Life is Strange is similar to the Telltale games and the movie "Butterfly Effect". Unfortunately, it also has a bit of the TV tapeworm "Sabrina the Teenage Witch".
The very beginning of Life is Strange is quite a refreshment, and the idea that time can be turned back in games not only to avoid death in Prince of Persia but simply to maintain a good relationship with someone appears very often. Using the new abilities of the main character, it is possible to approach the same dialogues several times and end them in the way that is most convenient for us. After a few such motives, however, a conversation appears, where it turns out that every solution is wrong. A great thing to imply that sometimes it's just... that's fate? Or that certain people behave as they do, regardless of our trials and efforts? In this respect, Life is Strange is indeed unique, under the guise of science-fiction, it smuggles very real life threads. Sometimes, unfortunately, a bit too intrusive and clear, which is somehow responsible for the place of action - a school filled with teenagers.
I really like stories about teenagers, even today, when I am closer to thirty than eighteen and the excitement caused by the possibility of legally buying beer. However, it must be a book/movie/game "about" and not "for". Unfortunately, Life is Strange often exceeds this limit and turns from a pretty cool universal plot into a drama for teenagers, which older players will only shrug off. The quite predictable archetypes of school personalities interact with each other in various predictable ways, so there is a school star who, as it happens in life, can neither boast of exaggerated beauty nor intelligence. There are gray mice and glasses, macho boys and real gentlemen standing in the shadows, and finally various emo individuals who can't stand the fact that they were caught drunkenly hugging someone. Oh, life, unfortunately playing a bit too big a role here. It's nice that not only indie gems, but also commercial games can talk about quite normal things, but it's a pity that they do it in such a boring way. At times I was genuinely tired of those school "Hard Matters" and I just wanted to finish them, although I honestly have to admit that it is because of this routine that even minor supernatural threads become so fresh and unique here.
Sometimes the fun ends like this.
At least for the player, because the heroes sometimes do not see the gravity of the situation. For example, a friend who still doesn't believe me asks for some proof that I can actually turn back time. So I step back to tell her what's about to happen around us. And I'm telling, but I'm confusing the order. And my friend doesn't like it! No sense, after all, such a prediction of the next few minutes would make an impression on everyone. This small element shows that it is much more difficult to make a dialogue-based adventure game than a simple shooter. In the FPS game, we don't think, we just move ahead. Here there are dozens of ideas for solving a given situation, but you have to shoot at the right one. Another example - I'm late for a meeting, my friend texts me that it's going to be forever. I'm reading these messages and... I can't just text back that I'm going to be late because I ran into the principal. I don't have anything in my account? There are many similar illogical moments.
It's a pity that the non-linearity is limited to basic dialogue decisions, not small gameplay solutions like entering somewhere or doing something. Although ironically, you can't complain about the gameplay here, because Life is Strange is a balanced combination of a telltale, interactive and dialogue-based film with elements of classic point-and-click adventures. Conversations alternate with exploration-based sections where you have to find specific items and sometimes combine them properly.
On the director's rug
It is not without reason that every important decision is symbolized by a butterfly in the corner of the screen. This one appears both in quite obvious moments and completely unexpectedly, in seemingly trivial conversations and situations. Like in Telltale games, however, the story goes its own way, simply adapting to our decisions later. It's nice that these decisions are also reminded of us, or even reminded of. Once I did not stand up for a friend in an argument, which she did not fail to point out to me after some time. Even better, however, is the story, which is slowly gaining momentum, and the unintended consequences of our initially trivial manipulations of time are getting bigger. While at the beginning we go back a minute to find out the answer to the question asked by the teacher, to be the first to report and thus fall for the top student, over time we go back more and more, making really big changes. which ones? I won't say, but I will admit that a few plot twists are impressive, and then leave us with our own thoughts, because it's an episode-based game after all.
Today, however, came out last, having a complete season on the disc, so you don't have to wait weeks for the finale. Today it is also clear that the creators really did a great job with building the plot and atmosphere. While the first two episodes were just fun, the next three are really addictive. The action thickens, and just when it seems that everything is explained, there is a big BOOM, the action goes on, and the creators give the player a few more false leads + serve an important choice at the end.
