Life is Strange

 PC
User Score
8.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 3257 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,751 out of 3257
  2. Mixed: 277 out of 3257
  3. Negative: 229 out of 3257

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  1. Crackfarmer
    Jun 22, 2016
    7
    They ruined to whole Series for me with the last episode. I have no idea who did create the last one but it was so **** The whole Games impression gut ruined by that.
  2. M3ta
    Dec 5, 2020
    7
    Disclaimer: Have only played Episode 1 (free on Steam, at the time of writing.)

    I found out about this game whilst looking up good adventure/ point-and-click games. It's important to note that (at least in episode 1) there isn't actually much gameplay (there were in total 3 or 4 puzzles to solve.) The game does seem like an immersive sim (or playable movie), with an element of choice,    Disclaimer: Have only played Episode 1 (free on Steam, at the time of writing.)

    I found out about this game whilst looking up good adventure/ point-and-click games. It's important to note that (at least in episode 1) there isn't actually much gameplay (there were in total 3 or 4 puzzles to solve.) The game does seem like an immersive sim (or playable movie), with an element of choice, and a lot of thought put into its characters, their relationships, and its world. Episode 1 did seem a bit like it was written by people who have watched TV shows about American high schools, with some slightly cheesy dialogue - but maybe this improves as the series goes on.

    I am not looking for an interactive story at the moment, so it gets a 7 from me.    … Expand
  3. WrenOz
    Aug 15, 2016
    7
    A fantastic game from Squire Enix
    1.Graphics is just awesome.Color combination used here is just perfect and capture the true American theme...what is more, the attention given to graphics is insane ..even the little things are done with care....(10/10)
    2.Main character Max is likable person...they should give little more attention to side characters and story (7/10) 3.interesting    A fantastic game from Squire Enix
    1.Graphics is just awesome.Color combination used here is just perfect and capture the true American theme...what is more, the attention given to graphics is insane ..even the little things are done with care....(10/10)

    2.Main character Max is likable person...they should give little more attention to side characters and story (7/10)
    3.interesting game mechanic...
    4.F**k you IGN for misguiding people with this game...this a fantastic effort    … Expand
  4. mrrealperson
    Feb 15, 2020
    5
    Эх, надо что-то и поругать, а то всё хвалим и хвалим. Ждал эту игру с её анонса, ибо фанат интерактивного кинца, разрабатывали французы, а у французов как правило c фильмами всё в порядке, да тут ещё и время можно мотать, чтобы если что выбрать другой вариант ответа. Звучало это интригующе, сколько интересного можно было бы выжать из этой идеи. Однако, когда игра стала поэпизодно выходить,Эх, надо что-то и поругать, а то всё хвалим и хвалим. Ждал эту игру с её анонса, ибо фанат интерактивного кинца, разрабатывали французы, а у французов как правило c фильмами всё в порядке, да тут ещё и время можно мотать, чтобы если что выбрать другой вариант ответа. Звучало это интригующе, сколько интересного можно было бы выжать из этой идеи. Однако, когда игра стала поэпизодно выходить, начались проблемы. Отвратительно написан сценарий, плоские шаблонные персонажи, да недодуманный лор просто портят всё впечатление, игру явно переоценивают. При чём понятно это становится практически сразу, когда начало игры практически под чистую украли у Алана Вейка, при чём это совсем не похоже на совпадение. Но это ладно, далее никакой интриги история нам не даёт, ГГ ведёт себя как полная дура, вопреки даже женской логике. Набор персонажей клишированный, не смотря на то, что под конец игры нам вроде как раскрывают героев с другой стороны, но предпосылки на это условные и не правдоподобные. Использование перемотки времени штука интересная как идея, но здесь она просрана напрочь. Сюжетные дыры! Способностей главной героине напихали под завязку, но они внезапно отключаются, когда это нужно сценаристам. Авторы стараются выехать на драме, но в неё они не могут, так как персонажи плоские и не имеют вменяемой мотивации. Не смотря на это, в игре есть очень добротные сюжетные драматические повороты, но они не работают, когда у игрока горит из-за логики повествования. Изучать мир неинтересно от слова совсем, лор условный, стоит тут для галочки, никаких внутренних интересных историй он не несёт. Аниматоры тоже халтуршики, похлеще сценаристов! Выпускать кинцо в 2015 году, в котором на лице персонажей только рот открывается, да глаза моргают, нельзя. Понимаю, может у компании бюджеты небольшие, но вот у тех же Telltale тоже денег не особо много изначально было, однако мимику своими ручками анимируют, бровки героям поднимают и тд. В общем, это неудачный эксперимент, не советую, разве что радуют только приятный на глаз визуальный стиль и душевный саундтрек, который неплохо так нагоняет атмосферу. Ну и Эшли Бёрч в озвучке Хлои шикарна. А так выше 5 рука не поднимается ставить, ибо игра не использует свой потенциал никак.… Expand
  5. Kickmass
    Jul 28, 2020
    6
    life is strange is a game which doesn't try too hard to be more than it is which is nice, it's one of those games that heavily relies on the story so much it becomes hard to acknowledge its gameplay elements, i always hated those games because it tries to be something it is not, but i still play them and let myself enjoy them as long movies to be honest.

