Right now I'm debating on whether or not I should buy the game Life Is Strange on Steam. I've seen footage on YouTube and it caught my eye. I especially love the character Chloe. After being burned by Beyond Two Souls and Heavy Rain (yes I think those games sucked), I'm a bit skeptical about the game. What do you guys think?
Everything leading up to the final episode is pretty great... then the fifth episode shits the bed completely. If the game had selling points other than its story, that wouldn't be such an issue. Trouble is, Life Is Strange is basically all story. When they fuck that up, it's got nothing else going.
Added in to what Grumptastic up there said, the dialogue can get a bit cringey with its attempts at teen speak. I don't think the game is worth picking up, but it is only twenty bucks. So if you got that to blow and want to experience everything for yourself, then go for it. Otherwise, I would suggest looking for another game.
You won't get much in terms of gameplay. It's a decision based game but most of the decisions don't lead to very big consequences (as mentioned the final episode was a huge let down. I can't really blame Dontnod too much, the game was very hyped up, probably beyond their expectations, but they could have changed the ending to make it more satisfying and whatnot). You mostly explore and talk to people and make mini decisions that don't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but are still fun to make.
The dialogue is designed to sound like a teenager's, but you can definitely tell this is a bunch of adults writing teen dialogue. But I can't say that "Hella" doesn't make me smile and laugh every time I hear it said now. The cringe moments of the dialogue are totally worth it to me.
Basically instead of a game you're getting an interactive story, but a really good interactive story, until the fifth episode. The ending makes sense considering the theme of the story (reconciliation, friendship, life) but everyone expected something vastly different and more cool.
So... if you don't mind spending 20 bucks on an interactive story that might make you cry over fictional characters, and aren't bothered by heavy content (heavy meaning it was dark enough to make Dontnod offer counseling services of a sort) then buy it. But if you don't like games without a lot of gameplay and are looking for more of a gameplay experience, just watch someone else play it. If you're unsure you might want to wait until it's on sale.
And in regards to Beyond Two Souls and Heavy Rain: I think LiS has more gameplay than Beyond Two Souls, less than Heavy Rain, and is more on par with Heavy Rain in regards to story with the super-power aspect of Two Souls. It has a very different vibe from both of those games, but again, if you don't like interactive stories, don't get LiS.
It's yet another walking simulator in which your decisions typically don't matter much whatsoever through making heavy use of dwarf magicillusion of choice. It's a time travel narrative whose inherent powers are broken because the protagonist goes to extraordinary lengths to never learn a fucking thing. The only thing that salvages the game from being as bad as, say, Two Souls, is it has some genuine moments of heartfelt care between certain characters (who I will not name because of spoiler territory). Yet, for every one or two solid interactions you'll get that are meaningful, you'll have six or seven interactions that make no sense and serve only to fluff the story out to obscene lengths. ("Press X to make breakfast.")
This is the kind of story I'd expect someone in Junior High School to produce. The fact that it gets as many accolades as it does blows my fucking mind, until I remember that the average reading level in the United States is seventh grade.
Then I realize why this game succeeded so hard.
Oh well.
tl;dr: There are worse games you can spend your money on, but you would seriously just save twenty bucks by watching a Let's Play on YouTube. There is seriously nothing you will lose in terms of value whatsoever. It doesn't fucking have gameplay throughout most of the game.
Excellent game though with a disappointing final episode. But, up to that point there's an engrossing story, terrific soundtrack, memorable characters, and it's visually stunning. I still recommend it despite the final episode slump.
It varies a lot depending on my schedule, unfortunately.
Writing Levels
Advanced
Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
Primarily Prefer Male
Genres
Psychological horror
Body horror
Supernatural
Giallo
Splatterpunk
Dark fantasy
Historical
Low fantasy
Magipunk
Weird West
Noir
Thriller
Gothic horror
Southern Gothic
Gaslamp fantasy
Cyberpunk
Space saga
Clockpunk
Space Western
Space opera
Paranormal
Modern fantasy
Dieselpunk
Post-Apocalyptic
Crime drama
Medieval fantasy
I thought it was neat, but that was because I watched someone else play it and didn't spend the money. The gameplay is gimmicky but fine if you're just looking for story-based. I'd have been really happy to pay $10 for it, basically. It's overpriced.
