life is strange episode one now free

[Dalisclock]

Finished this last weekend.

Generally liked it, but I was annoyed by how some of the choices feel forced, how you get the "you failed" screen for stupid reasons, such as Chole at the shooting range(essentially railroading you) and in some cases, it feels like no matter what you do, you're getting screwed.

Among other things, after the whole fire alarm thing, you have to decide whether to tell the truth about seeing a student threatening someone else with a gun. If you tell the truth, you get accused of slandering him(because his family is uber-rich and god forbid their darling get accused of trying to shoot someone) while if you lie, you can't ever bring it up later and be believed(and you're still accused of being acting shifty).

Also, the first episode isn't particularly good. I didn't think the game really started picking up until episode 3.

 

[pookie101]

i was annoyed by the stealth section in the final episode but its got a great sound track and its my favourite game full stop (she says sitting here in a life is strange t shirt, drinking from her life is strange coffee mug)

 

[DoPo]

Take a picture of the security guard bullying a girl or step out and stick up for her? Max has a SMARTPHONE. There's literally no reason she couldn't have done both.

Ah, but Max likes her old style camera, she wouldn't be using a smartphone.

...which still doesn't explain why she couldn't do both, of course.

 

[TilMorrow]

I heard the news but I really have no desire to play a game whose story and characters are so damn annoying and speak in the most unreal sense possible. Not to mention the fact it tricks you by suddenly improving in the 3rd to 4th episode only to fall back down the stairs it had been climbing by the last one. In five words, Life is Strange is dumb.

 

[Nazulu]

It's not my type of game (especially when it always shows text options and colourful buttons on the screen), but now that it's free, I have no excuse not to give it a go.

Thanks for mentioning Windknight

 

[Areloch]

Yeah, there's no ending where you get to kill Chloe yourself and it not be rewound or retconned by shenanigans-travel. -15/10

Seriously, I get that she's actually fairly accurate a representation of how blitheringly stupid and selfish teenagers can be, but it makes it hard to play through when she's the main character's super special bff.

Also, for a good highlighting of all the plot holes and the like:

 

[gigastar]

You mean to tell me people paid money for it in the past?

Well people have been paying for the crummy visual novels that have been trickling onto Steam since last year.

So adjust your expectations with that in mind.

 

[Spider RedNight]

I couldn't get into it - Chloe is WAY too annoying by herself, not to mention that it had Hipster oozing out of every orifice. And I get that the main character is supposed to be averagely special but I just... don't see how she's this "extraordinary picture-taker" when it's really nothing special. [[ maybe it gets better but I only played the first three before just losing interest COMPLETELY ]]

Also while I agree with others in that a lot of the situations feel forced, I'm probably in the minourity thinking this but I'm actually REALLY not a fan of the whole "rewind time" thing, especially when Max questions you EVERY TIME you make an important decision. Sure, decisions might not matter in TTG stuff but at least A. You have to make a choice then and there and B. the game doesn't ask you "oooh, are you sure you should've done that? Maybe we should try the other one". You make your choice and move on. If anything, Life is Strange just gives you an opportunity to be as wishy-washy as the cast.

But hey, at least the first episode's free now. And for the record, I AM looking forward to DONTNOD's new game about the vampires and stuff. I just really didn't like this one - I was reminded of all the stuff I hated in high school-- what? They were in college? Bullshit! They talked and acted like high schoolers, what?

 

[WindKnight]

I found myself wanting to just watch an LP if anything else after scraping through the demo. Wolf Among Us is still the high water mark for me. Hope TT does another one instead of all these stupid movie/TV show spinoffs. If I wanted that I'd watch the damn movie/TV shows.

 

[Redryhno]

You mean to tell me people paid money for it in the past?

Well people have been paying for the crummy visual novels that have been trickling onto Steam since last year.

So adjust your expectations with that in mind.

I dunno, at least those visual novels don't pretend to be anything but what they are and are pretty cheap, especially compared to this stuff.

But hey, at least the first episode's free now. And for the record, I AM looking forward to DONTNOD's new game about the vampires and stuff. I just really didn't like this one - I was reminded of all the stuff I hated in high school-- what? They were in college? Bullshit! They talked and acted like high schoolers, what?

No, it's still high school, just a boarding school or something...it was never really explained why it was the only school there while apparently needing scholarships to get in...Or why Max can't walk past people on the stairs and has to use her powers to drop paint on them instead...and that it's perfectly ok for her to do that kind of shit but not the people she doesn't like...Or why Chloe can't be bothered to look for bottles when she's the one that wants to shoot them. Or why Chloe hating her stepdad is "justified" when he kept going after to save her despite her despising him...Actually, just fuck Chloe, where's the option to not realize Max's powers?

Also yeah, in alot of ways their next game looks like it might actually be interesting. If only because they won't have the "people just don't like female protags" excuse to fall back on with criticism. Still gonna wait at least a month till after release though,

 

[DoPo]

But hey, at least the first episode's free now. And for the record, I AM looking forward to DONTNOD's new game about the vampires and stuff. I just really didn't like this one - I was reminded of all the stuff I hated in high school-- what? They were in college? Bullshit! They talked and acted like high schoolers, what?

I agree that a lot of things in Life is Strange are...strange. I did really like DONTNOD's previous game Remember Me, though. Yeah, yeah, it had its problems. I don't really care - they weren't really that prominent. I'd definitely take Remember Me's over any 5 of a lot of other high profile games.