    on the objective level, life is    life is strange is a game which doesn't try too hard to be more than it is which is nice, it's one of those games that heavily relies on the story so much it becomes hard to acknowledge its gameplay elements, i always hated those games because it tries to be something it is not, but i still play them and let myself enjoy them as long movies to be honest.

    on the objective level, life is strange has some stunning stylized artwork, the soundtracks are out of this world, and the characters feels real, and even though there are a lot of stereotypical characters that isn't really important for the story the game still finds a way for you to care about them and give them a little bit of depth, and the biggest strength in my opinion is the relationship between Max the protagonist of the story and her friend Chloe which honestly is one of the best relationships in gaming history, it's so heart warming and wholesome even though i never liked Chloe's character but was empathetic nonetheless.

    on the personal level though the game simply isn't for me, i don't like teen drama or stories that revolves around teenagers overall so i never cared about any character in this game and i don't like time manipulation stuff so that's a double negative for me, i mean i gave it a chance but i always forced myself to open and play it again, never out of curiosity or love for the game or the story, and i couldn't force myself more after i reached the ending of episode 3, i watched the rest as highlights on youtube, so yeah the negatives are all my personal feelings towards it.

    to sum it up it is a good game by all means but not for people who doesn't like time manipulation or teen drama or telltale style games.    … Expand
  6. Redwheel
    Aug 20, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Sad, heart breaking story like this one, Life is Strange, describes how cruel and strange can life be, really. Even sounds and music can be felt.
    But, choices really doesnt matter at all, but several times its just change one or two things. I must say, its good to make choices, but if you make one, doesnt matter if it is main choice, it must AFFECT some little situations, forver. It can take several years maybe to develops sich a game like that, with so many endings and options. But its only up to developers how their game will go. But its still sad at all, story and all. Well made. Characters have lots of dialogues, and you can even earn achievement like collectibles. Exactly, photos. Sometimes hard to find, but barely possible. Its good to have games like this... Game with choices are good, but it must have better options to AFFECT the whole game. Its not bad and not great game here. But story its just fascinating. For me, 7 score    … Expand
  7. tsakiym
    Apr 4, 2016
    7
    way more choices compare to telltale games and more repayable than the other "movie games" so far. but...i didnt like the story... if this game had a darker story i think my score will be 10/10
  8. fj007
    Aug 23, 2015
    7
    After having seen and played four of the five episodes I know that my mixed feelings about this game won't be resolved. At the one hand the game has many aspects which are very appealing. The artwork is simply great. A very consistent artistic vision which mixes realistic with styled elements, some of them impressionistic, some of them like entering one of Hopper's pictures. The music andAfter having seen and played four of the five episodes I know that my mixed feelings about this game won't be resolved. At the one hand the game has many aspects which are very appealing. The artwork is simply great. A very consistent artistic vision which mixes realistic with styled elements, some of them impressionistic, some of them like entering one of Hopper's pictures. The music and the dialogue writing is not on the same level but work quite well most of the time. The music plays an important role in setting the mood, especially in longer non-dialogue section where the combination of images and music work – in the best moments – like a very good music video. At some points the musical indication how you should feel now is just to blunt and heavy-handed.

    I liked the dialogues. They may not be realistic – I wouldn't know as I am not a US-American – but are similar enough to many High School movies to seem at least to be so and the character types are, well, types, but with enough twists to make them enjoyable. And the rather good voice acting allowed me to ignore some of the weaker parts of the dialogues. The psychology of the characters has certainly not a lot to do with how real people feel and behave and experience trauma and handle it, but conforms rather to a simplified version of mainstream Hollywood psychology. This sounds more negative than I mean it. This game is popular entertainment and its main task is to make you feel; and this it does very well.

    Another point this game shares with other forms of modern popular entertainment like contemporary TV series is its interest in female empowerment. The two main characters in episode one to four are Maxine, called Max, and her friend Chloe and everyone else is destined to stay on the periphery. Sometimes, if not most of the time this creates very convincingly the small world only inhabited by these two best friends for ever sometimes tinged with some homoerotic feelings and filled with an atmosphere of mutual teenage adoration. Sometimes it is less convincing, for example when the two are leaving for some dangerous location and refuse help. So this game is, all in all, a very female-centered fantasy – as, for example, the old Bond movies have been very male-centered fantasies – and this shouldn't bother you if you want to enjoy this game.

