Life Is Strange Episode 1 Review
Life Is Strange is an episodic, interactive high-school drama game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix. The game released on 30 Jan for PC, PS4, PS3, Xbox 360 and Xbox One (this review is based on the PC version). The game’s story is planned to be told throughout five episodes with an equal interval of six weeks between each episode and the next one.
First off, Life Is Strange does a perfect job at capturing the high-school drama. From being accepted into the influential and desirable high school groups to girls fighting over the love of the high school’s football team quarterback, the classic tropes are there. The player starts as Maxine Caulfield, who’s walking in a pretty strong storm when the wind blows a boat onto the lighthouse which breaks and falls upon you. You suddenly wake up and realize you are still in Mr. Jefferson’s class, talking about who is the inventor of the selfie and other photography topics. After the class, Max goes to the bathroom and witnesses a murder and while she attempts to intervene, she suddenly returns back in time to be in the class again. This time, after the class is done she goes immediately to the bathroom to save that girl as she already knows what’s happening; she activates the fire alarm and saves the girl, who’s later discovered to be Maxine’s best friend Chloe Price. The writers did a great job at making you curious of what will happen in the next episodes, particularly with the ending.
In each conversation, the things you say will have consequences on the story and the way people act towards you. Obviously, being able to rewind time with Maxine comes in handy, but it should be noted that consequences aren’t always immediately visible. Sometimes, these choices can question your morality and you’ll be left wondering if you actually did the right thing, which is a testament to the game’s interesting dilemmas. One of the first choices you will have to make is either reporting Nathan to the principal, the kid you saw holding a gun in the bathroom, or hiding the fact; obviously, depending on what you choose the story takes a whole new turn.
Life Is Strange also delivers above-average visuals for a game in this genre, mainly thanks to its beautiful landscapes. I also felt that everyone around Maxine seemed a living character instead of just some NPC standing there; while playing you will see kids being bullied, cool kids sitting around each other laughing or just chilling under a tree till their next class begins. All these things contribute to establishing a believable universe where Maxine struggles to fit in her new territory.
The game also has some of the best sound tracks I have ever heard in a game. We usually pay less attention to sound while reviewing videogames and this is unfortunate, especially since in some games like this one it can add a lot to the game, making you feel emotionally invested while also connecting you to the characters.
However, the game still has some bugs, such as textures of objects turning into a random set of colors; a bigger one happeneed while making one of the decisive choices. After choosing I decided to rewind time and change it, and the game allowed me to skip the first part of the conversation coming up to the question; at this point I chose my new answer, but suddenly the game ignored the conversation and allowed me to move around with Maxine, while the person I was talking to remained frozen in the same position he was.