The detail of the environment plays a big role in the game. However, the graphics do not strive for photorealism
Life is Strange runs on the Unreal Engine, which is obvious at first glance. For example, after delayed texture loading. When playing on Xbox One, it happened that for the first seconds of dialogues, the characters resembled mannequins, and only after a while they gained details. Although even then they did not spoil with their quantity. The comic setting of the game somewhat justifies this, which cannot be said about the lip-syncing of spoken lines. Cel-shading is no excuse here. In "normal" games I don't mind it, but in story-driven titles where we look at talking heads for hours, it should be at the highest level, and it's not. The second thing is that I don't like this element in The Witcher III either - it's just for the sake of a broader perspective and to show that what offends me can be completely ignored by someone else. The surroundings are very nice. It's colorful and cohesive, plus it's very detailed and boasts some nice effects.
I can't say a bad word about the music either. The publisher invested in some well-known teen tracks and also hired talented songwriters (or bought some nice stock tracks, I don't know). Anyway, the soundtrack is great, and the dialogue sounds great too. It's nice to listen to them, especially since they are full of various interjections or sayings and abbreviations typical for teenagers, also in text messages and e-mails. What impressed me the most, apart from the plot, were the photos. Image cropping, camera work, smooth transitions from cutscenes to the actual game. This is especially visible at the beginning of each episode, where we get an intricately prepared introduction that perfectly combines the image with the music.
A static picture won't show it, but the framing and camera work are very nice here.
Life is Strange relies heavily on the best mechanics of Remember Me - we have to interact with various objects and through trial and error, rewind time and retry, get what we want. It worked in the previous game from the creators of Dontnod, and it works now. There is no running and shooting, but nicely written dialogues and a plot that, although it could accelerate a little faster, once it accelerates, it holds until the end. If Life is Strange grabbed you from the first episode, you'll probably play the rest anyway. However, if, like me, you were rather skeptical at the beginning, then play at least until the third episode inclusive. I bet you'll get hooked.
"Life is Strange: Before the Storm" may not be as fresh as the original, there is no time travel or a huge tornado, but it still leaves you with a sense of satisfaction and unsatisfaction at the same time after finishing the whole thing. And that's what only damn good games do for me.
It's relatively easy to write a reasonably likable character in a video game. It is enough for her to seem nice, assign her a few positive qualities (helpful, brave, and preferably always smiling) and the job is done. It's more difficult when you try to sell the heroine, at first glance, irritating, impudent and behaving more than once (and not twice) simply ridiculously. And this is the local protagonist - Chloe Price (dubbed this time by Rhianna DeVries). Over the course of three (+1 bonus) episodes, we see her trying to cope with her increasingly complicated teenage life. The void left by her tragically deceased father seems to be filled by a new friend, Rachel Amber. Both girls quickly get involved in a thicker family-criminal affair, gradually finding a deeper feeling in each other.
The story itself is nothing amazing, but it offers a lot of memorable, well-directed and emotional moments. So small, ordinary, when Chloe and Rachel were just together. The strictly moral part was solid, it was nice to feel the small-town atmosphere of Blackwell again. It is a pity that the clearly shorter whole unfortunately forced the narrative to break the neck in the last episode, so the finale does not have a proper foundation. In addition, we have the "choose your ending" situation again, which may leave a little bad taste, but I was able to forgive the writers for it anyway (events had to be consistent with the original anyway).
From "Before the Storm" came the main gameplay idea of Dontnod. Chloe doesn't have the power to play with time, so the environmental puzzles are extremely simple, and the game part is rather purely symbolic (limited exploration of the location, looking at items). Therefore, the developers at Deck Nine decided to introduce an argument system, which in theory suits a saucy teenager like young Price, and if done right, it would deserve praise. The problem is that convincing our interlocutors is trivial (we have a few seconds to choose one of several answers), because often the right option to say is all too obvious if we only listen carefully to the other person. In addition, there are situations when the insults thrown are really bizarre, and the level of cringe sometimes reaches such a level that I happened to genuinely laugh at the computer. Fortunately, not all of them, but unfortunately, in my opinion, it did not turn out very well. Also, some scenes reminded me of Twilight, but maybe it's just me.
Still, it's a very good prequel. It stands on its own feet enough for people unfamiliar with the first "Life is Strange" to perceive it as a standalone story, and it sensibly adds a lot of valuable context to the original and expands on Chloe's character, perfectly portraying her disarmingly sincere friendship/love (delete as appropriate) with Rachel. If, like me, you loved the adventure of Max and Chloe from three years ago, then take "Before the Storm" boldly, you will find a lot for yourself here.