    The story just wants too much. The plot is quite convoluted and mixes some High School/College drama with a crime story – this combination works rather well – and a mystic, supernatural-powers- are-awakening-and-the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh kind of plot, which doesn't work for me. Probably the writers wanted to explain the main game play device, the rewinding of time, by making it a part of this mystical world change. I have to admit that after some 'discussion' of chaos theory and the end of the world is coming because nature is so polluted scenarios my hopes are not too high in respect to this part of the plot, while the crime story could work out, even if up to now it follows the classic schema very closely including an episode where the detective falls into the hands of the villain.

    The game play left me – again – with mixed feelings. Max, the only playable character of the game, can rewind the time for about 1-2 mins. That allows for some interesting puzzles, but even those are not very complicated, and some of the others are bland and quite uninspired. Seen purely as an adventure game and comparing it with the reference games of this tradition, like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Day of the Tentacle, Myst or Harvey's new eyes the game play is rather boring. But this trait it shares with the Tell Tales games like The Wolf among us or The Walking Dead and many enjoy them. Life is Strange follows this role model also in putting a lot of emphasis on the decisions the player can make, and in a very similar way to the Tell Tale games the relation between the decision of a player and the outcome seems to be quite often very arbitrarily. Nevertheless the possibility to explore the beautifully painted world is really satisfying and together with the well-paced rhythm of the game, its change between emotionally intense passages and quieter ones, the game play has kept me immersed and interested most of the time.    … Expand
  9. ALLCAPS
    Nov 1, 2015
    6
    An interesting game that could use some polishing.

    1. The story was overall pretty solid and will catch you off guard and at a couple points completely captivate its audience. The problem is, for every good moment in the story, the game has two pedantic and unfun sections (for example collecting empty bottles in a junkyard or mindlessly wandering around an art gallery). I also don't    An interesting game that could use some polishing.

    1. The story was overall pretty solid and will catch you off guard and at a couple points completely captivate its audience. The problem is, for every good moment in the story, the game has two pedantic and unfun sections (for example collecting empty bottles in a junkyard or mindlessly wandering around an art gallery). I also don't like the direction the game went but I won't focus on that. I do take issue with the two choice ending though. One of the two endings comes off as a fake choice. Choosing it means that you will miss the point of the game and the cutscene that will play is largely unfullfilling.

    2. I could not identify with any of the characters. They all came off unbelivable and unlikeable, including the main character Max. Dialogue is filled with cilches and is unnatural while none of tthe characters are explored in depth. For people who gave this game a bad review it seems like this is their number one problem with it. The reason it didn't ruin the game for me was that the genre is magical realism so it is supposed to be a little unrealistic and that I can imagine the dialogue being more appealing to high schoolers than those in their early 20s. (If you are late 20s+ I would not recommend buying this game.)

    3. The mechanic of time rewinding was interesting but left me with the feeling that none of my choices mattered. It was a creative way of getting to see all the different choices that could be made, but the way it was used in puzzle solving was largely uncreative in my opinion. Furthermore, this mechanic makes the game almost wothless when it comes to replayability, something that I value in other story games. No matter what you choose you will be lead through the same sequence of events to the same final decision. I don't want to spoil the ending, but it was very unfullfilling knowing that the main character could travel between the two realities if she really wanted to. This is not a game you should think hard about because there are definitely some major plot holes.

    If you like story games, are young and don't want to think too much then I highly recommend this game. It's a fun ride if you don't know what's coming. If that's not you, I'd sit this one out.    … Expand
  10. Furiosa
    May 22, 2015
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I really wanted to like this game. It does look and feel pretty cool for a video game. It's like one of those thought-provoking teenage dramas about life, death, and all the happiness and unhappiness in between. Unfortunately, I just feel that it missed its mark.

    First of all, the music kinda bothers me. It's relaxing at times, especially during the scenes where Max gets to sit down somewhere and a BGM starts to play as you relax with her and just chill. At other times, I feel that it came off as rather pretentious, like one of those movies that plays Coldplay's "Fix You" just so to be 'deep'. The opening scene with the music on-loop in the first episode was so annoying. It's blasting so loud that I could barely hear Max talking over the song as I explore the hallway.

