grosvenor_92
Member
Those review scores are much better than I expected. I'll definitely download the demo and give it a try
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Life is Strange Episode 1 Review Thread
- Thread starter chadskin
- Start date
The latter, but there are some good lines here and there. I put the game down for now. I didn't think the beginning was all that stellar because as was already said, the game kinda hamfists a lot to the player (Kate's notebook which made me roll my eyes and Max's reaction to her new powers).
I feel the game could've done a bit more for me to empathize with Max from the start. Instead, we get her commenting on every little thing with the game's dialogue which, again, isn't that good for a point-and-click adventure game.
It's not annoying as much as it'll make your eyes roll. Also, I think there are parts where there shouldn't be any dialogue at all so the player could see how Max feels and react as opposed to her telling us. You know, show don't tell.
It also doesn't help
I came from playing a bit of Grim Fandago.
benicillin
Banned
Just finished episode 1 - talk about a sleeper hit. I get a real Twin Peaks meets Veronica Mars feeling from it. Love the rewind mechanic. If the rest of the episodes are as good as this one was, it'll easily be as good as the Telltale games.
Soyongdori
Member
I never watched Veronica Mars. But this game got me interested. Is the show worth watching?
So I am a big fan of this type of game. Telltale games, the story aspects of bioware games, etc. I finished the first episode and I feel... conflicted. It is clearly special in some regards.
But everything I like about it I like "on paper". It has two female protagonists. Love it. It's about a mundane slice of life setting. Love it. It turns various real life activities like having a text conversation into a playable moment. Love it.
But all of this stuff in actual execution isn't that great. The writing is weak. The voice acting and animation is off. It doesn't all gel together in a way that is interesting.
But everything I like about it I like "on paper". It has two female protagonists. Love it. It's about a mundane slice of life setting. Love it. It turns various real life activities like having a text conversation into a playable moment. Love it.
But all of this stuff in actual execution isn't that great. The writing is weak. The voice acting and animation is off. It doesn't all gel together in a way that is interesting.
Yes. Not an all time classic but very enjoyable.
Just finished Episode 1.
Some simple puzzles, others are pretty clever.
Love the hand-painted textures.
Love the music. The main theme has such a warm, intoxicating feel.
The characters and writing, while at times can be a bit grating (maybe that's how teens actually talk today, not sure), is mostly great. The two main characters, Chloe and Max, are fantastically voiced.
I'm definitely in for the full haul. I'm grabbing the remaining 4 episodes ASAP. Episode 1 was enough to sell me on the rest.
Some simple puzzles, others are pretty clever.
Love the hand-painted textures.
Love the music. The main theme has such a warm, intoxicating feel.
The characters and writing, while at times can be a bit grating (maybe that's how teens actually talk today, not sure), is mostly great. The two main characters, Chloe and Max, are fantastically voiced.
I'm definitely in for the full haul. I'm grabbing the remaining 4 episodes ASAP. Episode 1 was enough to sell me on the rest.
Robobandit
Member
Finished episode 1.
Took me 2.2 hours.. seems like I missed a lot of stuff, too. Some of the dialogue made me cringe, but most of it didn't.
I am interested in seeing where all of this goes. A promising start, to be sure.
Took me 2.2 hours.. seems like I missed a lot of stuff, too. Some of the dialogue made me cringe, but most of it didn't.
I am interested in seeing where all of this goes. A promising start, to be sure.
benicillin
Banned
The writing can be sort of hit or miss, but for the most part I don't think it's weak. It's not so out there that it rivals Juno or anything, and the unfortunate truth is that a lot of kids in high school really DO say things like "sad face" etc etc.
64-bit Windows 7 here and the game crashes without fail right after the Unreal splash screen during start-up. I've tried re-installing, verifying, compatibility futzing and other stuff with no luck. Hopefully DONTNOD puts out a patch soon or someone figures out a fix.
I have 64-bit Win8.1 and had no issues. Maybe it's Win7 only?
benicillin
Banned
Man this game is super comfy. It's such a breath of fresh air, from the plot to the characters - if you are even vaguely interested in Telltale-style games, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot.
Solid Raiden
Neo Member
Really excited to try this out for myself. Not sure if I want to jump in now or wait until all the episodes are out. I just got burned too many times by the release schedule of telltale games and lost interest because of the time in between episodes.
benicillin
Banned
I believe they plan to release an episode every 6 weeks.
Okay, after thinking about it a bit, I've come to realize that I'm disappointed in the game. I believe I had some pretty lofty expectations by expecting something as nuanced yet gently revealing of a teenage life as Gone Home's writings and recordings were with time travel and mystery mixed in. And unfortunately, I'm not receiving that.
