Life is Strange - Just Wow.

[TravelerSF]

I do like Max as a protagonist. She's plain, but that's something we need in videogames now - more characters we can relate with....

I, what?

Unless spacegod Cthulhu demands 100 % of all videogame protagonists to be fucking boring then I guess it's all right, but we really, reaaallllyyyyy don't need any more of them. Seriously, can you name 5 protagonists that aren't bland as paper and not meant for the player to project themselves onto them and are instead meant as actual flawed characters in their own right?

I might've painted with a too broad of a stroke, but this was meant to be just a personal view. Videogame protagonists often function as a power fantasy and are therefore rather close to at least physical perfection, often mental as well (being super heroic and all that). And that's what I find boring, mostly because it's so common, and that's why I personally find characters like Max more interesting. She looks like a regular girl and she HAS genuine character traits and personality. Granted those are handled extremely poorly since they're mostly just explained through Max's inner dialogue which, don't get me wrong, gets absolutely intolerable from time to time.

What I was trying to say was that I'd rather have protagonist who're normal, relatable people thrown into odd situations, rather than superhumans who're already at the very beginning above anything I could ever aspire to be.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Sure people can have their void to project onto, games without a plot like Skyrim are probably better off, but when an actually interesting protagonist appears in maybe 5-10 games of all games ever made, I get a little pissy when people say they need more of the bland type.

To be fair, Max is more of a character than the vast, vast majority of game protagonists. However low a bar that might be to clear. Whether or not the nature of her character will appeal to everyone is another question entirely, as she spends a healthy portion of the first episode being a bit of a wet blanket. If she has any kind of arc, that should change.

Imagine what one's opinion of, I dunno...Chihiro would be, if one were to watch only the first fifth of Spirited Away. Probably not very good.

 

[Mikejames]

Eeeh, I'm on the fence.

I actually like the premise of the power, but I'll have to see what they do with it. Will they subvert expectations and show unexpected consequences for what feels like a better choice in the short-term, or will they have it remain as a Reload Auto-save button? Will emotionally manipulating people carry weight in the end, or is it a shorthanded way to make everyone automatically like you?

The characters are pretty hit and miss. I like that a few don't fall into tropes (i.e. the cheerleader girl isn't automatically a villain, the religious girl isn't just set up as the straw man, etc.), but the majority of students are stereotypical gits that won't talk to you unless you indulge their egos and parrot their lingo. (I was genuinely surprised that there wasn't an option to punch someone with an automatic rewind to avoid consequences).

So, I guess I am interested enough to see where things may go, but I acknowledge some pretty blatant flaws.

 

[Battenberg]

The game seems promising, but what I don't get is why literally everybody must imitate Telltale's shitty business model and release the game in pieces, so you have to pay outrageous prices to be able to play the whole thing. Either way, I think I'll play it in a year or five when they decide it's time to stop milking money from the customers and release the last "episode".

Lolwut? Sure you have to pay more TIMES but you don't pay more money; certainly nothing 'outrageous' as far as gaming costs go. I don't know about this particular series but Telltale's games come in at around £20 a series at most which is around an 8-10 hour campaign if you just buzz through it and don't take a whole lot of time exploring and trying things out (and who doesn't take time out for a bit of aimless clicking in this genre?) and, more importantly, has solid replayability because of all the various choices you make. Plenty of games get away with charging £40 for their title when it launches for around about the same amount of content.

Personally I'm not a massive fan of the whole episodic thing because it means taking month long breaks every time you get 20% of the way through the story if you play it as it launches but regardless I fail to see how Telltale (or anyone utilising episodes) are "milking" their customers or charging prices that could possibly be considered extortionate or outrageous. Aside from anything else their model actually allows you to try a portion of the game for a portion of its total cost allowing you to decide if it's worth forking out the cash for the rest of the game as opposed to taking the chance that you're spending 5x as much and only realising too late that it isn't your kind of game.

 

[maninahat]

I've not finished it yet, but I haven't had the same experience. Whilst the concept of time travel in a mundane setting is appealing (a la The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) in terms of how it is used for good or abused in a creepy or malicious way. In practise it has so far been largely applied to timed point and click adventure puzzles that feel awkwardly levered in. Within twenty minutes of discovering they have awesome reality bending powers, the protagonist uses this incredible ability to...get a girl to budge over on a step.

The writing is a bit sophomoric too. There is a lot of crude symbolism, simplistic archetype characters and unnatural, dated dialogue. I'll come back to finish the game, but I've not yet seen enough to convince me to buy a full season pass.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

It's a pretty good story so far. Doesn't quite hit the level of "The Walking Dead" just yet though. Still, I'm very interested to see how the choices with rewinding time etc. will be reflected in the future episodes.