    Then there are the characters. I don't know why people kept on calling this game and its characters realistic, when most of the character traits here were ripped out from your typical high school drama movie. You have your rapist jocks (right, because seemingly nice guys like Warren would NEVER rape people), your sonority snobs (whom, as opposed to Hollywood's lies, are the exceptions among real life teenagers, not common stereotype), your shy sensitive love interest, Warren (whose real life counterparts actually rape people), because every teenage romance movie has to have one of those, your hardass military veteran, your homey housewives who married to an a**h*** (because they always do in movies for the sake of drama), and of course, your 'nice girl' protagonist going into a 'good girl gone bad' phase - again, a trademark of many teenage drama. To be fair, you do get to decide whether if the nice girl stays as a prude or unleash her inner-punk, so it's not all bad.

    Half of the cliches I described above don't exist in real life high schools. Jocks aren't always the ones who are self-entitled a**h***s, sonority girls aren't always snobbish and selfish (Max even used the phrase "Victoria's Secret" in the game to inform the players, "Yes, this is a cliche sonority b**** who's shallow and insecure like all real life models..." except that real life models aren't like that). They even have your textbook versions of two 'slaves' that follow Victoria everywhere like in Mean Girls. One of them has to be the 'smart one' and the other is a soft-hearted ditz. FYI, life isn't a teenage movie.

    The worst part is that befriending Victoria doesn't change anything in the long run, as she still acts like a shallow snob in episode 2, despite my expectation of the writers showing her to be more than skin-deep. Moreover, not ratting Nathan out doesn't change anything either, as he still gives you trouble and beats up Warren anyway. The only significant decision is Kate's suicide, which you can't prevent if you screwed up too badly.

    The problem with decision-based games like this is their focus on the main plot. They are forced to tell the main story, so their choices can't affect that too drastically, like giving you a choice not to save Chloe's father and not screw up her life, handicapping her, while you join the clique of those stereotype sonority ditz. It's no different from Telltale Games in that aspect. You want a game with choice? Try Fallout: New Vegas or School Days. Both of those games have myriad amount of endings significantly affected by your decisions. As far as I'm concerned, Life Is Strange is as linear as a movie. It's an interactive movie where you get to participate in SOME decisions where you want the story to go, but you'll never truly change the fate of the protagonist herself, because the main plot is unchangeable.

    It's not all bad though in hipsterville. The game deserves to be hailed as an improved version of Telltale Games. The controls are more interactive, the cutscenes are of higher quality, the dialogues are more fun and quirky, and some of the character moments aren't actually as bad as I might have implied above. Despite the cliches, Kate the bible-thumper is not as innocent (or horny) as movies portray bible-thumpers, Victoria redeems herself a little bit when you choose to comfort her (though I still wish they would drop the ridiculous snob act altogether), Chloe is damaged goods and a pretty selfish bestfriend (something I could actually relate with in real life), and I have to admit, there were enough subtle differences among the cliches for the game not to be totally terrible. It's no Call of Duty bad, but the character writing is merely on-par with Telltale's The Walking Dead.

    There are some cool things the game did with the choice system, such as the rewind mechanic and dialogue opportunities you get to try out using the rewind if you fail to have a proper conversation. One thing I'm annoyed is that you can't answer correctly if you are replaying the game a second time (note that collectibles must also be recollected with replays).

    Overall, the game has potential to be great, but its flaws greatly hold it ba    … Expand
  11. Skarwind
    Dec 28, 2015
    5
    A game marred by many technical problems. When told how to interact with the environment a player wants to simply pull thair hair. You need to click a mouse key and drag the mouse into a specific direction, however, this does not work. When aiming at the characters diary, the character does not speak or interact with it. After several attempts with several objects the character seemed toA game marred by many technical problems. When told how to interact with the environment a player wants to simply pull thair hair. You need to click a mouse key and drag the mouse into a specific direction, however, this does not work. When aiming at the characters diary, the character does not speak or interact with it. After several attempts with several objects the character seemed to pick and choose what they wanted to speak about. This game has an interesting premise but because of the plethora of major issues this game just down right sucks. It isn't worth any amount of money or the time to even download illegally. Just watch a let's play if you can find a competent one. I paid money for this on Steam and it was so broken I had to refund it. I then tried to purchase it from Square Enix and again, because it was so broken, I had to refund it, again... This game is garbage. It's a piece of **** as far as technical performance is concerned. It may have a great story but any gamer worth their salt should not bother with the performance issues or troublesome glitches that happen to this game in general.

