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Life is Strange Episode 1 Review Thread

This looks good, im going to give it a go.

P.S. is it just me or did anyone else get a strong 'Sims' vibe from the look and character models?

Edit...Also the trailer gave way to much away :-/
 
Only managed to play for about 45 minutes or so, but I've absolutely loved what I've played so far. Not sure if these are spoilers as such, but I'll tag them anyway.

As someone who is a beginner photographer, I'm really enjoying the whole photography aspect of it. The talk of Daguerreotypes and other photographic history, the mentions of people like Diane Arbus and Cartier-Bresson, Max's nerdgasms over all of the photography equipment in the classroom, and the way Max puts herself down because she thinks her images are shit, which is something I do myself. Even the trophy names are cool
. That whole aspect just completely resonates with me.

Having to wait 6 weeks between episodes is going to annoy me.
 

Haxxona

Banned
Some impressions from me.
The game kinda ties TWAU for me in terms of being a really good story(episodic games). I love that the devs are answering questions and are really enthusiastic about their work because I sure am.
The design is bright and colourful and the premise of the game is pretty good for an episodic game. All in all this was a great first episode and I cant wait to play Ep.2 and see how DontNod takes this story further on.

Edit: Upon completing the episode and reflectic on the game then I got to say I got massive Alan Wake vibes which bodes well seeing as Alan Wake is one of my favourite games.
Sidenote: I think this game is one of the better looking and designed UE games in a while.
16214549840_b749ce8491_o_d.jpg
 

Fret

Member
The game looks really great and the body animations are really good, but like others have said, the lip syncing is literally non existent. They might as well be not moving their mouths at all, its ridiculously basic. The worst I've ever seen in a game.

Still, I don't think it'll ruin anything, I'm only 10 minutes into it
 

Lucifon

Junior Member
The game looks really great and the body animations are really good, but like others have said, the lip syncing is literally non existent. They might as well be not moving their mouths at all, its ridiculously basic. The worst I've ever seen in a game.

Still, I don't think it'll ruin anything, I'm only 10 minutes into it

Considering the game is all about the characters, story, conversations etc it's pretty embarrassing they'd get this so wrong.
 
Some of what you have to do is really frustrating trial and error.
like when you have to make Victoria move so you can get into the dorms. You can use the sprinkler system but this only achieves a partial result. Unless you get it right first, you end up going back and forth like I did until you figure out exactly what you need to to do.
 

Haxxona

Banned
The game looks really great and the body animations are really good, but like others have said, the lip syncing is literally non existent. They might as well be not moving their mouths at all, its ridiculously basic. The worst I've ever seen in a game.

Still, I don't think it'll ruin anything, I'm only 10 minutes into it

Considering the game is all about the characters, story, conversations etc it's pretty embarrassing they'd get this so wrong.
To ease your disappointment on this matter to me it felt like the lip-sync got better towards the second half of the game.However it felt like the only really really bad lip-sync was on the teacher.
 

FDC1

Member
The game looks really great and the body animations are really good, but like others have said, the lip syncing is literally non existent. They might as well be not moving their mouths at all, its ridiculously basic. The worst I've ever seen in a game.

Still, I don't think it'll ruin anything, I'm only 10 minutes into it

Come on, it's either a huge overstatement or you don't have a very long history with video games. It's not THAT bad.
 
I just finished episode 1.

This has potential, be interesting what they do with it.

Looks like we have to warn the town about a tornado, maybe even somehow prevent it hapening.
 

Osahi

Member
Some of what you have to do is really frustrating trial and error.
like when you have to make Victoria move so you can get into the dorms. You can use the sprinkler system but this only achieves a partial result. Unless you get it right first, you end up going back and forth like I did until you figure out exactly what you need to to do.

Yeah, trial and error. That's what puzzle games and adventures like this are about you know. The whole rewind mechanic is based on this. You try something, see the results. From there you figure out what to do to get better result with the next try.

Hardly a negative...
 
Seems like something I will get when the story is complete like a TT game.
For a single episode it feels long because of how satisfying all the development is especially if you're the point-and-click completionist type, like you've been through a whole movie already. I'm honestly surprised there will be 4 more episodes.
 

kiyoaki

Member
2 questions for those of you who are playing this - I apologize if these have been asked already, but I couldn't find the information.

