henke on 6/11/2015 at 07:11
Quote Posted by Sulphur
you can rewind time at will. But while it
is deployed as an obvious gameplay gimmick (you fucked up, now rewind and unfuck up), it also does some quiet, interesting things with it. Choices you make either hide or reveal things about the characters, and not in wholly predictable ways.
I haven't been very interested in this game, but this makes it sound a bit like the Remedial Chaos Theory episode of Community, which also uses alternate timelines to reveal some interesting truths about it's characters, and suddenly I'm kinda interested.
Sulphur on 6/11/2015 at 07:14
Quote Posted by Judith
I'm not an English native so YMMV, but I like it as a portrait of a small American town, and how it depicts the life and problems of kids in high school/college. I never took the teen slang thing seriously, I thought you can hear this post-ironic wink wink nudge nudge in their voice. The gameplay is basically The Longest Journey: you talk to people, you get to know them and you solve some (relatively simple) puzzles. It's a coming-of-age story that gets from warm to weird, dark, humorous, sentimental to all things in-between. The gameplay is quirky, and pacing is uneven (slow at times), but that sort of reflects Max's personality. IMO they could easily do this without supernatural elements, but the time rewind feature's role is also to emphasize the theme of growing up and aspects of adult relationships in general (
without spoiling much, Greek tragedies say hi).
The thing I liked the least was the finale of the 'mystery' plot. Devs kind of fell into a trap here. This part of the story gets
'big plot twist you couldn't see coming', as there were (almost) no clues pointing to it. As a result, you get a cheap surprise, and typical 'bad guy presents his secret motive and becomes a parody of himself' scene.
Yup, I agree with most of that, or will when I'm done with it (haven't read the spoilers). It looks like it's a semi-grounded tale of growing up with a less unhinged take on some of the elements of Twin Peaks from my current vantage point in the narrative.
henke: haven't seen that episode of Community, but you should chat up with Jesh because he's finished it and rather seems to like it. Should be able to help you pinpoint whether it'll be to your taste.
Judith on 6/11/2015 at 08:51
It was also a surprise for me that Chloe is voiced by Ashly Burch. I didn't recognize her throughout the entire first episode. Looks like she came a long way from Hey Ash series and Tiny Tina in Borderlands 2. AFAIK, she's self-taught, so that's even more impressive.
Yakoob on 1/12/2015 at 22:14
Just picked LIS episode 1 during the sales and my impressions are very mixed. On one hand, I dig the story and think the game has a lot of "soul" especially in the relationship between Chloe and Max. Walking through the spaces with the lovely music, beautiful art style and all the details feels really genuine. I am really curious what happens next, and I like the pseudo-Twin-Peaks vibe developing.
However, the whole young-teenager-hipster theme has me rolling my eyes. Perhaps because my HS experience was different, but somehow I'm not tapping into it, and I really dislike the actual written bits like the journal. It feels so forced, as if the devs are trying way to hard to portray a young modern-age girl with all the lingo and the speech. Part of it comes with the territory, but it just feels like too much after an hour.
I kind of want to know what happens next, but I don't know if I want to actually play it any more. Maybe should just watch some LPS.
Question: How much do your choices matter in the long run? Do they significantly alter the story or more just smokes and mirrors ala Telltale games? And does the time rewind mechanic ever get more involved than occasional "you fucked up, rewind and unfuckup" linear puzzles?
Starker on 2/12/2015 at 01:40
I haven't finished the game myself, but apparently there are some pretty major things that can go differently, and yes, the time mechanic becomes pretty important in the story.
PigLick on 2/12/2015 at 01:53
Except at the ending, it doesnt matter. Really bummed me out the last episode, it was terrible.
Starker on 2/12/2015 at 03:55
Oh, that's disappointing. I was looking forward to other playthroughs to see how it would pan out with different choices.
Thirith on 14/12/2015 at 08:32
I'm probably almost done with Ep 1, and I'm enjoying it well enough, but so far it's grabbing me less than the Telltale games I've played recently. I think I'll need to get used to the world and characters of the game.
Thirith on 23/12/2015 at 09:02
And it's me again. (I know, I could rewind time and post this instead of my first post...)
I've just finished episode 2... and I'm sad to say that I'm not feeling it yet. I think it's mostly the writing and, as a consequence, the characters; it just never rings true. Every time I feel I'm getting close to finding the characters credible and even engaging, there's a clunky line that just feels off, and that happens too often for my taste. Comparing this with the Telltale games I've played: The Walking Dead has some problems too, for instance the character and facial animation that's serviceable at best (practically every TT character overacts and has the same specific facial expressions to indicate key emotions - they might just as well put on different masks for Fear, Anger, Suspicion and Relief), but the writing is strong and the performance hits it home. To my ears, the characters in Life is Strange don't sound like teenagers, they sound like they were written by adults with a sketchy grasp of what teenagers sound like.
It's not like I'm hating the game - I'm somewhat intrigued by the plot and curious to see where it'll take me - and I definitely haven't given up on it, but so far at least I'm simply not seeing the superlative praise this got in some places.
PigLick on 23/12/2015 at 10:20
Trust me, this game resonated quite well with teenagers, my daughter is 17 and a lot of her gaming friends love it. Its not supposed to be realistic, almost a fantasy version of what it is. As an adult male I felt kinda creepy playing it at times, but the game mechanics and world building (plus the soundtrack) are very good.
Beats the telltale style of adventure hands down, would like to see a game in the style of this but a different setting.
