Did you actually play the game? (Gaming)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Monday, February 16, 2015, 19:53 (3568 days ago) @ Cody Miller
edited by Ragashingo, Monday, February 16, 2015, 19:58

Life is Strange was kind of interesting, and it proclaims that your choices matter. But then it undermines that constantly.

Does it? Because the things you say about this five part episodic game, of which you have played a single part, completely contradict what the game actually did. I'm left wondering if you just skimmed the game or if you gave it a real play through. For example:

1. The game has a time rewind mechanic. This means your choices aren't permanent. If you regret your choice, you can do it again. What's the point of making your choices ostensibly matter - meaning that they have consequences - if you don't have to live with the consequences?! If you want player choices to matter, they need to be permanent, so that the player actually has to weigh what to do!

Wrong. The choices are permanent. You can only rewind within a short period of time and once you choose to move past the indicated important choices you cannot rewind back and remake them. If you choose to water your plant, to use a (probably!) non-spoilerific choice, you can't three scenes later go back and reverse your decision. That is, you will have to live with the consequence. The reason you haven't seen the consequences yet is, as I noted above, you are playing part one of five... and the other four parts are not out yet.

2. If you choose 'wrong', the game chastises you and suggests you rewind time to get a better outcome. How about letting the story roll with my choice? Why even bother making me choose if you are going to tell me what the "better" choice is? The game should just be designed with all those contingencies in mind.

Incorrect. Max, the character you are playing as, doubts herself no matter what choice you make. At every single prominent decision point she will wonder to herself if she shouldn't use her powers to do things differently giving you the option to see what else you can do. A few of the choices, like watering the plant, seem clearly better than the alternate choice, but some other choices I am happily unsure if I did the right thing or what consequences might result from choosing "wrong."

3. The choices are binary rather than organic. Remember in Beyond Two Souls how you can just choose to nope out of the bar to avoid being sexually assaulted? No prompt, no script, just you deciding to turn around and walk through the door. Remember how you can choose to just shoot and kill Ana Navare in Deus Ex? Just point and shoot like any enemy. This game has none of that. Every choice is clearly marked as a choice, rather than having them arise organically from the game's possible actions.

Erroneous. Not every choice is binary. For instance, when you're in your friend Chloe's room and her dad comes up the outcome can play out four different ways depending on what you do or don't do. I didn't even realize that half the choices were even possible the first time. And not every choice is marked. There are some choices that the game tells you it will remember if you choose to do A or B but will remain uncommented on if you choose C or if you choose not to go near those locations.

But oh yeah, the game is worth buying.

Way to bury the lede.... but I agree. And while it is not a big budget game and does suffer some for it (I wished for better character animation, lip sync included, in places and higher resolution textures on Max... though that may have been a 360 issue) it had a surprisingly engaging first episode and a lovely "Oh crap, so that's where this is going..." hook at the end.