1. How does the PS3 version hold up, technically and graphically?
2. Can you play the game with French audio and French subtitles? (French is the original language for the script, right?)
 
Damn, still not up on US PSN? Their Twitter said it'd be up at 00:01 PST. (Not sure why I ever expect things to go up on PSN on time though, Sony still doesn't fully understand this "digital storefront" thing.)
 
2 questions for those of you who are playing this - I apologize if these have been asked already, but I couldn't find the information.

1. How does the PS3 version hold up, technically and graphically?
2. Can you play the game with French audio and French subtitles? (French is the original language for the script, right?)

There's only English audio but there is french subtitles (I have the French version).
 

Chariot

Member
Damn, still not up on US PSN? Their Twitter said it'd be up at 00:01 PST. (Not sure why I ever expect things to go up on PSN on time though, Sony still doesn't fully understand this "digital storefront" thing.)
Maybe they're waiting for the GAF OT like we do.
 

Haxxona

Banned
2 questions for those of you who are playing this - I apologize if these have been asked already, but I couldn't find the information.

1. How does the PS3 version hold up, technically and graphically?
2. Can you play the game with French audio and French subtitles? (French is the original language for the script, right?)
French subtitles/UI but no audio as for Ps3 I dont know but the game doesn't look graphically intense instead its the design and the popping colours which are beautiful. I would have hoped that it at least runs stable on ps3.

Edit: Oops beaten :p
 

Bittercup

Member
2 questions for those of you who are playing this - I apologize if these have been asked already, but I couldn't find the information.

1. How does the PS3 version hold up, technically and graphically?
I can't answer the question, but there is a demo for the PS3 version if you want to take a look before buying.
 
MRORANGE has volunteered back then for the OT, however he's been busy with rl for some time now (SteamGAF GoTY results have also been postponed).

Kubus is working on it now. An hour ago he said it would be up soon.
 
MRORANGE has volunteered back then for the OT, however he's been busy with rl for some time now (SteamGAF GoTY results have also been postponed).

Kubus is working on it now. An hour ago he said it would be up soon.
Cool.

I want to play it again to get all the photos that I missed.
 
PC version is borked.

I can't get past the unreal logo and steam forums indicate many others cant

Do you have an AMD card? I used to have problems starting a whole bunch of games built using the Unreal Development Kit when I was running a Radeon 6950. It would show the initial screen and then almost immediately minimize and switch back to desktop.

Trying to work around this was always frustrating, and I think it had to do with resolution settings. If you can convince the game to run either in windowed mode or to set the proper desktop resolution that might help, though I don't remember having to force Life Is Strange to be in a specific resolution when I tried it last night (I've switched to Nvidia in the meantime though).

If this doesn't describe your problem, though, then crap.

The payoff for when you see the dude is a complete psycho was a great payoff to that. My heart sank after I saw the cameras since I assumed they were recording, in which case it would've caught all the earlier snooping.

In the back of my head I was wondering if it was possible to rewind all the way before that. Though it was odd for Max to not remark on that at all so I'm guessing we're supposed to not assume it was being recorded. Was also waiting for a camera feed to pop up from Chloe's room for ultimate creep factor, but I don't recall one.

Also just found out Ashly Burch voiced Chloe, didn't recognize it at all.

I knew I recognized Chloe's voice but couldn't quite place it until the credits. I love that she's all over the place now--there's this game, Persona Q, Gravity Ghost and (I think?) There Came an Echo, all in the past few months/coming soon. I bet I'm missing a few too.

Only managed to play for about 45 minutes or so, but I've absolutely loved what I've played so far. Not sure if these are spoilers as such, but I'll tag them anyway.

As someone who is a beginner photographer, I'm really enjoying the whole photography aspect of it. The talk of Daguerreotypes and other photographic history, the mentions of people like Diane Arbus and Cartier-Bresson, Max's nerdgasms over all of the photography equipment in the classroom, and the way Max puts herself down because she thinks her images are shit, which is something I do myself. Even the trophy names are cool
. That whole aspect just completely resonates with me.

Having to wait 6 weeks between episodes is going to annoy me.

I know now it was necessary for the story progression, but
man I was pissed when Max gets asked about daguerreotypes and I was like "the answer is daguerreotypes the answer is daguerreotypes OH COME ON THE ANSWER IS DAGUERREOTYPES"
.