Also, I gotta say I'm usually a fan of supernatural happenings disrupting ordinary life. Huge fan of stories that do this. However, I couldn't be any less interested in Max or her powers and how she uses them (which so far seems to be used only for redoing a conversation to go down a dialogue tree). If I didn't read her journal, I probably wouldn't have empathized with her at all, but even that has its limits considering the game tries to emulate a teenage life and leaves it at that. It's like someone took a checklist and ticked off what folks would believe an awkward-yet-not-so-awkward teenage girl would be like. Then she gets her powers and she takes them to stride far quicker than anyone would.
Then we have the mystery, which we're at the beginning of. I'll need to continue through the episode to hopefully learn more, but so far, I feel like I'm only interested in the mystery because it's there as opposed to being invested in it based on the reactions of the characters or the missing person's impact on the community (both of these were major for Twin Peaks and Deadly Premonition. Also both of these were eccentric as hell, which kind of worked in their favor).
Also, I gotta say I'm usually a fan of supernatural happenings disrupting ordinary life. Huge fan of stories that do this. However, I couldn't be any less interested in Max or her powers and how she uses them (which so far seems to be used only for redoing a conversation to go down a dialogue tree). If I didn't read her journal, I probably wouldn't have empathized with her at all, but even that has its limits considering the game tries to emulate a teenage life and leaves it at that. It's like someone took a checklist and ticked off what folks would believe an awkward-yet-not-so-awkward teenage girl would be like. Then she gets her powers and she takes them to stride far quicker than anyone would.
Then we have the mystery, which we're at the beginning of. I'll need to continue through the episode to hopefully learn more, but so far, I feel like I'm only interested in the mystery because it's there as opposed to being invested in it based on the reactions of the characters or the missing person's impact on the community (both of these were major for Twin Peaks and Deadly Premonition. Also both of these were eccentric as hell, which kind of worked in their favor).
Messofanego
Banned
Where is the |OT|?
Either way, my Steam review:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/messofanego/recommended/319630/
It is like the best bits of Alan Wake, Dreamfall Chapters, and Walking Dead on top of an engrossing time travel high school back-to-home-town coming of age mystery drama.
There might have been only one episode released so far, but damn is it impressively substantial that I felt I got a whole indie movie's worth of character development and progress out of it. While you navigate through Max's journey of figuring out her career in photography, there are also other characters' stories from big to small. Not to mention Max turning around her shy introspective worldview into more of a "Blackwell Ninja" which is achieved thanks to the acquirement of a time rewind superpower. The archetypes of the jocks, mean girls, burnouts, and mystery drama are there but the characters are given enough depth that you don't feel too one-sided towards anyone where it'd make the major choices easier. The girls might mention which boys they like or gossip around but that isn't their only traits on offer compared to the relatively simple male characters. An example is the mean girls queen, Victoria along with her two cronies is blocking your path to the dorms so you can use time manipulation to eventually spill paint all over Victoria. You can either take a picture of her to shame her even more but she feels genuinely sad or you could take this chance to befriend her. The game's all about breaking the surface to figure out what makes each character tick. All this small-scale high school drama eventually leads to the other main character, Chloe, coming into the picture with her own drug-and-money conflict that involves clues to what happened to cause Rachel Amber's missing.
While sometimes the time manipulation can feel trial-and-error in that you wouldn't have noticed that you could place a piece of cardboard beforehand under a shelf to catch some screwdrivers when you shake a table, for the most part it teaches you well that any big task should be thought of a few steps in advance. Even if you fail, there is very little frustration as you can rewind as much as you want to get the desired result. The game isn't very challenging in that sense, but in such a narrative-heavy game you don't want the puzzles to be a nuisance and want to encourage the player to experiment around with the rewind mechanic especially as they're in service of furthering relationships with characters.
The best part of it being a videogame is being able to bask in the world of a high school with the tiniest of details that you'd expect out of point-and-click adventures but in 3D like the Dreamfall games. Max comments on nearly everything that you'd expect, so it's definitely a game where you want to glean as much monologue as possible. While I would have liked a bit more control in some of the moments in the form of possible minigames like taking photos Beyond Good and Evil-style or actually flying a drone around outside the school, these more contemplative repeatable moments such as sitting on the fountain or playing the guitar that harken to the relaxing in Brothers A Tale of Two Sons are still appreciated. The music is memorable and thematically on-point while the end of summer colour palette and art direction is incredibly welcoming on the eyes. A couple of flaws deserve mention. The first being the bad lip syncing although it's understandable given how much dialogue there is and the team size. The second being how many of the dialogue choices railroad to the same response. The time rewind choices though are quite substantial and some even have consequences visible in this first episode.
