About a year ago the first part of Life Is Strange was releases onto an unsuspecting world. The creators, Dontnod, had previously produced an okay but unremarkable game, entitled ironically enough Remember Me. As such, an episodic tale about an introverted photography student with the power to rewind time did not garner much excitement yet it has ended up being one of the most talked about games of the year, gathering strong reviews and approval from the video games community at large. As the episodes were released over the year Word of mouth spread that Life Is Strange was a great story based games and even though the graphics were not impressive the artistic style and quality earned it unexpectedly high sales.
The games has you play as Max Caulfield, a young student who moves back to her home town of Arcadia Bay to study photography at the local academy. Max discovers that she has the power to rewind time but there are repercussions for her actions
The game is like a mumblecore movie but in the best possible sense with authentic sounding dialogue delivered well with only a few clunky pieces of dialogue. The game is shot with an eye at cinematography and despite the aged software used is composed well with great angles which add to the mystery and atmosphere.
Playing the 5 episodes over the course of the week I found that in the game there were moments of wonder, surprise and tenderness that will stay with you for a long time. Max and Chloe are wonderfully nuanced characters portrayed with depth and personality and you can understand why the game has received a lot of praise for its portrayal of strong women. Overall, this was a great experience and at the price of just over £10 for the entire season is unmissable.