In Life is Strange 2, the French studio Dontnod returns to the patterns that worked in the first part of this adventure game, although of course we were served a new story. It is a story about growing up, shyly presenting some important problems of the modern world. But is it enough to at least match the excellent original?
The adventure divided into episodes has finally come to an end, and the full edition of the two, containing all its episodes, has appeared in stores. This is an excellent opportunity to immerse yourself in a poignant and often sad story about two brothers who, due to a coincidence, were forced to leave their home and embark on an exhausting journey into the unknown.
The story of teenager Sean, whom we play, and his younger brother, Daniel, whom we take care of, begins in his hometown of Seattle. Our hero leads the life of a typical American teenager - he is interested in girls, goes to parties, drinks alcohol and smokes weed, and in his free time he listens to music and draws in his notebook. She also has to put up with an annoying brother, whom she often takes care of due to the lack of a mother.
However, a lazy story quickly turns into a nightmare. As a result of a misunderstanding, our heroes' father dies. They, being suspected of murdering a policeman, have to run away from home. Added to this are the supernatural abilities of young Daniel, revealing themselves, among others, in stressful situations.
The plot slowly pushes us south, towards the Mexican border, where the boys' father came from. The story moves very slowly at many points, and some parts seem to have been added forcibly. However, they serve to get to know the characters better and bite into the unusual bond that connects them.
It is worth noting that knowledge of the first part of the game is not required. At the beginning of the adventure, however, we are asked if we played it and what decision we made at the end. This has little effect on the plot. Fans of the first part will also notice small flavors, and others will not lose anything by ignoring them completely. A save game from the free The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is also loaded. Here, too, the creators wink at us.
Although not all parts of the plot line up perfectly, it must be admitted that Dontnod has learned its lesson from interpersonal relations. Sean, due to his age, feels responsible for his younger brother, who is still a child. It is his duty to embrace the situation and teach Daniel to control his supernatural abilities. These skills are by the way not as interesting as in the first part. Daniel can move and destroy objects at will. Playing with time travel with Life is Strange was much more interesting and gave more opportunities to diversify the gameplay. Unfortunately, that was missing here.
The science theme is great. Daniel watches our actions closely. If we go to theft, he will do the same, using us as a model. It's the same with swearing, for example. If we do not scold the younger brother at the right moment, we will listen to the colorful bouquets spoken by the child until the end of the game. Our attitude towards Daniel, who, admittedly, can be irritating at times, also influences his decisions. If we often anger him and speak against him, he may not listen to us and do something against us. Something that could have serious consequences later on.
Life is Strange 2 is also great in terms of the characters you encounter. These are very interestingly outlined and most of them make you want to interact, others you even hate - just like in the real world. It's a pity that the individual episodes are very uneven. In the first one, we are practically on our own - we meet few NPCs, and the conversation with the younger brother quickly becomes irritating. There are too many of them in the third one. One would like these moments to last a bit longer at the expense of others where the story is stretched forcibly.
The creators also raise several important social issues in the game. On our way, we meet hippies who have abandoned ordinary life for a carefree existence. There are also themes of love, homosexuality, religious fanaticism, nationalism, racism and even online hate. There is also selfless help to others, compassion or the problem of Mexican immigrants (Sean and Daniel are half Mexican). Importantly, these stories are skillfully woven into the plot. The creators are not pushy. They present the problems in a subtle way, and leave the commentary to us, in most situations without imposing their own position. We decide how to behave in a particular scene.
All this makes the story of the two brothers poignant, and in many places even overwhelming. Observing the situations they face, we sympathize with them. On the other hand, we are happy when there is a moment of respite, joy or even fun. The plot in many moments, instead of relaxing, forces you to consider the world around us.
Technically, we have a classic gameplay replay. We only control Sean, watching the world from behind his back. Life is Strange 2 is a kind of "self-play". The gameplay consists in exploring subsequent locations, talking to the characters and making important choices.
In many places there are objects scattered around - often completely unrelated to the plot, but interacting with them builds up the story with small details or is simply a moment to relax and joke. There is also an element of fund management - collecting and spending money on needed items (and the temptation of theft), although its potential has not been fully exploited.
After each episode, we again receive a summary of the decisions we have made. We can compare ourselves to other players and learn about alternative plot possibilities. It is also an encouragement to start the story anew - this time with the option of skipping often very long cutscenes.