If a relatively relaxed and heart-warming coming of age interactive tale with some time travel is up your alley, don't miss out on this special experience.
Either way, my Steam review:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/messofanego/recommended/319630/
It is like the best bits of Alan Wake, Dreamfall Chapters, and Walking Dead on top of an engrossing time travel high school back-to-home-town coming of age mystery drama.
There might have been only one episode released so far, but damn is it impressively substantial that I felt I got a whole indie movie's worth of character development and progress out of it. While you navigate through Max's journey of figuring out her career in photography, there are also other characters' stories from big to small. Not to mention Max turning around her shy introspective worldview into more of a "Blackwell Ninja" which is achieved thanks to the acquirement of a time rewind superpower. The archetypes of the jocks, mean girls, burnouts, and mystery drama are there but the characters are given enough depth that you don't feel too one-sided towards anyone where it'd make the major choices easier. The girls might mention which boys they like or gossip around but that isn't their only traits on offer compared to the relatively simple male characters. An example is the mean girls queen, Victoria along with her two cronies is blocking your path to the dorms so you can use time manipulation to eventually spill paint all over Victoria. You can either take a picture of her to shame her even more but she feels genuinely sad or you could take this chance to befriend her. The game's all about breaking the surface to figure out what makes each character tick. All this small-scale high school drama eventually leads to the other main character, Chloe, coming into the picture with her own drug-and-money conflict that involves clues to what happened to cause Rachel Amber's missing.
While sometimes the time manipulation can feel trial-and-error in that you wouldn't have noticed that you could place a piece of cardboard beforehand under a shelf to catch some screwdrivers when you shake a table, for the most part it teaches you well that any big task should be thought of a few steps in advance. Even if you fail, there is very little frustration as you can rewind as much as you want to get the desired result. The game isn't very challenging in that sense, but in such a narrative-heavy game you don't want the puzzles to be a nuisance and want to encourage the player to experiment around with the rewind mechanic especially as they're in service of furthering relationships with characters.
The best part of it being a videogame is being able to bask in the world of a high school with the tiniest of details that you'd expect out of point-and-click adventures but in 3D like the Dreamfall games. Max comments on nearly everything that you'd expect, so it's definitely a game where you want to glean as much monologue as possible. While I would have liked a bit more control in some of the moments in the form of possible minigames like taking photos Beyond Good and Evil-style or actually flying a drone around outside the school, these more contemplative repeatable moments such as sitting on the fountain or playing the guitar that harken to the relaxing in Brothers A Tale of Two Sons are still appreciated. The music is memorable and thematically on-point while the end of summer colour palette and art direction is incredibly welcoming on the eyes. A couple of flaws deserve mention. The first being the bad lip syncing although it's understandable given how much dialogue there is and the team size. The second being how many of the dialogue choices railroad to the same response. The time rewind choices though are quite substantial and some even have consequences visible in this first episode.
If a relatively relaxed and heart-warming coming of age interactive tale with some time travel is up your alley, don't miss out on this special experience.
benicillin
Banned
That part secured it's place in my GOTY list. Finally someone recognizes how special that movie is.
Muskieratboi
Member
I'll wait for it to be finished. They're already developing episode 2, right?
Life is Strange Episode 1 Impressions
The game is similar to Telltale The Walking Dead series but it brings enough things to have its own identity and unique mechanics to bring to the table thanks to the rewind mechanics of the game and the way it handles the interactions.
Gameplay is pretty much exploring around and making decisions or fixing mistakes that will affect later outcomes in the game. Some decisions that we may have done with good intentions might have bad results for you or others in the future and overall change the development of things. The rewinding puzzles will make you sometimes wonder if that was the correct decision later on when you wont be able to fix those events making it something that you will want to explore more into the decisions the game has..
The story doesnt follow the usual settings and stories on for these types games. It has a few cringe worthy lines around but for most of the time you'll feel the characters different layers thanks to the interactions and how they add to the mystery of the story. The mean characters might have a softer spot if you look around carefully and some that you might think are softies might have some bad things to say. Make sure to rewind and try different options to see direct outcomes at the moment and some that might have big consequences later.
As for the characters they have their own unique looks and personalities which you'll appreciate despite not being able to interact as much as you would like (Pretty much saving more interactions for the other episodes to be expected.) The main 2 characters are easy to get along with and you'll want to see how their relationship develops through the game.