I don't care about the "classifications" and "groups" thing going on in the game. But as far as portraying highschool (actually it's more like college I guess, but I'm European so wouldn't know) thing, that's something which actually goes on in youth culture, so no surprises.

 

[happyninja42]

Eeeh, I'm on the fence.

I actually like the premise of the power, but I'll have to see what they do with it. Will they subvert expectations and show unexpected consequences for what feels like a better choice in the short-term, or will they have it remain as a Reload Auto-save button? Will emotionally manipulating people carry weight in the end, or is it a shorthanded way to make everyone automatically like you?

I think it will have longer reaching consequences. I'm not sure what, but I have a theory:

Spoiler

that her actions have caused the tornado that is about to hit the town. Given how uncharacteristic the weather is, coming out of nowhere, I get the feeling she's going to be a Cassandra to their skepticism, and nobody is going to believe the tornado is coming, because there's no reason to think it would. But I think her time warping powers might be causing temporal eddies, that are going to build into that big storm. I also find it interesting, that that one social club they mentioned are called the Vortex Club. Vortex, tornado, seems unusually similar to me. And given that Chloe drives around with a truck, with a plate that says Twin Peaks on it, I think there will be some major league supernatural stuff going on in the later episodes.

It could all be red herring stuff though, but that's the angle I'm predicting they're going to go with it.

 

[tzimize]

The game seems promising, but what I don't get is why literally everybody must imitate Telltale's shitty business model and release the game in pieces, so you have to pay outrageous prices to be able to play the whole thing. Either way, I think I'll play it in a year or five when they decide it's time to stop milking money from the customers and release the last "episode".

This is what keeps me from it to. Contained stories is what I want. There is absolutely NOTHING that pisses me off more than an unfinished story. Cliffhangers can burn in the deepest and most acid ridden pits of hell, along with any business model based on it.

It is possible to have a continuous story, but you HAVE to deliver on your build-up. In the CURRENT game. Good examples of this: Mass Effect 1 and 2. Witcher 1 and 2 (especially 1). Baldurs Gate 1 and 2. Heavy story driven games, with a big and meaty universe, managing to BOTH write a great and engaging story with its current game, AND keep the door open for the bigger story.

Witcher 1 for example. I'd be a bit miffed if I never found out about the entire Wild Hunt thingy, but the story of Witcher 1 was finished, the bad guy was deafeated, and it had one of THE most satisfying endings I've EVER had the pleasure of experiencing. Even so, there was room for more. And since the first piece was awesome, I come back for more. THATS building a franchise. Cliffhangers and episodic bullshit is just another way of saying "sorry, we're not sure you'd want the entire product, so we have to just keep this fishhook in it for you to swallow."

 

[Mikejames]

I think it will have longer reaching consequences. I'm not sure what, but I have a theory:

Spoiler

that her actions have caused the tornado that is about to hit the town. Given how uncharacteristic the weather is, coming out of nowhere, I get the feeling she's going to be a Cassandra to their skepticism, and nobody is going to believe the tornado is coming, because there's no reason to think it would. But I think her time warping powers might be causing temporal eddies, that are going to build into that big storm. I also find it interesting, that that one social club they mentioned are called the Vortex Club. Vortex, tornado, seems unusually similar to me. And given that Chloe drives around with a truck, with a plate that says Twin Peaks on it, I think there will be some major league supernatural stuff going on in the later episodes.

It could all be red herring stuff though, but that's the angle I'm predicting they're going to go with it.

Interesting theory. It'd add a nice duality to the conflict if you were using your powers to save people, but it only ended up perpetuating the overall disaster.

Either way, I like the idea of growing used to being able to rewind mundane mistakes, only to have it somehow backfire when increasingly dire choices have to be made.

 

[happyninja42]

I think it will have longer reaching consequences. I'm not sure what, but I have a theory:

Spoiler

that her actions have caused the tornado that is about to hit the town. Given how uncharacteristic the weather is, coming out of nowhere, I get the feeling she's going to be a Cassandra to their skepticism, and nobody is going to believe the tornado is coming, because there's no reason to think it would. But I think her time warping powers might be causing temporal eddies, that are going to build into that big storm. I also find it interesting, that that one social club they mentioned are called the Vortex Club. Vortex, tornado, seems unusually similar to me. And given that Chloe drives around with a truck, with a plate that says Twin Peaks on it, I think there will be some major league supernatural stuff going on in the later episodes.

It could all be red herring stuff though, but that's the angle I'm predicting they're going to go with it.

Interesting theory. It'd add a nice duality to the conflict if you were using your powers to save people, but it only ended up perpetuating the overall disaster.

