Life Is Strange

Beautiful, touching and messy. Life Is Strange is good—not great—but I'd recommend it to anyone.

With her powers to rejigger events to save people from accidents and themselves, Max seems like an incarnation of Holden's catcher. Though sadly, her power is not immutable.

Dontnod Entertainment's first effort at cracking the choice-driven episodic format in a video game almost results in a near-perfect experience, which is shocking when you consider how well they've grasped the concept, created a solid structure for each episode, distributed a variety of subplots across five episodes and executed the series at the same — or even higher — level that a veteran developer like Telltale Games has done for many, many years.

The perfection of the Telltale's Adventure Game formula comes from Dontnod, a company who gives the players permission and the ability to go back and try out multiple different choice paths before deciding which choice they wish to use moving forward.

On the other hand, the game feels like it tried to do more than it could and as a result weighed down and did not focus at its strongest point.

If you have the patience to overlook a few pacing issues and dodgy lip syncs, Life is Strange offers up a mature, nuanced story which centres on female friendship (and maybe romance) and the effect our actions have on others.

Life is Strange is a great, drama-heavy adventure game with the unique twist of controlling time. The story is touching and ultimately gives you a very compelling, rich and unique experience, which is a worthwhile visit.

Life Is Strange is a masterpiece. One of the best story-driven games I have ever played, and one that gave me real emotions in an unprecedented fashion.

I am no stranger to episodic games that rely heavily on story and setting to pull a person in. Life is Strange has a lot of similarities to titles from Telltale Games or the King's Quest chapters, but it does enough interesting things of its own to stand out as a unique and generally enjoyable experience.

Life is Strange is one of those games where you end up forming a deep bond with the characters, thanks to how genuine and relatable each one of them is. The art direction and soundtrack do a fantastic job of making the playthrough even more enjoyable and engaging. While some of the moments involving the Blackwell Academy students can feel a bit cliché, the game delivers an adventure that goes much deeper than that.