Off-topic, sort of: HEAVY RAIN IS A PIECE OF SHIT.
High fantasy, modern fantasy, gaslamp fantasy, Anything Fantasy, dark comedy, supernatural, paranormal, psychological, essentially everything except slice-of-life and historical.
It's a game by Tell-Tale Games. If you've played any other Tell-Tale Games game, then you know how it is. It's not so much of a game as it is an interactive story. I got it essentially for free and have yet to play it, but I see a lot of fanart of the game on my tumblr dash. Something something lesbians. That's all I know.
Edit: My mistake, it's not my Telltale. It plays like a Telltale game, though.
Heavy Rain would have been a great movie but as a game ...
Well, it's not really a game.
Same can be said for Life is Strange and Beyond Two Souls. Again it just depends on if you're willing to pay to 'play' your movie or not.
If you're going to bring up Until Dawn; Life is Strange has nothing on Until Dawn's gameplay. Until Dawn still doesn't have all that much gameplay compared to a gameplay heavy game, but there was a bit more and your choices actually mattered more.
It's a game by Tell-Tale Games. If you've played any other Tell-Tale Games game, then you know how it is. It's not so much of a game as it is an interactive story. I got it essentially for free and have yet to play it, but I see a lot of fanart of the game on my tumblr dash. Something something lesbians. That's all I know.
High fantasy, modern fantasy, gaslamp fantasy, Anything Fantasy, dark comedy, supernatural, paranormal, psychological, essentially everything except slice-of-life and historical.
Heavy Rain would have been a great movie but as a game ...
Well, it's not really a game.
Same can be said for Life is Strange and Beyond Two Souls. Again it just depends on if you're willing to pay to 'play' your movie or not.
If you're going to bring up Until Dawn; Life is Strange has nothing on Until Dawn's gameplay. Until Dawn still doesn't have all that much gameplay compared to a gameplay heavy game, but there was a bit more and your choices actually mattered more.
It's not a Telltale game. It's by Dontnod and was published by Square Enix.
It varies a lot depending on my schedule, unfortunately.
Writing Levels
Advanced
Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
Primarily Prefer Male
Genres
Psychological horror
Body horror
Supernatural
Giallo
Splatterpunk
Dark fantasy
Historical
Low fantasy
Magipunk
Weird West
Noir
Thriller
Gothic horror
Southern Gothic
Gaslamp fantasy
Cyberpunk
Space saga
Clockpunk
Space Western
Space opera
Paranormal
Modern fantasy
Dieselpunk
Post-Apocalyptic
Crime drama
Medieval fantasy
I disagree. Unless you want to take into account that as a movie, it would have been severely cut, removing all of the boring-ass filler orange juice drinking scenes; there would have been no internal monologue to lie to the viewer because the writers were too lazy to actually keep things hidden and too daft to understand what an unreliable narrator is; and most importantly, no obnoxious QTEs.
Of course, it would still have all of the gaping plot holes and an over-abundance of gratuitous attempted rape. And an almost entirely unlikeable cast.
...Sorry. I'm bitter about putting so much time into that game. Incredible disappointment.
A'ight, this thread actually got me thinking again about the things I thought Life Is Strange got right... and the things it really, really didn't. So here's those thoughts hidden behind some lovely spoiler tags so I don't ruin it for anyone who hasn't played it.
Life Is Strange hits its highest point at the end of Episode Two, with Max attempting to talk an unstable Kate Marsh down from the roof.
For me, this nailed everything the game set out to do. Grounded drama, where the choices you've made in the previous episode and this one come back to affect the scene. Did you back Kate up when she was being harassed by David, or did you just photograph the scene? Did you scrub the URL to her video off the bathroom mirror? Little things that come back to have further ramifications, further driving home the theme of the butterfly effect that Life Is Strange seems initially keen on. It's still a fairly linear experience in hindsight, but in the moment where you first play it the game doesn't feel linear. And that, to me, is the sign that a game is doing something right.
That's why it's baffling that we don't really see another scene like this in the game.