Either way, I like the idea of growing used to being able to rewind mundane mistakes, only to have it somehow backfire when increasingly dire choices have to be made.

Yeah, it would be interesting if you have to make hard choices to have a "greater good" kind of ending. Though I'm actually fine with how the choices are going so far. I find the game enjoyable. I've had fun letting the few times Max has made a declarative statement on her own, to define my path. Like, the first thing she decided to go do, was save someone, and not be a wall flower. So now, whenever there is a choice of "hide/get involved" I always pick "get involved", even if it's got personal negative aspects. It's made for a very interesting game, when I don't rewind to try the other path. I just go "Nope, she's going to intervene, no more wall sitting." and just run with it.

I find some bits of the game a little annoying, like how they only let you rewind your choices sometimes, but not all, and how some of the characters are very cliche. But for the most part, it feels like a game that was done with heart, and a genuine attempt to tell a story of coming of age with a supernatural twist. I recall some bits pinging memories of my time in highschool/college, when I saw echoes of friends I knew in some of the characters. It's not a perfect game by any stretch, but it's got more feeling and love in it's creation than I think a lot of other, bigger titles do.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

I was constantly thinking the same thing, it would be an interesting way of doing it. Especially if they made you go back once more to correct stuff Don't mess with time bitches!

Another theory I was thinking of was:

Spoiler

Chloe might have superpowers as well, as both of them drew eachother as superheroïnes. However, she expresses her desire to destroy Arcadia because it has taken everything away from her. So perhaps she might trigger the cataclysmic event in some way.

We'll see, it'll be interesting to find out

 

[scorn the biomage]

really? it looked like a pretentious hipster game to me

I'm sorry I can't take your opinion seriously with that avatar.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

really? it looked like a pretentious hipster game to me

I'm sorry I can't take your opinion seriously with that avatar.

its ok i forgive your bad taste, but can you try to stay on topic from now on?

 

[Tiger King]

I've watched parts of this on boobtube and am a bit torn between buying it.
It looks kind of interesting, what are peoples opinion of the rewind mechanic?
does it work or does it take the point out of having to make decisions when you can just rewind the option?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I've watched parts of this on boobtube and am a bit torn between buying it.
It looks kind of interesting, what are peoples opinion of the rewind mechanic?

does it work or does it take the point out of having to make decisions when you can just rewind the option?

Rewind mechanic feels like it is in a tutorial state for the first chapter. Its uses are very basic.

On a meta level, it is kind of interesting to have save-scumming baked into the game's universe.

 

[happyninja42]

I've watched parts of this on boobtube and am a bit torn between buying it.
It looks kind of interesting, what are peoples opinion of the rewind mechanic?

does it work or does it take the point out of having to make decisions when you can just rewind the option?

Rewind mechanic feels like it is in a tutorial state for the first chapter. Its uses are very basic.

On a meta level, it is kind of interesting to have save-scumming baked into the game's universe.

Honestly it reminds me of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. You can only go back so far, so some choices will have a final outcome. It does definitely feel like it's mostly tutorial, but she's also learning about her powers, so it makes sense to have her first uses of the power be small things.

I find the mechanic enjoyable, with a few annoyances, like how you can only rewind when the game lets you. There are certain spots where you can't rewind time, and it's not explained why you can't, you just can't.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

The game seems promising, but what I don't get is why literally everybody must imitate Telltale's shitty business model and release the game in pieces, so you have to pay outrageous prices to be able to play the whole thing. Either way, I think I'll play it in a year or five when they decide it's time to stop milking money from the customers and release the last "episode".

Outrageous Prices? The average AAA game releases for $50-$60. That does not even include the DLC and Collector's Edition items. It used to be average for them clock in 8 hours for singleplayer campaign. Now that's only if you are lucky.

Movie tickets in my city cost $12.29 for General Admission non-matinees. That's the standard showing that doesn't include 3D, Cinemark XD, or IMAX. They are redeemed only once, are non-interactive and have an average runtime of 110 minutes.

Telltale and DONTNOD charge $4.99 for each episode. That's less than I pay for lunch each day.

You can get the entire season made of "Life is Strange" made up of 5 episodes for $19.99.

Telltale games average at least 3 hours of gameplay. Likely more if you are lucky. I spent over four hours on the first episode of Life is Strange, and that's only my first playthrough. I still missed out on a lot of things, and didn't try to branch the other choices. This Streamer did a Lets Play that's close to five hours. [http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGxCL8JAojAPWAuyFNL0bnAJWyDi42T6d]

 

[CoLA]

I had not heard of this game! I'll need to get this for my PS3.