Hipster High Sci-Fi | Life is Strange: Episode 1 Review

<p>I actually didn’t care a whole lot for <em>Life is Strange<&sol;em> when I first started playing&period; I don’t mind people being hipsters&comma; but I can’t stand when someone feels the need to constantly remind me that they’re a hipster&period; This goes for anybody&comma; really&period; If you’re a vegan&comma; vegetarian&comma; humanitarian&comma; atheist&comma; hippie&comma; republican&comma; democrat or whatever&comma; just be what you are and stop acting on the need to remind all of us every five minutes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For the first twenty minutes or so&comma; I felt that <em>Life is Strange<&sol;em> was becoming guilty of this&period; There’s a constant barrage of hipster lingo along with obscure artist&comma; band&comma; and movie references and I immediately began thinking to myself <em>OK&comma; we all get it&semi; these people have seen Juno&period; Now&comma; quit beating us over the head with it&period; <&sol;em>Luckily for me &lpar;and you if you choose to play this game&rpar; once the story takes over&comma; all the references and culture quickly became palatable and fitting as I became engrossed in the world that the developers had laid out for me&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story revolves around a young high school senior named Maxine Caulfield&comma; or just Max&semi; an introverted photography student who is starting her final year of high school at the prestigious Blackwell Academy&period; When I say prestigious I really mean it&semi; I think there are about fifteen or sixteen students here&period; She’s having trouble fitting in and to compound her teen angst&comma; she accidentally finds out that she has the inexplicable ability to rewind time&period; I won’t spoil anything&comma; but the reveal comes at a pretty pivotal point and it quickly lays the ground for the multi-layered mystery that will unfold over the next four episodes&period; Again&comma; I won’t spoil anything&comma; but it looks like things will revolve around a missing person mystery&comma; a shady high school organization&comma; a supernatural tornado&comma; and among other things&comma; typical high school drama&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;71996" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-71996" style&equals;"width&colon; 750px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;hipster-high-sci-fi-life-strange-episode-1-review&sol;latest-01-life-is-strange-games-of-2015blogjpg-7f77af&lowbar;1280w&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-71996"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-71996" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;latest-01-life-is-strange-games-of-2015blogjpg-7f77af&lowbar;1280w-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"She's a Polaroid princess" width&equals;"750" height&equals;"422" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-71996" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">She&&num;8217&semi;s a Polaroid princess<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Anyone who has played Telltale games like <em>The Walking Dead<&sol;em> or <em>The Wolf Among Us<&sol;em>  will feel instantly at home with the gameplay&period; It all basically boils down to scouring the environments for things to click on and observe&period; The real hook comes in the dialogue options that move the story forward&period; Like Telltale’s games&comma; the choices made here are not easy to decide on and you are constantly reminded that whatever choices you make will carry some sort of consequence down the line&period; The element that sets <em>Life is Strange<&sol;em> apart&comma; however&comma; is the rewind ability&period; At any point you can rewind a few minutes of gameplay to do things differently&period; This includes your dialogue options&period; If you make a choice you are not happy with you can simply rewind a few seconds and make a different choice&period; It is a well implemented and useful tool but it does take a bit of the edge off when you know you can instantly change your decision once made&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Max’s supernatural ability also comes in handy during the multiple puzzle solving sequences&period; Being able to go back and forth while changing various elements of the environment lead to some pretty interesting puzzle solutions and I can only imagine that Dontnod will continue to add layers and depth to this concept as the episodes continue to roll out&period; The downside to it is that there seems to be a predetermined outcome for all the puzzles so far&period; There is the illusion that you are choosing how things will play out&comma; but it ultimately boils down to choosing option A or option B only to ultimately land on scenario C no matter which avenue you picked&period; The story is so well crafted though that I found myself not really caring how I arrived at any particular conclusion&semi; I was just happy to be there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;71997" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-71997" style&equals;"width&colon; 770px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;hipster-high-sci-fi-life-strange-episode-1-review&sol;life-strange-tornado&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-71997"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-71997" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;life-strange-tornado&period;jpg" alt&equals;"What&quest; Tornadoes in Oregon&quest; Man&comma; Life is strange&period;&period;&period;&period;&period;&period;" width&equals;"770" height&equals;"433" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-71997" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">What&quest; Tornadoes in Oregon&quest; Man&comma; Life is strange&&num;8230&semi;&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>There were also a few technical problems that diluted the experience a bit for me&period; I dealt with constant sound issues almost the whole time&period; There were certain sequences when the sound would completely cut out and would not come back until I entered a cut scene&period; There were also a few glitches that occurred during the gameplay that broke immersion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For example&comma; I rewound time to help prevent a young lady from getting hit in the back of the head with a football&period; I successfully saved her and she acted grateful&comma; but for some reason part of the game was convinced that she still got hit so even while she was smiling and talking to me&comma; the audio of her crying was loud and clear&period; It wasn’t game breaking&comma; it was actually kind of humorous&comma; but it did take me out of the experience a bit&period; Many of the characters are also clichéd to almost annoying lengths&period; Most of them seem to be ripped straight out of an early 90’s high school comedy&period; The rich kids are all jerks&comma; the religious kid is spineless and awkward&comma; the skaters all talk like Bill and Ted…I think you get the picture&period; Luckily the main players are well written and interesting&comma; and that’s what really counts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Dontnod has successfully weaved an intriguing tale of high school drama and sci-fi intrigue&period; The first episode had a rough start&comma; but it left me wholly satisfied and itching for the next chapter&period; If you’re on the fence&comma; I highly suggest you pay the low entry fee of five bucks and take this short but engrossing sci-fi high school tale for a test drive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;