Life is Strange review

Meh

by adiosnonino

[i]Life Is Strange[/i] is probably a masterpiece full of flaws. It's one of my favorite [i]walking simulator[/i] games and it has one of the most memorable characters and feelings that i had in a game. [b]Graphically[/b] is great, has a paint filter with pencil drawings on everything with a soft pastel palette which gives the game a dreamy and teen vibe overall. It's not very detailed and a lot of the photographs and graphics on the walls look like hand drawings. The [b]soundtrack[/b] is amazing, composed by a lot of indie artists, match the hipster vibe of our protagonist [i]Max[/i] and the moody and sad story, it goes incredibly well at all times, really fits every scene in particular and as a whole game scenario. [b]Voice acting[/b] is decent, the timbre of the voices is good but the speech feels sometimes weak. The bad lip-syncing doesn't help at all sadly. You probably gonna find a lot of people who would say that [i]Max[/i] has a very questionable voice acting, which is an opinion that i also had in the first episode, but the more you know her, the more than that shy and scared voice becomes essential for her as a character. [b]Gameplay[/b] is very simple, just a point and click mechanic with an interesting time travel feature that makes the game fresher given that u cant take every path the game offers (usually) and unlock some extra dialog. This same feature makes the game impossible to fail, which along with the simplicity of the game as a whole, it becomes one of the most accessibles games out there. [b]I liked[/b] the mystery plot of the story, and how the game focuses on characters, giving a lot of dialogue, reading journals, SMS, and how the environment itself tells you a story every time. You get to know characters directly (by pure dialog) and very indirectly, like by just looking at the scenario. The main plot, the power of time travel, makes the game very loose to interpretation which in addition to the overall emotional drama, makes it very personal. Although, you should take into consideration that the game will never resolve this and it is their intention. The real main plot is the relationship between [i]Max and Chloe[/i] and the death of the last one. Dialogs are very good for the most part, they are very genuine and representative for which character is speaking and the time and scenario of the game. Characters are the best part of the game, most of them are very likeable and unique. [i]Max and Chloe[/i] are probably two of my favorite characters on a videogame ever, both very different but complementaries. [i]Max[/i] makes a great protagonist for a [i]walking simulator[/i] given her introspective nature, emotional but very introverted mind with a power that forces her to interact with the world, which, she isn't very good at it, making her very genuine and honest at all times. Her power acts as a second chance for every event that she thought of surpassing her comfort in order to do what she really wanted to, a thing that is very connected to her blame for never answering her best friend that now is dead. [i]Chloe[/i] makes the perfect drama character given her tragic nature, loneliness, and rebellious personality, making her very relatable. [b]The main problem[/b] i can find on this game, that it is on every [i]Life of Strange[/i] game, and in a lot of these [i]walking sim / interactive story [/i]games, is that the end is reduced to a binary choice and that all the choices you choose before that, doesn't matter. In fact, you can play the last chapter and still complete the game. However, i think because of the nature of the main plot and because the choices do matter before the end and are reflected in the world, this game is all about the progress before the ending, and i got a lot of entertainment and emotions during it that i forgot the negativity i felt in the ending. Overall, i think if you are a person that loves story-driven games, you like emotional dramas and want a very accessible game, Life Is Strange might be the masterpiece that you are looking for, i don't want to spoil anything, but there is at least one episode that makes the game worth it.