Life Is Strange
Life Is Strange is a game that held little interest to me during it’s episodic digital release last year. In fact it’s a game that I wouldn’t have even known about had it not been for a trusted friend raving about it on social media (thanks Drew). My friend is very selective when it comes top praising games, so when I saw that Life Is Strange was coming up for retail disc release, I raised my hand in the air and scored myself a review copy.
And I’m glad I did.
In Life Is Strange you play the role of Max, who accidentally discovers that she can turn back time and in doing so saves her friend from being fatally shot. But turning back time and changing things has on going ramifications, the butterfly effect is in full force in this game. And whilst being able to turn back time sounds like it would make for a super easy game, it’s not always clear weather turning back time is the right thing to do, or that making a change will actually help in the long run.
Turning back time does however give you some really interesting puzzles to solve.
The real thing with Life Is strange however is the story, it’s one that grabs you and keeps you hooked. So much so that when I first took it for a spin, I promised my wife and teenage daughter that I was just having a quick five minute look, and that they could hop onto Netflix after. No one watched Netflix that night, both my wife and daughter insisted that I continue until the first chapter was complete. Such was the ability of the game to draw in casual observers. This has never happened with a video game before. Ever.
And it’s not just the story that drags you under Life Is Strange’s spell, it’s the beautiful dreamy hand drawn feel to the games visuals that mesmerise you and seem to make you feel all warm and fuzzy. You’ll have to excuse my game reviewes technical jargin there. Life Is Strange has a whimsical hold on you, and I had to control myself as not to binge play the whole game in one sitting.
The bigeest thing that I learnt after playing the first episode – other than your choices having realy, palitable consequences, is that the game is much bigger that you first think. Looking through the global stats on which choices players made, I realised that there was so much more going on than just cuting along the main story line.
It’s also the first game in a long time where I’ve contemplated re-playing the first episode immediatley after finishing it, just to see how differently it would play out if I made different choices.
Life Is Strange is a game that really affects you, a game that has chracters that you not only care about, but also surprise you from time to time. And it’s certainly a game worth investing your time into.
Rating: R13 Violence, offensive language and content that may disturb.
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