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There's a grand tradition in Hollywood of having teenagers played by people who are far older than the characters supposed ages. It's a little known fact that Sarah Michelle Gellar was in fact forty-eight when she started playing Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Allegedly. Strangely, it doesn't create the mental disconnect you might expect.
Life is Strange's 'teenagers', on the other hand, are somewhat jarring, not because of their age - they're still depicted as being teenagers in the game, but because of they way they speak. Granted, as a Brit I may not be best placed to judge how American teenagers behave, but a whole host of Stateside reviewers have also picked up on the strangeness of their speech. I've certainly never actually heard use 'hella', 'interwebs' or awkwardly refer to Facebook as 'social medias', The latter is particularly odd, but it could be due to the fact that they couldn't use Facebook's name due to copyright factors.
That said, that's probably the worst thing about Life is Strange, the Telltale style Episodic game series which started coming out this month. This adventure game has a very Donnie Darko feel to it, casting you as a slightly angsty teenager who finds out she has time-reversing powers. You end up using these powers either solve a puzzle or to make a different dialogue decision. The latter's pretty handy since it means you don't have to play the game again to see what would happen if you offered a different answer.
Although, this said, your choices don't really have any big consequences in this first episode. It may be that you encounter the consequences later or that, in the style of The Walking Dead, your choices only affect how people treat you and don't actually influence the plot at all. Speaking of which, the game's plot is fairly interesting, though this episode is a bit slow to get going. The main character, Max, is a photography student at a local academy, populated by a few interesting characters, and quite a few one dimensional stereotypes. Snooty cheerleader, jock, rich kid, mean security guard, etc.
But the real question is, is it any good? Sort of. Having a female main character is an interesting move, and the main character is sympathetic. There's also an interesting mystery on the horizon, with girls having disappeared from around or near the academy. But the game didn't grab my interest enough to make me want to buy the remaining episodes. I'd recommend you maybe buy the first, and if it's to your tastes, pick up the rest. But for me, it's a brave step in an interesting direction, but didn't grab me in the same way Telltale's games have.
Score - 6.5. out of 10.
Pros:
There's an interesting female lead.
The time reversing mechanic is kind of cool.
Cons:
The game is pretty slow to get started.
Not a lot really happens in this first episode.
Life is Strange's 'teenagers', on the other hand, are somewhat jarring, not because of their age - they're still depicted as being teenagers in the game, but because of they way they speak. Granted, as a Brit I may not be best placed to judge how American teenagers behave, but a whole host of Stateside reviewers have also picked up on the strangeness of their speech. I've certainly never actually heard use 'hella', 'interwebs' or awkwardly refer to Facebook as 'social medias', The latter is particularly odd, but it could be due to the fact that they couldn't use Facebook's name due to copyright factors.
That said, that's probably the worst thing about Life is Strange, the Telltale style Episodic game series which started coming out this month. This adventure game has a very Donnie Darko feel to it, casting you as a slightly angsty teenager who finds out she has time-reversing powers. You end up using these powers either solve a puzzle or to make a different dialogue decision. The latter's pretty handy since it means you don't have to play the game again to see what would happen if you offered a different answer.
Although, this said, your choices don't really have any big consequences in this first episode. It may be that you encounter the consequences later or that, in the style of The Walking Dead, your choices only affect how people treat you and don't actually influence the plot at all. Speaking of which, the game's plot is fairly interesting, though this episode is a bit slow to get going. The main character, Max, is a photography student at a local academy, populated by a few interesting characters, and quite a few one dimensional stereotypes. Snooty cheerleader, jock, rich kid, mean security guard, etc.
But the real question is, is it any good? Sort of. Having a female main character is an interesting move, and the main character is sympathetic. There's also an interesting mystery on the horizon, with girls having disappeared from around or near the academy. But the game didn't grab my interest enough to make me want to buy the remaining episodes. I'd recommend you maybe buy the first, and if it's to your tastes, pick up the rest. But for me, it's a brave step in an interesting direction, but didn't grab me in the same way Telltale's games have.
Score - 6.5. out of 10.
Pros:
There's an interesting female lead.
The time reversing mechanic is kind of cool.
Cons:
The game is pretty slow to get started.
Not a lot really happens in this first episode.