    In 2015 games like this should excel because they don't require a lot of input or technical expertise. But this game fails to grasp this concept. Stick to Telltale games. At least they can make something that runs well. Square Enix proves, yet again, that they don't know what a computer is or how one runs. They may be able to design console games but they need to leave PC to the professionals.    … Expand
  12. kyriores
    Dec 19, 2015
    5
    I got the first episode through an offer and I have to admit that the story was quite interesting. Luckily, youtube exists, so I didn't have to buy or play through the 4 remaining episodes.. So yeah: 0/10 gameplay, 10/10 story.
  13. arska1994
    Nov 27, 2015
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. So. Shaky start. Fantastic middle. Awful ending. That would summarize my feelings about the game pretty well. I could almost leave it at that... But I won't.

    When I played the first episode of the game, I didn't have high hopes for it. The beginning is very shaky. The characters feel way too generic, clichéd even. The only bright light is the main character and the story that's being set up (the missing girls, mind you, not the time traveling). Everything else is.. Mediocre at best. But this is to be expected. You can't expect a game or a TV show to establish its characters in the first few hours. Some manage it but most don't.

    The writers start writing a bit more depth into the supporting cast after the first episode. And I applaud the writers for it. Because of those efforts, I didn't leave this game thinking it was bad (contrary to what people on the Internet say, 6/10 is a decent rating, not bad by any stretch). However, it's the "main" supporting character that I never warmed up to. Chloe seems to be the "do it for her" character like Ellie of the Last of Us, Clementine from TWD, Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite. It's just that it's so damn hard to like the character. Aggressive, impulsive, shifts blame onto the main character, throws a hissyfit when I answer a phone and she has to talk to her mother. Really?

    The story involves time traveling, making the genre savvy able to predict the overall tone of the ending. Some people on Reddit actually just kind of guessed it to a tee. Given the imaginary rules of time travel, there's really only new takes on old ideas with time traveling stories. Nevertheless, the other main story, the missing girls. Interesting stuff. Riveting. Truly the best part of the game. And the main focus. Thank god.

    After the shaky start, Life is Strange had three great episodes. Each delving deeper into the mystery, each giving some background on side characters and yeah... Really spectacular. Showed a lot of promise. But quite like Mass Effect 3 years ago, the ending is just awful. It effectively gives you a binary decision. Choose a ship or choose to undo every action you made in the entire game. It really feels like the writers just threw it in there in a hurry to publish.

    Admirable ambition with some great character arcs and an interesting main mystery. Some of the characters got past their clichés after the writers gave some background exposition... Some other characters weren't as lucky. The writers struggle to end the story in any fulfilling fashion. Two endings, the other is just anticlimactic and the other has been seen previously in countless of time travel stories.

    Should you buy it? Well.. I don't know. It's not that expensive so I'd say yes. But only if you really have the money for it. There's a lot of better games out there at the moment and most of them have the same price tag.    … Expand
  14. Chubac
    May 13, 2020
    6
    Mediocre gameplay and a story that we saw million times already in other videogames, movies and TV.
  15. Hack
    Mar 8, 2016
    7
    If you enjoy the visual novel genre of game Life is Strange is one you need to play, while it's not the best it's definitely up there and worth your time. It had quite a strong emotional effect on me whilst I was playing it, it makes you think about your own life and what you wish you could "rewind" and do over again.

    I would rank the episodes as follows: 2 > 3 > 4 > 5 > 1
  16. Adast_Adamov
    Dec 20, 2015
    6
    I just can't understand...How the game that started so good, can have such awful endings? Not only they make all your previous choices pointless, they also didn't explain anything in the end.
  17. Aladgar
    Jan 21, 2016
    7
    Nice game! I just feel something magical during the game so I just can't stop until the end. :) What I don't like are two things. First it's not long enough (minus 2 points) and second the choices are not good enough. The game has a good story but there are choices where I can choose for the big nothing so nothing change if I choose this or that. Fortunately there are just some but it'sNice game! I just feel something magical during the game so I just can't stop until the end. :) What I don't like are two things. First it's not long enough (minus 2 points) and second the choices are not good enough. The game has a good story but there are choices where I can choose for the big nothing so nothing change if I choose this or that. Fortunately there are just some but it's enough for me to give 1 less points. So the game is 7/10 for me.… Expand
  18. aditya1101
    Oct 5, 2017
    7
    A friend and I recently finished playing through Square Enix’s new take on the interactive story genre of video games, Life is Strange (2015). We were both very impressed by the depth of the characters and story, the detailed environmental design, and the gaming experience as a whole. The popularity of this style of game has increased immensely in recent years, developed both by largeA friend and I recently finished playing through Square Enix’s new take on the interactive story genre of video games, Life is Strange (2015). We were both very impressed by the depth of the characters and story, the detailed environmental design, and the gaming experience as a whole. The popularity of this style of game has increased immensely in recent years, developed both by large studios like Telltale Games (The Walking Dead, Minecraft: Story Mode, etc) as well as indie developers like Galactic Cafe (The Stanley Parable). However, Square Enix’s entry into the market was fairly unexpected, as they are best known for their fantasy RPG games like Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts. When large developers suddenly breach new ground like this, the results are often very hit or miss. For example, Nintendo’s few forays into the sports video game genre have produced stellar games like Super Mario Strikers and the original Mario Tennis but it has also lead to the release of critical failures like Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Fortunately, Life is Strange fits into the former category; its strong plot and visuals paired with an incredibly unique take on what is quickly becoming an oversaturated genre make for a uniquely entertaining and surprisingly thought-provoking play through.