Sure, there's that bit in Episode Four where you try to convince Victoria that her boytoy Nathan is actually a fucking maniac. But it doesn't carry nearly as much weight. I had it in my head that Episode Five might be Max and Chloe attempting to use the relationships they've fostered over the last four episodes to try and warn people of the impending disaster, or at the very least get the folks they care about to safety. There's several locations they could have gone to; the lighthouse, for one, or even Jefferson's creepy photo-rape dungeon-bunker (it's secure, if unsavoury).
But no. Instead we're treated to a train-wreck that manages to undo everything that happened in the last four episodes, and then an arbitrary choice between the two endings the devs settled upon. To make it worse, one is obviously the "good" ending that they want you to pick, receiving far more length and craftsmanship than its rushed alternative.
Seriously, that whole episode managed to completely ruin the good faith the game had built up with me over the previous entries, and left me genuinely frustrated in a way not many "bad" games do. Because it was so close to being extremely good, but fell short at the last hurdle. Jefferson could have been an excellent final antagonist, given how well his true nature was revealed in the finale of Episode Four, but instead he just turns into this moustache-twirling fuckwit with some of the worst dialogue I can remember enduring in these sorts of games (no small feat, given how hella bad some of the writing in Life Is Strange is).
Really, it's a damn shame. I went into this series without high hopes, found a lot that I liked... then watched it get ruined. Goddamn, guys. You almost had this, you really did.
TL;DR: I rant about the state of CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) game writing, and explain why Life Is Strange fundamentally failed in terms of the plot. I do my best to avoid spoilers, but, you know, fuckin' spoilers are inevitable I guess.
Oh, and I suppose as an added note, while I use the derogatory term "walking simulator," I actually think this genre has the capacity to be a natural evolution on the concept of "choose your own adventure" books. The issue is, just like choose your own adventure books, the majority of them are terribly written. Not necessarily because of some sort of malevolence or stupidity, but because it's new territory. (What, walking simulators have been popular for all of about... Maaaaaybe half a decade? Ish?) Even if I was generous and said that it was an entire decade, that's really not much time at all in the grand scheme of things to tackle an entirely alien writing style for a community that struggles to understand how to write in video games... At all. It certainly doesn't help that the majority of developers who tackle the walking simulator "choose your own adventure" genre, are generally indie devs with shit tier funding, and/or people who have no credentials or experience to their name whatsoever.
So, keep in mind, when I mock and deride Life Is Strange, I don't do so out of some veneer of elitism. There's "hella" worse games out there than Life Is Strange, because at least they sincerely tried. Take one look at Steam Greenlight to see what an unfiltered mess of cash ins by people who don't give a fuck looks like.
So, if the studio learns from their mistakes for their next title? They may actually produce something that finally establishes a genre norm in terms of writing. They are legitimately close. They do actually achieve a couple of genuine choices. I just wish that they would stop drowning the entire narrative in meaningless drivel, like "press X to make breakfast." Make your choices small, subtle, and insidious. Something that seems innocuous but upon further inspection ties into something horrifying, or enlightening. Does that mean that these types of games may be naturally shorter? Probably. But hey, it's twenty bucks, what the fuck do you want? And, even if it was priced at full standard 60-70 bucks, if it gives you several different playthrough opportunities, it's done its job properly.
When you do get choices, they should matter. Even if it's just to be a red herring for later in the story--it has to fucking matter. Other games can get away with illusion of choice because their stories are not typically their only selling point, but CYOA titles are absolutely dependent on making choice a meaningful factor. If it means less choices, but every choice has some purpose or point to it, then I can accept that.
As it stands, though? Life Is Strange is not well written. It has many points that, if it were a TV show, or anything other than a CYOA title, would be mocked and derided for the fluff it is. It had an interesting set-up and then immediately fumbled the ball the moment it tried to pull the idea of hard determinism in a choice-based narrative. This is like mixing battery acid into lemonade. It's why the last two chapters fucked the pooch so hard: How the hell do you make your choices have any meaning when the universe itself renders invalid your choices to maintain the stability of the timeline?
Funny enough though, the moments where they focused purely on real-world issues between two people, the better the story was. If they made the next story a simple "here are a group of friends, some of them hate each other, try not to upset them" you could genuinely have a serious feels-trip without the threat of total annihilation of the planet. It might actually help to scale the conflict down to something far more interpersonal.