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There's a grand tradition in Hollywood of having teenagers played by people who are far older than the characters supposed ages. It's a little known fact that Sarah Michelle Gellar was in fact forty-eight when she started playing Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Allegedly. Strangely, it doesn't create the mental disconnect you might expect.
Life is Strange's 'teenagers', on the other hand, are somewhat jarring, not because of their age - they're still depicted as being teenagers in the game, but because of they way they speak. Granted, as a Brit I may not be best placed to judge how American teenagers behave, but a whole host of Stateside reviewers have also picked up on the strangeness of their speech. I've certainly never actually heard use 'hella', 'interwebs' or awkwardly refer to Facebook as 'social medias', The latter is particularly odd, but it could be due to the fact that they couldn't use Facebook's name due to copyright factors.
That said, that's probably the worst thing about Life is Strange, the Telltale style Episodic game series which started coming out this month. This adventure game has a very Donnie Darko feel to it, casting you as a slightly angsty teenager who finds out she has time-reversing powers. You end up using these powers either solve a puzzle or to make a different dialogue decision. The latter's pretty handy since it means you don't have to play the game again to see what would happen if you offered a different answer.
Although, this said, your choices don't really have any big consequences in this first episode. It may be that you encounter the consequences later or that, in the style of The Walking Dead, your choices only affect how people treat you and don't actually influence the plot at all. Speaking of which, the game's plot is fairly interesting, though this episode is a bit slow to get going. The main character, Max, is a photography student at a local academy, populated by a few interesting characters, and quite a few one dimensional stereotypes. Snooty cheerleader, jock, rich kid, mean security guard, etc.
But the real question is, is it any good? Sort of. Having a female main character is an interesting move, and the main character is sympathetic. There's also an interesting mystery on the horizon, with girls having disappeared from around or near the academy. But the game didn't grab my interest enough to make me want to buy the remaining episodes. I'd recommend you maybe buy the first, and if it's to your tastes, pick up the rest. But for me, it's a brave step in an interesting direction, but didn't grab me in the same way Telltale's games have.
Score - 6.5. out of 10.
Pros:
There's an interesting female lead.
The time reversing mechanic is kind of cool.
Cons:
The game is pretty slow to get started.
Not a lot really happens in this first episode.
Life is Strange's 'teenagers', on the other hand, are somewhat jarring, not because of their age - they're still depicted as being teenagers in the game, but because of they way they speak. Granted, as a Brit I may not be best placed to judge how American teenagers behave, but a whole host of Stateside reviewers have also picked up on the strangeness of their speech. I've certainly never actually heard use 'hella', 'interwebs' or awkwardly refer to Facebook as 'social medias', The latter is particularly odd, but it could be due to the fact that they couldn't use Facebook's name due to copyright factors.
That said, that's probably the worst thing about Life is Strange, the Telltale style Episodic game series which started coming out this month. This adventure game has a very Donnie Darko feel to it, casting you as a slightly angsty teenager who finds out she has time-reversing powers. You end up using these powers either solve a puzzle or to make a different dialogue decision. The latter's pretty handy since it means you don't have to play the game again to see what would happen if you offered a different answer.
Although, this said, your choices don't really have any big consequences in this first episode. It may be that you encounter the consequences later or that, in the style of The Walking Dead, your choices only affect how people treat you and don't actually influence the plot at all. Speaking of which, the game's plot is fairly interesting, though this episode is a bit slow to get going. The main character, Max, is a photography student at a local academy, populated by a few interesting characters, and quite a few one dimensional stereotypes. Snooty cheerleader, jock, rich kid, mean security guard, etc.
But the real question is, is it any good? Sort of. Having a female main character is an interesting move, and the main character is sympathetic. There's also an interesting mystery on the horizon, with girls having disappeared from around or near the academy. But the game didn't grab my interest enough to make me want to buy the remaining episodes. I'd recommend you maybe buy the first, and if it's to your tastes, pick up the rest. But for me, it's a brave step in an interesting direction, but didn't grab me in the same way Telltale's games have.
Score - 6.5. out of 10.
Pros:
There's an interesting female lead.
The time reversing mechanic is kind of cool.
Cons:
The game is pretty slow to get started.
Not a lot really happens in this first episode.