    While it is undoubtedly true that the story, characters, and environment of Life is Strange are done exceptionally well and play a critical role in raising the quality of the game, I find it more interesting to investigate the way that the game benefits from its treatment of tropes associated with the interactive story genre. Although it certainly cannot be said that great interactive story games are a dime a dozen, there is a decent selection of these games that have earned their merit primarily on the depth of their storytelling experience. Until Dawn and The Last of Us are two fine examples, along with much of the Telltale canon. With that in mind, I aim to understand what Life is Strange does differently than the games that came before it, and how this contributes to the enthralling gameplay that my friend and I experienced.

    It doesn’t take long to come to the conclusion that the feature which makes Life is Strange so exceptional is the very same feature that headlined all of the game’s promotional material: the rewind mechanic. If you are well acquainted with the game, this reveal may come across as quite facetious; of course it is the rewind mechanism that makes the game unique! Rewinding is central to both the gameplay and the plot, not to mention that it is practically the first game mechanic that is introduced to the player. But I contend that the particular way in which this rewind mechanism enhances the player’s experience is far from obvious. Rather, I feel that the effectiveness of the rewind mechanic is borne from a fairly inconspicuous sources: the player’s somewhat incongruous desire to explore all possible dialogue and story options when playing an interactive story game – what many like to call the “completionist” mentality.

    When I play interactive story games, despite often having a clear idea of which path I intend to choose, I often find myself replaying scenes many times just to figure out how the story and dialogue would have progressed had I chosen an alternate route. There’s this almost incomprehensible feeling that by not witnessing every single element of plot that was programmed into the game, you are somehow obtaining a lessor or an abridged experience. It’s a hard sentiment to address, especially since many of these games are built on the premise of the player making organic decisions as if they were actually embodying the persona of the main character. When the player instead replays the scene multiple times in order to procure the “best” possible outcome, it provides the player with a somewhat unintended ability to subvert this intention. And yet, this feeling is quite prevalent amongst video gamers; it’s the same reason why we’re not satisfied until we’ve reached 100% completion on our save file or caught all 151 Pokémon. Not all of us are completionists, but the tendency is so rooted in gamer culture and, even more significantly, in human psychology that it is impossible to ignore the influence that it has on the way people play video games.

    It is precisely for this reason that the rewind mechanic is so brilliant. It takes a longstanding and deeply entrenched tendency and turns it into a diegetic game mechanic. Gone are the days of feeling guilty for perverting the game’s original intentions when you replay a scene ten times before making your final decision. The game doesn’t just allow you to replay and redo choices; it actively encourages you to do so. The resulting gameplay is both unique and satisfying; this newfound ability to manipulate the game from within the game gives us the ability to si    … Expand
  19. Guerrino
    May 29, 2015
    6
    I hadn't even read something about this game before i downloaded it... When i played it some time i understood that it's not interesting boring and with bad language. It's good if game is based on real life. But it's not interesting for me. I found it so boring. Maybe i am an adherent of another games but the script... Not for me. But download this game and check. Maybe it's for you ;)
  20. jas_on
    Jan 19, 2020
    6
    An interesting mix of mystery and fun that gets stretched too far in a hard-to-forgive final act.
  21. Kadirov
    Aug 13, 2020
    7
    МЫСЛИ ПИСЕЧКИ НЯШНАЯ ПИСЕЧКА О ЧЕМ ЖЕ ОНА ДУМАЕТ КАК ЖИВЁТ ОЧИНЬ ИНТЕРЕСНА НАДО ПОИГРАТЬ ПИСЕЧКА ДАЙ АСЕЧКУ

    Если бы ГГ был мужчиной - игра бы вряд-ли обрела такую популярность. А так - игра обычная пропаганда взглядов "левых" рилполитик лоббистов Пропагандируется массовая слежка, ГГ - феменистка, а главным хейтером феменизма в игре выступает поехавший маргигальный наркоман. Что    МЫСЛИ ПИСЕЧКИ НЯШНАЯ ПИСЕЧКА О ЧЕМ ЖЕ ОНА ДУМАЕТ КАК ЖИВЁТ ОЧИНЬ ИНТЕРЕСНА НАДО ПОИГРАТЬ ПИСЕЧКА ДАЙ АСЕЧКУ

