want.

I used the slots two times at the beginning but decided not to worry any longer. When I had finished an episode and was presented with some simple stats (choices that you made or didn't make) that made me aware of something I screwed up (which I would have wanted to play differently) I decided to pick the chapter in or after which I screwed up and continued to play from there to the finish of the episode. I did that twice, I think.

When I was about to make a major decision (you will instinctively know what is) that I didn't know the consequences of (obviously) but wanted to make a decision that wouldn't screw up the rest of the game, I consulted the wiki, see link a few posts above. I wanted a playthrough with a very clean line and if possible no major cockups. The next time may be random but I wanted a next to perfect game to get the best possible "feels right" outcome. Like, make the first game really good so I don't have to try so hard and many times over to get that.

Generally speaking, it is OK to just play and enjoy the surprise of what will happen, which is a more realistic way of playing this game, or to do as described previously.

It is such a different type of game that it is likely that you won't bother with saving, you want to go on, and on, and on :)

[Art Blade]

I've started a new playthrough and I'm having a good time doing things I didn't and not doing things I did during the first run. :-D

[Art Blade]

I was just thinking, one aspect of the game that kept me going and even made me want to return is, you're not going to believe I'm actually saying this, the music. You may know that I hardly ever leave any in-game music on. I'd say 99 out of 100 times I switch it off and keep it that way.

But here.. it is the best game music I've ever come across. I've never switched it off. And yes, it's still me. :-D

And this here is also something you'll never forget.
[smg id=9308 type=preview align=center caption="You'll know"]

[Art Blade]

I played through a second time and at the time managed to get 100% :) Usually I don't care about 100% but if a game is really cool.. like I got 100% for L.A. Noire which was very cool, too.

This time through I did the exact opposite of the decisions made in my first playthrough. Last time I "only" killed Victoria and Alyssa. Didn't want that to happen but it was too late to prevent it. Oops. Which is why I made sure that they stayed alive this time. :-D  It was quite a different story. Well, considering that this time I killed Frank, his dog, an old lady, Kate, a fisherman, a trucker, Evan, Mr Jefferson, a bird, Lisa.. oh, let's not forget, a whole town. Did I miss anyone? I mean "miss" as in forgot to mention, not as in spared.  :-() Well, who cares. They're all dead, anyway :-()

OK, now going for a third playthrough. Trying to get yet a different story out of it and hopefully not causing any avoidable deaths this time :) (there are deaths you have no way of preventing them, though)

[smg id=9314 type=preview align=center caption="multiple playthroughs"]

[Art Blade]

Even while playing it for the third time, I notice yet untested variants I still want to try. So I reckon I could have a fourth go at it, eventually  :-()

[smg id=9315 type=preview align=center caption="live or die"]

[Art Blade]

By the way, I've kept it vague or even slightly misleading so anyone out there (fragger) who might still want to play it won't have to suffer from rather obvious spoilers. All I said is not conclusive for anyone who hasn't yet played the game.

It's good to see something where your choices really do have an effect, not like some games which make that claim but don't really deliver on it. Deus Ex: Human Revolution was an example of the latter - your dialogue choices could make a temporary difference, but they were more like detours than genuinely story-changing events and you'd soon find yourself back on the predestined path to the same weak multiple-choice ending.

I'll keep this one in mind though as something to look at in the future, it does look like it could get involving.

I've been thinking about what you said above, now that I've played the game for some 80+ hours or so. It is getting involving.

I've enjoyed going through several parts various times to check out various outcomes. Choices are not really detours, they do have an impact during the course of the game and they're definitely not temporary.

However, this is a game that kicks off the same way every time and once you played through for the first time, you'll know how the game is going to end. How to describe it? I mean in a way that it still sounds interesting, which it is..

OK, let's say, just to find a way to compare it to something familiar, let's compare it with cake. There is a beginning (dough) and there is an end (cake) but the in-between, the ingredients and how you bake it, is responsible for which type of different cake you'll get in the end. The taste will be different.

Same with the game. It's the way you play it that makes the difference, how you experience everything as it develops, how it feels. It is emotional, at least the first and perhaps the second time around. You can play it so you're kind of happy with it and if you screw up without knowing about it, you're at least going to be surprised and/or sad, too. And you can play it evil if you are so inclined, maybe to get a new kick out of it. :-D

edited time played

[Art Blade]

Finished a third complete playthrough. No one died, not even that one blue jay (bird) which originally smacked against a window. So I kept everyone alive (of those I could have killed) and by including this playthrough I managed to test every option there is. Well, I might have missed one or two but I'm pretty sure I tried everything. Even that option I mentioned before in another post, I managed to test those options during a collector's mode which doesn't alter the story you've created so far. All in all, it was absolutely splendid.  :-X :)

And after exactly 100 hours registered on steam for that game, I'm finally done. Sure was worth those 9,99€  ^-^

[Binnatics]

Indeed, good buy! That means roughly €0,10 per hour :) Plus of course the dough you need to keep your system running 8)

Is this game still in development? Or is it already officially released? I think these devs are worth keeping an eye on. They do cool things and have a good eye for candy... err, good sense for eye candy lol :-D

[Art Blade]

It was released in 2015 and as far as I can tell, it received a lot of awards and positive critics.

It consists of five episodes that you can buy in a bundle.

It's a finished (and polished) game. :)