Their next game also looks rather promising for the moment. I want to see what happens with it. I'm a big fan of vampire games. I mean, I would have even played DARK for gods' sake - I knew it was going to be crappy. I knew it straight from the revealing trailers - the shittyness could not be masked. After it came out, it turned out it was even worse than what I initially estimated, yet it wasn't surprising. The only reason why I didn't play it is because it never got down to the price it deserver. I was fully willing to pay a pound, maybe pound-fifty. Two quid are expensive, while two-fifty would have been equivalent to buying gold-plated audio cable - incredibly wasteful for no value gained. Anything higher I wouldn't pay. And I haven't. The game stayed at full price of friggin ?40 for way more than it should have. After years it is now "only" ?15 when not on sale and ?3.75 when it is (because it never gets more than -75%...). So, all in all, the game is WA-A-A-AY too expensive for what it provides. In the end, I just watched a let's play [https://youtu.be/Jnfjq-i7ppI?list=PLsy9DTCWSlniO--50hA6V29xrSB9aALdn] of it. It turns out it was as campy as I expected.

To turn this back on-topic - DARK is terrible but you play vampires. I'd have played it. I'd expect DONTNOD's game to be leaps and bounds above it. I'd definitely play it.

 

[Dalisclock]

No, it's still high school, just a boarding school or something...it was never really explained why it was the only school there while apparently needing scholarships to get in...Or why Max can't walk past people on the stairs and has to use her powers to drop paint on them instead...and that it's perfectly ok for her to do that kind of shit but not the people she doesn't like...Or why Chloe can't be bothered to look for bottles when she's the one that wants to shoot them. Or why Chloe hating her stepdad is "justified" when he kept going after to save her despite her despising him...Actually, just fuck Chloe, where's the option to not realize Max's powers?

Also yeah, in alot of ways their next game looks like it might actually be interesting. If only because they won't have the "people just don't like female protags" excuse to fall back on with criticism. Still gonna wait at least a month till after release though,

I liked it in the same way I like games like TWD, so I adjust my expectations accordingly. But yeah, the GamingSins reminded me of some of the railroading and poor decisions. Among other things, the pure contrived thing about why the whole initial confrontation takes place in a bathroom at a High School, which has a paranoid security guard and anyone could walk into at any time(like say, Max). Or why nobody bothers to call the cops after finding the dark room(There's more then enough evidence in there to make an arrest at that point).

 

[Spider RedNight]

They were in college? Bullshit! They talked and acted like high schoolers, what?

iirc they were in a special highschool that only had seniors, that was treated like a boarding school.

probably because adding 4x the number of students all in different age ranges would have been near impossible.

Well, I'm only giving myself a slap on the wrist because I must not've been caring when they mentioned that... and a slap in the face for getting three episodes in before realising that I wasn't gonna enjoy it any more.

I'm glad I have so many people giving me this tidbit of information, though. Thanks guys, now the dialogue just seems even MORE cringe-worthy! -thumbs up-

 

[ErrrorWayz]

I've had a go at the freebie but my Mrs threw out my game pad charger and the keyboard controls suck. Personally wasn't wildly into the game type, I liked Indigo / Whatever Else it was Called but that click to continue stuff seems a bit repetitive. I guess it was nice to see someone do something a bit different with setting but (as is well covered here) the dialogue is pretty awful and I got the feeling it was trying to be "different for difference sake" rather than because they had any deep love for the story. Still, takes all sorts and a freebie is a freebie.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Pretty good game inside its genre. Rather unique in terms of tone and story beats. Similar spiritually to Telltale, with similar strengths and weaknesses. Made excellent use of licensed music.

Is sure to infuriate those who...

1. Originally condemned the game based on the initial trailer as "Tumblr's wet dream". Insufficient punchin' n' lazers and testosterone.

2. Hate linear narrative experiences because "your choices don't matter". Do not view the act of progressing through the story, considering said choices, or viewing how those choices affect your relationships inside the game as "actual game play". Similar charges were leveled at "The Walking Dead". Insufficient fightin' n' shootin' n' racin' n' pew pew pew. Thems real gamez, for real folkz.

3. Despise teen or "hipster" culture. Ironically, most frequently teens and hipsters themselves. The game's dialogue definitely starts out painfully on the nose with an adult approximation of "teen lingo", so you can see why that would be.

4. Just hate modern adventure games. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[WindKnight]

2. Hate linear narrative experiences because "your choices don't matter". Do not view the act of progressing through the story, considering said choices, or viewing how those choices affect your relationships inside the game as "actual game play". Similar charges were leveled at "The Walking Dead".

I think what bugged me more about the walking dead was that if you were given an option to 'save' someone, it just meant they were going to die further down the road. This specially burned with the character in each season I really liked who ended up dead, particularly the cruel way the one in season 2 was killed off.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I think what bugged me more about the walking dead was that if you were given an option to 'save' someone, it just meant they were going to die further down the road. This specially burned with the character in each season I really liked who ended up dead, particularly the cruel way the one in season 2 was killed off.

True, but the ultimate fate of that character wasn't the content. The tone of your relationship with them and nature of your interactions with them was the content. To me, that's dramatic impact of decision making. It didn't matter a whit to me that the ultimate outcome was fixed, or that certain people always died. I still felt like I was directing moment to moment story beats.

I don't know what game people are playing where they get endless potential outcomes based on their decision making. Certainly not any titles I've ever seen.

 

[Areloch]

2. Hate linear narrative experiences because "your choices don't matter".

See, the game DOES get demerits when it starts with a splash screen that explicitly states that your choices and action affect the outcome(and then they totally don't).