    Если бы ГГ был мужчиной - игра бы вряд-ли обрела такую популярность.
    А так - игра обычная пропаганда взглядов "левых" рилполитик лоббистов
    Пропагандируется массовая слежка, ГГ - феменистка, а главным хейтером феменизма в игре выступает поехавший маргигальный наркоман. Что забавно, феменаци само трубят о том, как правые используют маргинализацию оппонента в целях пропаганды, но и сами фемки этим не чураются, ох уж эти типичные для сжв двойные стандарты и ложь. Важно понимать, что лоббистам им плевать на всех кроме себя и единственное что их интересует - это как набить свои карманы через политику и как прийти к власти.
    Эта игра - идеальный просто букет состоящий из каждых лоббистов всех мастей. Тут тебе и нападки на религию - что типично для леволибералов, и пропаганда гомосексуализма, феменизма, и хейт-спич против мужчин, и оправдание орвеловской слежки.    … Expand
  22. Vannish
    Dec 29, 2019
    6
    Despite its great presentation and, at times, very engaging story, in the end Life is Strange fails to deliver a good interactive story centered around the butterfly effect. While your choices can have impact as small elements to the story, no matter what you do, in the grand scheme of things they end up having no impact, just merging into a simple dichotomy.

    Its still very much worth    Despite its great presentation and, at times, very engaging story, in the end Life is Strange fails to deliver a good interactive story centered around the butterfly effect. While your choices can have impact as small elements to the story, no matter what you do, in the grand scheme of things they end up having no impact, just merging into a simple dichotomy.

    Its still very much worth playing if interactive stories are you kind of thing, but be careful with your expectations regarding the butterfly effect, or prepare to be disappointed.    … Expand
  23. Piruz
    May 7, 2020
    6
    Average entertaining adventure interactive movie for younger audience, not ever that bad as Life is strange 2
  24. bancandrei
    Jun 1, 2020
    5
    The atmosphere and time mechanic are nice, but the story is underwhelming. Especially the dialogue is annoyingly bad, everyone sounds like an American high school character from a stereotypical TV show.
  25. Budget_Security
    Jun 21, 2018
    7
    A game where save-scumming is built right into the mechanics. It has a great atmosphere, solid voice acting, a good visual style, and good sound design. Its about 25 hours long if you interact with everything. Gameplay is rather minimal, as expected from an interactive story type of game, but the rewind feature helps make things more interesting.

    There were some inconsistencies to the    A game where save-scumming is built right into the mechanics. It has a great atmosphere, solid voice acting, a good visual style, and good sound design. Its about 25 hours long if you interact with everything. Gameplay is rather minimal, as expected from an interactive story type of game, but the rewind feature helps make things more interesting.

    There were some inconsistencies to the rewind feature though, and it is not always available when you want it. The story and player choices are reasonably well implemented, but there are the usual limitations - choices are limited, and they arguably don't make that much of a difference. The game runs stable, but there were some minor bugs with not being able to activate some objects. Lip-sync is bad. The game also has fairly severe consolitis - an unpleasantly low FOV, bad mouse acceleration, and sensitivity settings that sometimes reset when the game is loaded. The checkpoint save system can be a bit annoying at times. These are all only minor issues - the game was still very enjoyable.

    Overall, this is a good interactive-story game that I can easily recommend.    … Expand
  26. sft
    Apr 2, 2017
    7
    Rolling back the minutes

    The role of storytelling within video games is a popular topic these days. Personally I enjoy a game with a strong narrative as much one that’s all about mindless shooting; there’s room for all manner of games as far as I’m concerned. Dontnod deserve credit for their efforts in this area. In LIFE IS STRANGE they have attempted to create a story-rich experience    Rolling back the minutes