Studio Dontnod is also unscathed in technical matters. The graphics are not great - in many places you can see a number of shortcomings and lack of details. However, all this is skilfully covered up by the graphic style, which uses pastel colors. So sometimes we have the impression that the image on the screen has been painted.
This works quite well, and some locations even encourage you to stop for a moment and observe the surroundings. There are many more diverse spots than just one. We visit several states here, so we run through forests filled with majestic sequoias, traverse the snow-covered countryside, struggle with the sun in the desert or wander in a grand canyon.
The creators also improved the facial expressions of the characters, although this is still very conventional, and the faces still seem a bit plastic. The soundtrack is good, introducing a nostalgic atmosphere. However, it lacked equally characteristic and well-chosen songs, which the first one was famous for. As for small details, it is worth praising, for example, the ability to adjust the size of the subtitles. It comes in handy when we sit far away from the TV.
Life is Strange 2 is an entirely story-driven game. Life is Strange 2 is a must-have for adventure fans. If you don't mind the practically zero level of difficulty and prefer an engaging and mature story over advanced gameplay, then this is the game for you.
However, Dontnod's work is not devoid of mishaps - mainly manifested in lengthy and less engaging fragments - but overall it is a very solid game that captures the heart with its story, and will also squeeze a few tears from more sensitive people. It's definitely worth giving her a chance. A well-drawn and poignant story about two brothers struggling with adult problems. It will offer several hours of lazy gameplay. Just right for long winter evenings.
Life is Strange: True Colors
In video games, I highly value complex and revolutionary gameplay, which I almost always prefer over graphics or even the story told by the game. For this reason, adventure 3D productions like The Walking Dead from Telltale Games or Detroit: Become Human from Quantic Dream should not appeal to me because of their simple and often repetitive gameplay.
Sometimes, however, I forget about it and lose myself for many hours in some seemingly trivial product in terms of gameplay, which only confirms that sometimes a good storyline with memorable characters can be enough to conquer the market and the hearts of players.
Because you have to say it straight - Life is Strange: True Colors is not a revolution in terms of gameplay in the world of video games, so this title is not very different from its predecessors or even competitors. But the question is… does there really have to be a revolution here?
First of all, let me warn you - in order to briefly introduce you to the plot of Life is Strange: True Colors, I have to enter into light spoilers regarding the first hours of the game, which consists of more or less the entire first chapter of the adventure (there are five of them in the game).
However, this should not spoil the game for you, because the story itself is so extensive that the early events of the game are just the beginning of this whole multi-threaded intrigue.
As it happens in the Life is Strange series, we play the main character endowed with a certain supernatural power. In this case, we step into the shoes of Alex Chen, who, compared to Max Caulfield and Daniel from previous installments of the series, can boast much less spectacular abilities. Alex can only - or as much as - read the emotions of his interlocutors, which, against the background of time manipulation, does not seem to be anything special or interesting.
However, appearances can be deceiving, because Alex's ability also allows her to discover the past of some people and their deeds, which turns out to be very useful in solving the later intrigue. And this one begins right after Alex arrives in her hometown of Haven Springs, where her older brother Gabe lives, who acquaints his sister with a new reality. The girl initially hides her gift, using it only slightly when meeting new friends and their families.
Unfortunately, after the initial idyll, a mysterious tragedy occurs, in which the protagonist's brother dies. Alex pulls herself together fairly quickly after her brother's death and embarks on a private investigation with the help of Gabe's closest friends.
There are a lot of clues here, also suspects, but - as you can probably guess - the ability of our main character turns out to be very helpful in gradually reaching the truth, which is not as simple as it might seem at first.
The above story may not sound too original and there is no denying that similar themes can be found in many other games, books, movies or series. However, Life is Strange: True Colors has the undeniable advantage that the game's script is really well written, which makes it hard to get bored here. There are many unexpected plot twists, characteristic characters and surprises related to Alex's superpower.
On a huge plus, I also include the side stories of other characters that can drag on throughout the entire length of the game and that draw you in. Sometimes really difficult and rarely exploited topics in games are discussed here, such as Alzheimer's disease, alcoholism or following your own ambitions against everything and everyone. The history of the town itself is also very interesting and I was happy to explore all the levels in search of plot collectibles.
All these elements make Life is Strange: True Colors completely addictive and I think it is probably the best written game in the entire series. The first Life is Strange also had a great script, of course, and the story told there was also a pleasure to discover, but True Colors seems to me a bit better written, although it may just be a matter of my taste.
