Not sure how I got the idea, but somehow I ended up searching for Life is Strange on Steam, noticed the first episode (of the original) was free and installed it.
Yesterday I finally played episode 1 and immediately bought the other 4 episodes after.
According to my steam achievement, I actually played Life is Strange for 40 minutes back in 2016, though I didn’t stick with it back then.
Looking back, I’d say I was definitely in the wrong age group back then to enjoy and relate to the story properly.
Now I really enjoy the characters and I’m interested to experience the rest of the story. Might make another post when I finished it :)
Hope you have fun! It’s a pretty great game, as long as you can deal with teens being teens (I know some folks can’t stand it).
Please do post your thoughts afterwards, I’m curious how or if your opinion changes after completion.
I’ve always despised teen drama in media. Back when I was a teen, and now. Can’t stand it. For that reason, I have zero interest in playing the sequels. Furthermore, some of Life is Strange’s writing is downright amateurish.
But somehow, the game threads the needle of the formula in a way I can’t explain (and from what I read the developers weren’t ever able to fully replicate it either). The gameplay, the themes, the great acting/directing, the amazing soundtrack, the perfectly paced escalation of the stakes… It all works together to attach the player very deeply to the characters. I played it a decade ago and the ending absolutely shook me to my emotional core. To this day one of my favorite works of fiction.
I think I managed to overcome my dislike towards teen drama in media and started approaching it from a place of empathy, at least to some extent, which makes it way more tolerable. Same with characters making stupid decisions in emotional moments. That doesn’t mean I give a pass to every single piece of “stupid” or “illogical” writing but it helps treat what happens like a real event rather than “well they should do X like a perfect logical machine”.
My relationship with LiS games is a bit weird. I loved both the first game and Before the Storm but for whatever reason couldn’t muster any interest in any of the following titles. I don’t know why that is but none of them managed to grab my attention again. Maybe the first two came out at the right time, maybe they struck a familiar cord - either way they became a pretty important part of my life as well. Probably not as my favorite games ever (this honestly changes depending on a day and my mood/headspace) but important nonetheless.