    The role of storytelling within video games is a popular topic these days. Personally I enjoy a game with a strong narrative as much one that’s all about mindless shooting; there’s room for all manner of games as far as I’m concerned. Dontnod deserve credit for their efforts in this area. In LIFE IS STRANGE they have attempted to create a story-rich experience that requires the player to engage with the narrative and to make moral and ethical judgments and then act upon them. The developers have made much of the fact that the player must make choices, some of which may be difficult to make. So far so good. However, although LIS does have an engaging story, and there are indeed choices to be made, neither aspect of the game quite lives up to the promise. In their (laudable) efforts to cover as many themes as possible (drugs, bullying, domestic violence, et al.) they’ve bitten of more than they can chew and as a result the main story line suffers. The first couple of episodes are somewhat slow and uninvolving due to a lack of focus. Also, during the early stages of the game, many of the tasks required of the player are trivial, and some are pointless, having little or no bearing on the overall story (in fairness to the developers they do acknowledge this fact in ironic fashion towards the end of the game). Not until you reach the midpoint of the game does it really find its stride, and the main story begin to assert itself in the manner required to carry the game forward. There is also the matter of the choices to consider. I won’t explain my misgivings with this aspect of the game because it could be considered a spoiler of sorts. Suffice it to say, if you decide to play LIS (and I recommend that you do) you will probably work out for yourself where the game falls short in this area. Again, in fairness to Dontnod, I can see how the current constraints of the medium might have limited their options, but I still think that this aspect of the game could have been more fully developed. Having said all this I still enjoyed playing LIS and you would have to have a heart of stone not to be affected by it at times. It looks good, and the painterly style of the graphics suits the game well. The voice acting is solid throughout and it has an excellent soundtrack, including a memorably melancholic opening song (To All of You by Syd Matters). LIS may not quite live up to its potential but it’s still a good attempt to make a narrative-rich gaming experience and I would have given it a 4/5 rating were it not for the shortcomings noted here. Oh, and how about a sequel, Dontnod? It would be interesting to see how Max uses her gift in her adult years.    … Expand
  27. Alexsis
    Aug 21, 2016
    5
    Awesome character arcs and atmosphere. A unique experience that is recommended for anyone.

    My personal feeling was that it felt contrived in the end. The developers ended up with no justification for the choices presented to you, other then "because we say so" - logic is out the window, along with consistency in gameplay and story.
  28. DearReview
    Jan 23, 2016
    6
    Un juego con una idea interesante al principio, que va perdiendo fuelle por culpa de los excesivos cliches que tiene. Life is Strange es la remodelación de la formula usada por Telltale Games a la hora de contar historia y creo que Square Enix lo ha echo francamente bien. No solo le ha plasmado su propio estilo a su obra, si no que además, ha mejorado la formula. La historia no es que seaUn juego con una idea interesante al principio, que va perdiendo fuelle por culpa de los excesivos cliches que tiene. Life is Strange es la remodelación de la formula usada por Telltale Games a la hora de contar historia y creo que Square Enix lo ha echo francamente bien. No solo le ha plasmado su propio estilo a su obra, si no que además, ha mejorado la formula. La historia no es que sea muy grandilocuente (aunque el juego se esfuerce en hacer que creamos que si) Es historia que intenta darnos ha hablar sobre las decisiones que tomamos a lo largo de la vida y todo eso, pero es que lo hacen tan mal que no sientes que tus actos tengan realmente una consecuencia real, si, hay cambios en la historia, vale; pero cuando llegas al final te das cuenta de que solo tienes dos finales para elegir y que todas tus otras decisiones no han importado nada, me parece tan estúpido este sistema que no le veo mucho sentido al juego.
    Los personajes son algo carismáticos y esta bien, no son nada del otro mundo.
    Un juego que si te gustaron las obras de Telltale Games y eres un adolescente o un adulto que busca ideas filosóficas baratas, este este juego. Si en cambio buscas un aventura gráfica más adulta y sobre todo más entretenida y menos pedante que esta, Grim Fandango es tu juego.    … Expand
  29. touchofheaven
    Jul 23, 2020
    7
    Хорошая игра и один из ярчайших примеров, как хорошую игру можно испортить мутной концовкой. Отличные саундтреки.
  30. mikepatyaev
    Oct 6, 2016
    7
    One of the most carefully crafted games I've played. With a great, engaging story and good character development, episode 1 had me wanting episode 2 right from the get-go. If the other episodes are half as good as this telltale inspired episodic drama, then we're in for a treat.
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Awards & Rankings

32
#32 Best PC Game of 2015
8
#8 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015
19
#19 Most Shared PC Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. Softpedia
    Jan 28, 2016
    85
    Life Is Strange is an imperfect video game and the actual mechanics of playing it, including the time rewind, can become annoying of frustrating, especially when the development team tries to borrow from another genre. But the game makes it easy to create a connection with Max and to care about her choices and trials, a rare feat, and that means any fan of narrative-driven experiences should try it out to see how he deals with the feelings of the protagonist and the impact they have on Arcadia Bay.
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  2. PCWorld
    Jan 19, 2016
    80
    Life is Strange is flawed, but this paranormal coming-of-age story is nevertheless refreshing proof that small stakes can still feel important, given strong characters.
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  3. IGN Spain
    Jan 18, 2016
    86
    Life is Strange is a brilliant concept that you will love if you forget prejudices.
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