Also I was really sad when
Max rips up her self-portrait in the washroom because it was great
.
 
Hmm. I am now interested. Will buy wen it comes out on PSN EU.

Edit: oh, it's up. Loving the slower paced games coming out in January. Grim Fandango, Resident Evil and now this. More please.
 

kubus

Member
MRORANGE has volunteered back then for the OT, however he's been busy with rl for some time now (SteamGAF GoTY results have also been postponed).

Kubus is working on it now. An hour ago he said it would be up soon.
*she ;)

And yep, currently working on it, should be up in an hour or so! If anyone has a OT title recommendation, now is the time to post it! Otherwise I'll go with this lame title:

Life is Strange |OT| A New Episodic Adventure Game from DONTNOD (Remember Them?)

Because I really have no other ideas.
 
*she ;)

And yep, currently working on it, should be up in an hour or so! If anyone has a OT title recommendation, now is the time to post it! Otherwise I'll go with this lame title:

Life is Strange |OT| A New Episodic Adventure Game from DONTNOD (Remember Them?)

Because I really have no other ideas.

Yes!
 
*she ;)

And yep, currently working on it, should be up in an hour or so! If anyone has a OT title recommendation, now is the time to post it! Otherwise I'll go with this lame title:

Life is Strange |OT| A New Episodic Adventure Game from DONTNOD (Remember Them?)

Because I really have no other ideas.

Fantastic title.
 

maxcriden

Member
*she ;)

And yep, currently working on it, should be up in an hour or so! If anyone has a OT title recommendation, now is the time to post it! Otherwise I'll go with this lame title:

Life is Strange |OT| A New Episodic Adventure Game from DONTNOD (Remember Them?)

Because I really have no other ideas.

Great title! Here are a few ideas:

Life is Strange | OT | Max & Chloe's Excellent Adventure

(you could use Bogus Journey instead)

Life is Strange | OT | hit the a rewind button

Life is Strange | OT | be kind, please rewind
 
*she ;)

And yep, currently working on it, should be up in an hour or so! If anyone has a OT title recommendation, now is the time to post it! Otherwise I'll go with this lame title:

Life is Strange |OT| A New Episodic Adventure Game from DONTNOD (Remember Them?)

Because I really have no other ideas.

Oh, sorry!

I'm not good with titles, I think that's fine.

Some other I could think right of now is something that references The Girl Who Leapt Through Time lol
 
For what it is worth I think "A New Episodic Adventure Game from DONTNOD (Remember Them?)" is the best title you could go with, it got a chucked out of me
 

kubus

Member
Wow so many great suggestions :D

I laughed at "Rewinder Me", love that one.

Aaahh I can't choose, you guys should vote or something while I finish up the OT :p
 
I'll post my complete thoughts when we actually get an OT (it was great) but for those wondering about the soundtrack

Santa Monica Dream – Angus & Julie Stone
Mt. Washington – Local Natives
To All of You – Syd Matters
Obstacles – Syd Matters
Something Good – alt-J
Got Well Soon – Breton
Lua – Bright Eyes
Piano Fire – Sparklehorse
The Sense of Me – Mud Flow
Mountains – Message to Bears
Crosses – José Gonzalez
In my Mind – Amanda Palver & Brian Viglione

Spotify:
https://play.spotify.com/user/officiallifeisstrange/playlist/1f5ZzLDTXHTDR8CYIEddpW

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaSQREdOVdpKy-_rlzy_0hVB2hHhKYC2W

The community manager has made these playlists, I'm not sure if it's complete because it is missing the launch trailer song but I think a lot of it is there!

Also I think that is a great OT name kubus
 

Yaari

Member
I had no idea about this game. I like story games such as Heavy Rain so maybe I should get this. Hope there's enough drama.
 
*she ;)

And yep, currently working on it, should be up in an hour or so! If anyone has a OT title recommendation, now is the time to post it! Otherwise I'll go with this lame title:

Life is Strange |OT| A New Episodic Adventure Game from DONTNOD (Remember Them?)

Because I really have no other ideas.

Life Is Strange |OT| Blackwell Ninja

:p

Damn, Rewinder Me is good lol
 
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