Life is Strange Review

Spoilers follow for Life is Strange!

Life is Strange is an episodic teen-drama game. It received praise for tackling serious issues like domestic abuse, drugs, kidnap, and the dangers of using your time powers too much to the extent that it causes a natural disaster (okay so maybe that last one isn’t a real-life ‘issue’ per se).

You play as Max who has moved back to her hometown, Arcadia Bay, to attend Blackwell Academy (after a few too many playing Dragon Age I want to write Blackwall Academy, but that would probably have less photography and more whittling). Here she discovers she has the power to rewind time after she saves her childhood friend Chloe from being shot. The pair catch up by running in front of moving trains (as all great friends do) and discussing how Chloe’s friend Rachael has been kidnapped. Soon they begin planning how to use Max’s power to find the kidnapper. However, there are also the problems of... deep breath… a bullied friend, a controlling step-father, an angry drug dealer and his dog, random dead birds/whales, a gun-wielding psychopath, an imminent natural disaster, and winning a photography competition. Pretty standard teenage problems then.

How on earth can one game cover all of that in just five episodes? Well poorly unfortunately. The first episode does well to introduce key characters, setting, and conflicts whilst staying engaging. However, after this the mid-section of the game spends a lot of time following Max and Chloe on adventures that do little to move the plot. It isn’t until the final episodes that major plot move towards a conclusion. At this point I found myself hopping between time zones, alternate realities and broken plains of existence. I couldn’t help but feel more than a little lost. What explanation I received rushed past me in a bid to get to the next scene. Had I not have had the entire collection on disk, I would probably have given up at episode two.

That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the story. There were aspects that I liked, for instance when Max is kidnapped it genuinely becomes nerve-wracking. It is also the only point when you feel like Max has actually become stronger as a character. I actually enjoyed the way that she manages to escape by hopping through time via photos, especially how we still have to deal with some consequences of changing history. I was also satisfied by the ending, and not in a thank god the credits are rolling kind of way. The idea that Max saving Chloe’s life so many times meant that other lives needed to be forfeit to restore the balance fitted in with the games themes and made sense (as much as any time travel plot can).

Playing on train tracks the perfect way to catch-up.

The puzzles involving time manipulation aren't anything newer then those seen before in games like Singularity or Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, but they are a little more intricate. The rewind ability did bring a cool twist on stealth, although many reviewers have slated. However, I thought that the rewind power brought an interesting twist on usual track the guard’s movements before walking slowly behind them action of most stealth games. There is also an interesting deduction puzzle where you need to pair up clues to find the kidnapper’s lair. This took a bit more thought than pairing random clues and made me feel like the world’s greatest detective (if only the Batman Arkham games had done the same).  And whilst there was nothing that set the world on fire, the gameplay was pretty solid throughout and the difficult progressed well.

What didn’t progress so well was the character development. I mentioned before how I liked that Max’s character changed that's true, but it isn’t until very late that this occurs. To add to this I took an immediate dislike to Max’s hipster personality, mainly because it was often rammed down my throat. It was her use of a polaroid camera, and wearing the hoodie and skinny jeans. I didn’t need every other character asserting it for me. There was also the problem of her inner monologue. After any action Max has a tendency to say something cynical which doesn't fit with her naïve exterior. When this happens she just comes off as being fake and I don't think it is intentional.


Chloe suffers from being a one dimensional character. Everything around her is ‘hella lame’ and she rants about pretty much everyone and everything. It pinpoints her father's death as the reason for her attitude, but it seems like a flimsy excuse. She reaches a moment of selflessness at the end, but it's a little too late. Considering the amount of time spent building the characters up a gradual character change could have been implemented better.

The background characters are fleshed out quite well. Every student at the academy felt they had history beyond the game. This was a nice touch that made Blackwell Academy believable as long as you are able to look past the clunky voice acting.

One thing I couldn’t look past was the character’s reactions to your dialogue choices throughout the game. Often when choosing dialogue characters would barely react to what Max actually said and would soon revert back to a neutral stance afterwards. I understand that in any choice game there is only so much a player's choice can branch away from the main plot, but usually the ease back into the script isn’t quite as bumpy.

The crucial story choices struggle with the same issue, and the course of action you choose soon becomes inconsequential. Two moments (Kate's potential suicide and Chloe asking to be euthinised) in the game which should be powerful lose impact as they are negated by the plot later on. However, whatever you choose in either instance is negated later on when Max has to fix the timelines Both instances lose a lot of impact because in the end the game will strong hand your choices to keep to the script.

By far my favourite aspect of Life is Strange is thesoundtrack. It has some great tracks including songs from Foals, Amanda Palmer, and José González, as well as many others. They are all indie tracks which go well with the atmosphere of the game itself. It is used very well to add extra emotion to integral scenes. The final scenes almost brought a tear to my eye which was helped more than a little by the track playing over the top. And in the end the Life is Strange soundtrack is probably the aspect of the game that will stay with me the longest.

There's a reason hipsters have become a bad thing.

Life is Strange made me feel quite sad after its completion. Surprisingly this sadness wasn't from the ending, but from the lost potential. In the moments when I enjoyed playing Life is Strange I could see that it could quite easily have been one of the most impact-full games I have played for a long while. Unfortunately a muddled midsection meant I was progressing through due to my own stubbornness rather than genuine enjoyment.

Score: 6 out of 10

What did you think of Life is Strange? Let me know in the comments section.