LIFE IS STRANGE: A Detailed Analysis On What Makes Life Is Strange Different To Any Game!
Three years after the release of episode 1 of the first game, Life is Strange is a game that till now is highly praised and loved by many!
It's no secret that Life is Strange for me is one of, if not the best game I have ever played and, I have played, experienced and watched many games throughout my years of gaming. Something though makes Life is Strange so uniquely different, so beautiful and captivating that I don't describe it as a game. I believe this an experience I was very lucky to endure. So what makes this game so amazing exactly? Well there are more reasons than I can tell but I'll try my best.
Life is Strange done for me what only one other game has ever been able to do (Last of Us), and that's draw me into the story and immerse me into the world, almost so deep that I truly felt like I was sharing the experiences that Max Caulfield did or Chloe Price, or even Rachel Amber. See the thing about Life is Strange is that so much is happening to a lot of characters in this game and what's exciting and interesting is that you aren't a hero here. You're just an 18-year-old student at Blackwell Academy who's aspiring to be a photographer. Yet Max can't help but feel the necessity to help others around her but it's not always because she wants to be a good protagonist. It's also to feed the curiosity that she craves, that any other teenager in the world would feel if they were in her position, hell, even what any adult would feel if they were Max. With Max you almost feel a connection when going through this experience, a personal one too, not a connection where you think the character is cool and has some good qualities. No, the kind of connection that you'd have with a family member or someone who is immensely close to you. This is what Life is Strange does best, it creates such a strong connection between the player and character that you almost feel an obligation to care if anything bad happens, if anything in the slightest hurts Max. See, the game starts with Max discovering these time-traveling powers and honestly the game isn't as much about them as they are about the characters and the world around Max. If you take away the time-travel powers that Max has, you're essentially left with the same game only with less traveling back in time. The game though adds in the time-travel aspect to also have this feeling of Sci-Fi and it does it so well but it also doesn't allow it to be the main factor in the game.
See Life is Strange is more about these three characters and the world around them: Max Caulfield, Chloe Price and the beloved Rachel Amber. What makes them so special? Well, I've touched on Max, so let's talk about Chloe and Rachel. If you've played Life is Strange: Before the Storm than you already understand that the relationship between Chloe and Rachel is one that is beautiful, tragic, exciting, adventurous but also so sad. The way I've described the relationship makes it sound paradoxical and that's because it is, it's an ironic relationship that neither characters ever thought would come to be. Sound familiar? Well, that's because almost everyone who has played this game has a friendship that they probably didn't expect to have and this is something the game executes so well. The ability to make it feel so personal, and make the player relate to whether it's Chloe, Rachel or Max is just amazing. Of course though a lot of games have made players feel a personal connection so what makes Chloe and Rachel so special? Well, they're just teenagers, they're not heroes, they're not villains, they're two female teenagers who love one another more than anything. Why's that special? Almost every game out there now has to have a hero, a villain, a cliche character that no one ends up caring about but Life is Strange doesn't do that. Instead it focuses on these teenage girls rather than attempting to create heroes or villains and showcases that these teenage girls are more relatable than some hero. The story of both Life is Strange games highlight that actions have consequences and those consequences are sometimes too big to handle but that's life right? Life isn't a hero coming up with a solution to every situation. Life means being defeated sometimes but growing from it. That's the approach Life is Strange takes with Chloe and Rachel. These two girls go through unspeakable tragedies and sometimes they don't win, sometimes they lose but that's what makes them amazing. They're human.
Let's talk about the time-travel in this game. Max Caulfield has the ability to go back in time whenever she pleases and most people, had they been granted such powers would do exactly that right? Most people would go around changing past events to suit their needs but this isn't the case here. Max doesn't go back in time to change things just so that they suit her. A lot of the time Max uses these abilities to help people but what's amazing about this game is it teaches you that you can't always save or help everyone. For instance, later in the first season of Life is Strange, Max attempts to save a friend who is going through depression from committing suicide in front of the entirety of Blackwell Academy but the game doesn't simply create a cut-scene to decide whether Kate lives or not. No, instead it gives the player the chance to save Kate from jumping off the Blackwell Academy building depending on whether or not you (Max) say the right thing to calm Kate. Now of course some players did end up saving her but that isn't the point here. Even someone like Kate who isn't really a main character has a moment in the game where she is the main focus and you as Max have to save her. What the game does so well is that it allows you to experience loss not because the game demands it so but because of the choices you make. Thing is though if Kate ends up dead then that's it, you can't go back in time to change the events because the game needs you to feel a real intensity, a real sense of danger and threat. A lot of times Max is able to go back in time whether it's two minutes back in time or a day to change events but there are other times when she can't because the game wants to remind you she isn't a hero, in the end she is still one person.
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