In terms of gameplay, not much has changed in recent years, the lion's share of the game is still cutscenes that push the story forward. From time to time, we are asked to choose one of four dialogue lines or make more significant decisions, such as revealing someone's secret or choosing one of the two sides of the conflict. These more significant choices are presented in the form of static boards that stop the game completely while we decide.
Importantly, our choices (even the smaller ones) have a real impact on the rest of the game, although I note that there are not as huge differences in the plot here as in, for example, Detroit: Become Human, which I will rather not go through again. Life is Strange: True Colors coming soon. In addition to these cutscenes, we also have a lot of fragments of the game in which we explore locations quite freely, talking to supporting characters, completing simple side quests or collecting the previously mentioned collectibles.
Sometimes the game also gives us moments in which we can use the powers of our heroine, which also diversifies the gameplay a bit, although I still see the "core" of the game from the first Life is Strange here. If we get lost at some point in True Colors, we have access to our heroine's smartphone and diary all the time, in which we can find current goals, text messages, boards of a fictional social networking site and a diary.
I appreciate a few attempts to diversify the game, in the form of interesting mini-games in slot machines (I spent a surprisingly long time in these) or a few other side activities. So it's worth not just running at breakneck speed in order to push the main storyline forward, but also slowly explore the world, especially that some optional dialogues or interactions can open new gates in the main storyline.
The gameplay described above does not have any major flaws or shortcomings that would disqualify me from Life is Strange: True Colors at the start. It's just another game based on the same systems and themes as its predecessors, with minor novelties and improvements.
And this is where I see the biggest problem of this production - the lack of major changes in the gameplay, which after three big games have the right to bore some players. And it seems to me that the creators themselves would like to do something more, which can be seen from a few fragments of True Colors.
For example: one of the stages in the game tries to be a bit more creative than the others, changing the rules of the game for a while, in the shape of a kind of jRPG. Unfortunately, although I liked the idea very much, I was very disappointed with its execution. The simple combat model was designed on… the usual dialogue system.
I really regret that at this point the creators did not focus on at least a temporary change of the interface, adding simple life bars or anything else that would make this part of the game stand out from the rest of the stages. Terrible wasted potential of a very interesting idea.
And bugs, I found a lot of those in the latest Life is Strange, although all of them were rather minor and none of them prevented me from continuing the game. I must also give credit to the creators that while playing True Colors, this game received as many as two major updates, which actually had a positive impact on reducing the number of errors.
What caught my attention the most during the first presentations of Life is Strange: True Colors was the graphics, which in the trailers looked very decent. The previous installments were positively distinguished in terms of visuals, but it should be noted that this was mainly due to the artistic side of these productions. Because the technology that powers Life is Strange, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit and Life is Strange 2, has never taken the hats off their heads.
Mainly, average animations were lame there, in particular facial expressions, which should be at a very high level in this type of games. And in True Colors, this aspect does not disappoint, although I will immediately point out that there is no "new quality" in video games when it comes to facial animations of the characters. It's just good and finally the characters look the way they should, portraying emotions in the right way, which was probably a bit forced by the main storyline of the game.
The rest of the technical aspects are also hard to fault. The locations are large and full of details, the textures - despite the simple style - also do not scare with their quality, and the play of lights (especially in the bar!) and the models look very good. True Colors is simply a nice game, and finally, it is not only the artistic side of the production that deserves it, but also a solid technical background.
I only have two problems with the graphics. First of all - the lack of 60 frames per second on next-gen consoles is a huge oversight, especially in such a relatively simple game. This is not an open world with huge maps, but a rather linear adventure game that should not have too high requirements. However, as it turns out, even on powerful PCs, achieving a stable 60fps is quite a challenge, so it's clear that something went wrong with the optimization of the latest Life is Strange.
And secondly - ray tracing. When playing on Nextgen or PC, we will find options to enable ray tracing technology in the game settings. The problem is that the difference between ray tracing on and off is very difficult to notice.
Finally, a word about audio, which - as always in this series - does not disappoint on any level. The recorded dialogues are at a very high level, and thanks to the better facial expressions of the characters, they look even better in combination with what we see on the screen.
The music is also a class in itself, we will find here not only original songs created for the game but also licensed songs from, for example, Radiohead, which perfectly match the game's atmosphere.
Because what is most important in the Life is Strange games is also in True Colors - an enjoyable storyline to discover, diverse heroes and a superpower that allows you to spice up the story.
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