What's important is the story. (Which I will not spoil)

I will give some info though: A teen girl named Max realizes she has time powers and
also that there is going to be some messed up stuff happening in the future. Also, her school is corrupt, which makes sense considering it appears to be a private school.

Pros: the art style is actually more original than TS4 is despite being cartoony, and the designers actually care about lighting more which always makes me feel happy. Also, the dialogue is kind of dorky, but the good type of dorky. Cheesiness may be completely intentional.

Cons: Sometimes looks too close to TS4, sometimes it doesn't. It's weird that way. Animation is a bit stiff, but not so distracting.
A bit cheesy by way of plot, though I have a feeling that's a bit intentional, so maybe not a con.

It's episodic, which means all the lets plays only cover episode one so far, and also that my opinions only stem on episode one.

What do you guys think of it?

Hi,

I... Don't have an opinion yet. User reviews on Steam are "overwhelmingly positive", so that's a good sign. I'm seriously thinking about getting the game, and since the first episode is cheap... I'm tempted to buy it. LIS looks a bit like Dreamfall, and I adore that game.
From what I heard LIS is a bit cheesy (and you confirm that) with so-so character writing and some terrible (hipster-ish) lines here and there. Some user posted

"The dialogue is honest terrible; it's almost like it was written by adults who *think* they know what teenagers are like. The whole meme-speak stuff really makes me cringe"

That sort of puts me off. However with a low price as it is, I might give the game a chance.



On the other hand... "Sunless Sea" looks awesome as well. Oh decisions decisions...

The Story line is a tad "Teen Cliché" but its not really that bad.
I enjoyed the game quite a lot still.

I didn't find the dialogue grating at all, though there were a couple of moments where the plot made me go "Huh?". My main complaint was that it seemed very slow and rambly up until the last ten minutes, when the story really kicked in - so I'm expecting the next episode to be better than the first.

This game is on sale for a very good price (in the US at least).
http://slickdeals.net/f/7686687-lif...wnload-7-50?v=1

Someone mentioned, "If you like Telltale-style adventure games, it's well worth the price." I really enjoyed Telltale's Walking Dead games, so maybe I'll enjoy this too.

Thought it was pretty interesting that people have exported the character models from this game to GTA IV and GTA SA. I'd think hearing Nico or Carl's voice coming from a skinny little teenage girl might be a bit creepy.

I took it for a spin on a friend's computer since they were raving about it. It left me a little cold. It's beautiful and all that, but I think it hits that part of gameplay where I'm like "why am I doing the heavy lifting here? shouldn't this just be a movie?" OTOH, my tolerance for such thing is currently at a pretty deep low. I'm definitely getting more mileage from stuff like CK2 and STO as far as "tell me a story" sorts of games, than I seem to be getting from these intimate, in your face sorts of bad dialogue games.

I know maybe....4 people who would look very at home in the game if they were background characters. I think it's pretty interesting.

Played it over the weekend. I didn't really think it looked like TS4 at all, although it does lack alpha hair like TS4 does. It has a bit of a painterly look to it, but more realistic. The setting is beautiful, small town on the Oregon coast. The setting along with the mystery in the plot, it feels very Twin Peaks-ish, and I'm certain I also saw a quick flash of a reference to Twin Peaks on a license plate. The music in the game also does a great job in conveying the overall mood.
It very much has an indy movie feel to it, but I enjoyed the game aspect of it, being able to make Max's choices. Her ability to rewind time seemed cheaty at first, because it always seemed obvious which is the best choice, but I believe their intention is every choice has long-term consequences. I already started to notice characters responding to a choice I made early on where it seemed like I made the obvious right choice, only later to feel like I probably should have picked the other option.
I really like Max as a protagonist. She is introverted, kind of a geek, and a bit dorky. I feel like I can relate to her in that way. She's not the typical type of protagonist you'd find in most games and movies.
The dialogue really didn't bother me at all. The only part that got a bit old for me is Chloe likes to say "hella" a lot. I ended up hearing "hella" a hella many times because I replayed some of the game when remembered I missed something, and also replayed a few episodes in collection mode because I missed a few collectibles.
It's also not the kind of game that will keep you entertained for days or weeks. Episode 1 is pretty short, 2 or 3-hours tops and that's if you go through ever possible decision. I may end up replaying the whole thing in another save slot and making complete opposite choices to see how that changes future episodes.

Only real complaint I have is the lip sync. It's pretty bad, almost distracting. I was able to overlook it, but I could see how some people might be really annoyed by it.

Well there is a reference to final fantasy in the game.
Also Max's parents are back home. The blue haired chick is her friend Chloe who she left when her family moved. Anyway Max moved back alone to go to the school. I think she got a scholarship if I remember right.

Besides the fact that I experienced an audio stuttering glitch that probably wont be fixed and that some of the story lines and dialogs are not well written, story, visuals, (half of the) characters are very well done, music is so good. I was impressed by the way they implemented time reversal, and by the fact that you can change anything in game using it, and that all of your choices could lead to different circumstances. Heck, you can, or cannot water the plant, and it will somehow affect something later in the game.

I would give it 8.5/10 if it were a standalone game, but being episodic one, I'm still not in for rating. I saw a bit of second episode, ant its brilliant, so much better than the first one.

It's relevance to the sims with regard to modeling and simulation is it's only value. The story is poorly composed and the class of dialogue is so low that it begins to grate within the first hour. Reviewers present it as an interactive mystery novel, boasting spontaneity and choice as it's key features, however it's primarily about sentimentality and you'll quickly realize that you don't really have any choice since any decision which results in injury of a character or deviation from any path which is crucial to the future of the main characters will bring you to a dead end where you're forced to rewind repeatedly until you discover the correct option. There is much to be appreciated about "Life is Strange" if you can understand the intellectual foundations of products such as the sims but it's an entirely proprietary product (models and engine components solely owned by Square Enix) and you likely won't find any modding tools or reason to mod it in the first place since there is no functionality.

If you love and protect your sims, you'll appreciate "Life is Strange" but you won't find any reason to play it more than once so pay close attention to all details on your first play through and consider future impact of every decision.



The 'cheesiness' is clearly intentional however the it's also evidential of the fact that the developers don't know anything about their real audience and we'll likely never see another similar product as a result. I would personally love to see environments such as the classrooms, yards, and dorms of Blackwell become a standard for products such as the sims.



The animation is stiff and unnatural because they've developed their own engine unlike developers who work under EA and have access to standardized models and equipment which are available through EA's multi-billion dollar studios. EA-licensed products such as the sims are animated with the performance of professional actors and stunt-people in motion capture studios, and the data is translated using standardized interfaces.