The game has a beautiful artstyle with excellent atmosphere. You'll want to explore the areas of Arcadia Bay as much as you can and take as many pictures you can of its beauty. There might be an odd/ugly texture here or there but for most of the part is a beautiful looking game that performs well.
Also adding to the visuals the game features a soundtrack that fits the whole atmosphere and indie vibe the game has going on. The voice acting is mostly nice but the lip syncing is off for most of the parts. The SFX are realistic so there is nothing much to say that is fitting to the events that happen within the game.
Overall if you want to play a Story Driven/Movie Like game this game is highly recommended.
The game is similar to Telltale The Walking Dead series but it brings enough things to have its own identity and unique mechanics to bring to the table thanks to the rewind mechanics of the game and the way it handles the interactions.
Gameplay is pretty much exploring around and making decisions or fixing mistakes that will affect later outcomes in the game. Some decisions that we may have done with good intentions might have bad results for you or others in the future and overall change the development of things. The rewinding puzzles will make you sometimes wonder if that was the correct decision later on when you wont be able to fix those events making it something that you will want to explore more into the decisions the game has..
The story doesnt follow the usual settings and stories on for these types games. It has a few cringe worthy lines around but for most of the time you'll feel the characters different layers thanks to the interactions and how they add to the mystery of the story. The mean characters might have a softer spot if you look around carefully and some that you might think are softies might have some bad things to say. Make sure to rewind and try different options to see direct outcomes at the moment and some that might have big consequences later.
As for the characters they have their own unique looks and personalities which you'll appreciate despite not being able to interact as much as you would like (Pretty much saving more interactions for the other episodes to be expected.) The main 2 characters are easy to get along with and you'll want to see how their relationship develops through the game.
The game has a beautiful artstyle with excellent atmosphere. You'll want to explore the areas of Arcadia Bay as much as you can and take as many pictures you can of its beauty. There might be an odd/ugly texture here or there but for most of the part is a beautiful looking game that performs well.
Also adding to the visuals the game features a soundtrack that fits the whole atmosphere and indie vibe the game has going on. The voice acting is mostly nice but the lip syncing is off for most of the parts. The SFX are realistic so there is nothing much to say that is fitting to the events that happen within the game.
Overall if you want to play a Story Driven/Movie Like game this game is highly recommended.
Karak
Member
lol
What can I say? It's that good.
The OST itself is nice but that song is just catchy.
Karak
Member
As I say in my review there is a very cool subtle similarity between this and dreamfall but even past that the soft look to the graphics and the music create a very lived in atmosphere that I don't think I have seen in some time. Though its short I actually want to replay it again right fucking now. That's pretty insane for me.
Karak
Member
Hmm I didn't seem to miss much. I will have to go back and look thats interesting.
darkressurection
Banned
Just finished the first episode and enjoyed it pretty well, there was definitely a lot of setting up for future episodes so I hope that Dontnod's release schedule is pretty solid since some of the Telltale stuff has varied quite a bit. I really enjoy the time rewinding as both a puzzle mechanic (though there wasn't a ton of puzzle stuff in this episode) but also just an in universe way to look at the different decisions you can make. Normally in stuff like this I usually pick something and stick with it but I kinda like being able to immediately rewind and see the other decision then decide how I want to proceed.
All in all, really looking forward to the next episode.
All in all, really looking forward to the next episode.
jediyoshi
Member
Double checking the results, I missed
kate's slate, the pregnancy test, dirty rv, saving the bird (didn't know what to do), and reading david's files. I think I missed a lot from the house because I felt so uneasy during it.
Karak
Member
That last sentence you wrote is EXACTLY how I felt. I loved that vibe despite no reason for it. Just a thought process of who might show up and where it was. Great location.
I actually feel like the entire wrap up will have something to do with NOT being able to change the future. It is going to be very interesting regardless.
matrixman92
Member
heh...easter egg spoiler
Chloes license plate says TWN PKS, at least im pretty sure I saw that
Norwegian_Imposter
Member
What time will it be up in the us?
jediyoshi
Member
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.
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.
Spazznid
Member
There was a guy in the OT thread who called this game IIRC, but whatever, I'll say my piece here.
Fuck, Dontnod knocks it out of the park with art style and UE3 mastery again. Felt like watching their imagination. Only area lacking was animation, which was only good enough. But damn, I could watch the ending all day. Great music choice as well. Can't wait for the next episodes.
Fuck, Dontnod knocks it out of the park with art style and UE3 mastery again. Felt like watching their imagination. Only area lacking was animation, which was only good enough. But damn, I could watch the ending all day. Great music choice as well. Can't wait for the next episodes.
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