Recent reviews by alu?

niko

everyone's an idiot but then so am i

e

Now, I love these types of games. I love that have you make tough decisions and live with the consequences. And I know that with these games that offer such choices, that there are times where the player feels forced, or rather constrained, because the game delvelopers need/want to push the story a certain way. And I understand that. And usually I am able to turn a blind eye to them because making a game based on narrative with completely free reign on what to do would be wayyyy too big of a task for an idie company to tackle. And if the game's interesting enough, I don't mind really.

Life is Strange was one of those games that I was able to look past its flaws, because while the dialogue and facial animation were subpar and cringey at times, it gave the game a certain character, and it was unique which made it easier to care about what happened more.

Episodes 1-4 were very well done, every one was a wild, emotional ride from start to finish, and when I finished epidsode 4, I was screaming at my computer screen in shock. (not from the fact that Chloe died [because she did a lot of that throughout the entire game tbh] but by the person who killed her) And each episode felt like the developers had put a lot of thought and care into them.

When I bought this game, episode 5 had yet to be released. And after episode 4 I was hyped for the last episode. "Oh man, I wonder how Dontnod is gonna finish such an epic story!" And I waited months for it to be released. And when it finally arrived and I played it I was...

Disappointed, to say the least.

What made episodes 1-4 of LiS so wonderful and amazing was the fact things mattered. Water the plant and it doesn't die, water it too much or not at all and it died. Wipe the nasty comments off of your friend's white board, and you could possible save her live. Pick on the girl you spilt paint on and she possibly dies because she didn't believe you when you told her to watch out. Sign a petition to stop the installation of cameras in the school, get your picture drawn, kiss your best friend, etc etc. While most of the major decisions where narrowed down to two choices, all of these extra choices, some novelty while others had lasting effects into the future episodes, and this is what made this game so compelling.

But after I finished playing episode 5, I felt disappointment and anger. Spoilers for the end of episode 5: It all comes down to either sacrificing Arcadia Bay to save Chloe, or letting Chloe die by going back in time to the begininng of the week. Both choices undermined all of your decisions thus far, and I felt so disappointed with the episode. I'm sure there was meant to be a message here; that you can't always be the hero, and that some things are just meant to happen, but considering Max didn't have the ability to time travel until she met Chloe in the bathroom, and before that Max already had a vision about the tornado heading for Arcadia Bay, it all seems very flawed (I could go in depth in this, but this review is getting long so I wont). I didn't expect there to be an explanation of Max's time travelling, but what happened in this episode was full of gaps that I felt are too big to really ignore. Episode 5 felt rushed, and after waiting months for it to be released, I felt robbed of a good ending, and of the $20 I spent on all of it (well, it was about $30 for me because I live in Australia).

I loved Life is Strange, and I say loved because this game now leaves a bitter taste in my mouth and every time I think about how in ended I can almost feel bile rise up in my throat because of how good the game was before the finale. This game had so much potential, and I loved it every step of the way but episode 5 ruined it all for me. I feel robbed honestly, because of how long it took to come out and how rushed the ending felt; honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Dontnod had decided to use all the money they got from the season passes for month-long holidays and rushed out an ending once they realised they had taken a while.

Save yourself the money and go buy something else more worthwile. If you have a PS3/4, go buy Until Dawn or Heavy Rain, cause at least those games actually felt like choices mattered; Or go buy Undertale here on Steam because it has much more care put into it than this game did with its ending.

Thanks to Pony Island, I am now scared whenever a Steam notification pops up on my screen.