Life is Strange is like a choose-your-own-adventure book except it’s a video game. Remember those? You make one decision, see how it goes, and then go back several pages and make a different decision and see where that goes? That’s this game. The Reveal Trailer shows a teen named Max in a high school world that mirrors all teenage indie high school scenes you’ve ever seen in a movie. Yuppie-hood. Jock with his letterman. Underage smoking (oh, my!) And the loner outcast who we know is a loner outcast because she’s got headphones and a hoodie.
Max’s got a special power, though. She can travel in time. She can go back and change things and it’ll affect the future. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Cliché? Yes, and NO. What’s interesting here is that the game is episodic. Six weeks between episodes. So…if you make a change in Episode One, will it have an effect in Episode Five?
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Okay, I slapped myself. That’s fantasy. No way that happens. It’s $4.99 an episode. Meaning, each episode is a self-contained game. So, what you decide now won’t cross over into future purchased episodes. Oh, well.
Episode One is out early 2015 on Windows, PS4, PS3, Xbox One and Xbox 360.
The trailer also features snippets from reviews that are only vaguely positive but they’re still fun to read. Here they are. Enjoy!
“Dollops of Twin Peaks… and splashes of Heavy Rain”. – EuroGamer.net
“When Gone Home meets The Walking Dead with time travel”. – IGN
“A deeply naturalistic, playable indie movie”. – GamesRadar
“Plenty of potential to become a critically-acclaimed classic”. – Game Reactor
“Like a Stephen King Novel mixed with…Gone Home”. – Games