Πρόσφατες κριτικές από τον James Perkins

Before there were computer games there were choose-your-own adventure books that contained long sections with multiple pages of setting and narrative exposition, and periodically you'd make a decision between possible actions. Then you'd go to a different page of the book which would take you on a different path of the story. You could always retrace your steps back to the previous section before the deciding one, to see how things would turn out if you had chosen differently.

Life is Strange is a lot like that. You have a limited power of rewind back one or a handful of decision points. You can explore a little bit past those if they turn out really bad initially. It's not as flexible as the choose your own adventure book, but it's more immersive. In other ways it is a little more flexible in that things that you pick up and your own character's position is not reset during the rewind.

The pacing is slow enough to be thoughtful, but not so slow as to plod. The feel is that you're in a coming of age novel and that actions have consequences.

In addition to the limited rewind mechanism and key decision actions, and when you're not in a scripted narrative, there are lots of options to explore objects to solve a simple puzzle, get more environmental clues, deepen your understanding of individuals and relationships, or take photographs of interesting subjects. In the end the extra photographs will improve your overall game result.

The subject matter is a coming of age story in essence, shifting from childhood into adulthood, reconnecting with a lost friendship, and solving the mystery of why so many people have disappeared. It is an an unrushed cinematic small imaginary town on the Oregon coast, sometimes dreamy. The story has clear callbacks to David Lynch's Twin Peaks television series, and other adolescent coming of age stories.

A strength of this story is how you discover a piece at a time, about the non-player characters, who they are, what their strengths and weaknesses are, how they live their humanity. Your knowledge remains incomplete and limited by the paths you choose. You must figure out what your values are. Will you always try to speak the truth? Will you be loyal to your friend, and if so, which friend(s)? Will you try treat the bullies with humane respect? Will you snoop incessantly or respect people's privacy? Are you willing to befriend someone rough around the edges because you learn that they mean well?

The environment of the game is in many ways hyper realistic, giant motes of dust floating in the air, but it doesn't distract so much as set a thoughtful dreamy mood. The music soundtrack also amplifies that dreaminess. The study of what environments might look like on the Oregon or Northern California coast are quite good. The cinematography has some glitchy moments but mostly is done with thoughtful and creative patterns of light, depth of field, and the like. This sets a very calm and engrossing mood.

As far as character portrayal, my moments in the uncanny valley were fairly few and far between... I never forget I'm seeing Sims, but sometimes they move and interact in ways that look almost rotoscoped from real actors. This is a nice touch.

A good simulation does just enough to appear convincing without investing in too much detail, and this game nails it. The amount of information about one's own character and non-player characters is nicely presented, enough to get to know them and feel a human connection and a genuine curiousity about where they will go next, but not enough to have them figured out. A lot like real life.

There are some reviews that the youth dialogue uses dated slang in the first two chapters. I'm in my late fifties so I didn't notice this and it didn't distract me.

This is an engrossing game. I give it a good recommendation.

Beautiful and soothing crafting game; in the Player vs. Environment world, people can be so so very helpful and friendly. Fun to explore and create your iron age village by the sea.