Life is Strange
Life is Strange Playthrough Notes, 2/23/18
7 attendees total.
Joce started off with a brief explanation about the mechanics of the game. Joce also summarized the journal of the main character, which gives a lot of the back story of the game. The main mechanic of the game is that you have to make tough moral choices that affect the rest of the story, but your character possesses the ability to roll back a small window of time, thereby allowing the player to make the opposite choice, if need be.
Responses from the group during the playthrough:
When you make a decision, you get a message that says, “This decision will have consequences.” Multiple members of the group remarked how this was very ominous.
The group enjoyed the complexity of making tough decisions that impact the characters that you interact with. In one instance you have the option of taunting or comforting Victoria, who bullies Max, character you play as, as the beginning of game. Ultimately, the group decide to comfort her, but there were mixed opinions about the merits of humbling her with ridicule and how that might affect her later in the game.
“You can always rewind.” One of the group members said this while we were taking a long time invading someone else’s room. Does this take the pressure off decisions? Do they have less of an impact?
A lot of humorous feedback from the group about making a serious decision that elicited a funny response. In one case the group made a decision within the game that resulted in an awkward response and one of the group members mentioned that they “immediately regret making that decision.”
Group Discussion of the Game:
Game Dialogue
Joce: The dialogue is bad. It seems like the game was made by someone who has never met a teenager and the game seems a little shallow as a result. Decisions similar to the tell-tale games. And you are never sure if either choice is the right one. The game has criticism of having tonal shifts that happen too quickly.
The rest of the group: The dialogue seems fake. Does anyone actually talk like the characters within the game do?
Max as a main character:
Ari: Jury is still out on whether they like her about so far in the game.
Joce: Max is tough to relate to because of her dialogue.
Rest of the group: Max tends to make most situations about herself.
The environment of the game:
The group: The high school seems a little tropey and fake. The game might potentially appeal to actual teenagers.
Although constantly engaging with all items around you in the game allows you to learn more about the characters and the world, the game invites the player to invade other characters’ spaces and items, a common problem in video games. With the already aforementioned problem with Max’s character being self-absorbed, it feels intrusive and clunky when you are rifling through other characters’ personal items in order to learn more about them. One example is listening to Chole’s family’s answering machine while she is upstairs.
Moral decisions within the game:
Since you can undo time, do your decisions actually matter in the game? The group thought yes since you do eventually have to make a decision to move the game forward. Rolling time back and choosing an alternative decision also allows you to learn something new about a character that you wouldn’t have learned if you would have chosen the first choice.
Episodic Games
This game was released in episodes, much like the Telltale games. The latest Hitman game also was distributed under this model.
What are the benefits of releasing a game in episodes? It more likely allows you to play through all the scenarios of one “episode,” especially a game like Life Is Strange where there are so many narrative threads/choices. A full game not divided into episodes may be too intimidating to the player to replay since they have to play the entire game over again. Episodic games also invite you try new things in your short playthroughs.
The group also would like to see GAP purchase The Walking Dead Tell-Tale game.