Does anyone actually like Life is Strange?

[Lord Pebbleton]

Hi everyone. Reposting it here since I previously did it in the WoW section.
(Premise: I despise narrative games. I just see them as semi-interactive movies which is annoying if anything, and it always infuriates me when a game of this kind gets a review with almost as many stars as solid, 100+ hours actual games)

Recently, Ps Plus gave me two narrative games: Tales from the Borderlands and Life is Strange. I tried Tales first, going in with my prejudices I've already mentioned.
I was impressed. The story catched up right away, the plot twists were interesting, and the choices were frequent and timed, so you had to follow the story (which was fairly entertaining). The characters made you feel immersed in the world, and even the last boss was done well, even as quick time event material. Most of all, the platinum trophy was just "Finish the game", which is always interesting for many gamers. While I still believe reviews were too generous, it was a solid experience, and I couldn't find any forums against it.

So I picked up Life is Strange. Holee molee, that was brutal... I have completed champter one so far, and the story feels super boring. The main character is unlikeable: an angsty teen girl against the world, surrounded by students that are walking stereotypes (arrogant and uncaring, even when there's no reason to be like that); the choices are scarce, mostly you can look at things and hear your character voice commenting that. There's a time rewind mechanic that destroys all sense of exploration, since you can just go back and change your mind about important choices. And the worst of all for a trophy hunter, the platinum requires you to take "secret shots" with your ancient camera, which means exploring every corner of these asshat-teens filled levels.
I looked at the reviews. I couldn't believe this thing is one star out of ten away from The Witcher 3. It made me so angry; and apparently I wasn't the only one, because this time around I was able to find TONS of forums of enraged people asking what's so good about this game. The replies are either "I am wondering aswell" or "Shut up". The latter doesn't really help in determining why the game is somewhat loved while being so lackluster.

Did anyone here play it? It is normal that the first chapter killed all my interest in the game?

[Deleted]

I thought it was awesome. I agree that especially the first episode was very highschool teen themed but i can asure you that the plot twists and choices presented to you will make for a really good story. Yes its the same clique you meet in the first episode but it does grab you at some point.

my advise is continue.... itll surprise you at times

[Blueobelisk]

I played Life Is Strange about a month ago. It's good.

The polaroid camera is pretty cool since the whole theme is being an art school.
Teenagyness is definitely there but it was pretty immersive so I didn't have a problem with it.
The choices...yeah they aren't the best. They do impact the story.
The time rewind mechanic lets you see would have to do an alternate playthrough for. I like it. It's not about quick impulse decisions, it's that you have time powers and want to make the best choices to have a good future. I like the time rewinding.

Obviously it's a different game than Witcher 3, but what it's advertised for (an interactive story-choice game) it's pretty decent. It's not really fair to compare it on the same scale.

[Darkeon]

I didn't wrap it up. Lost interest in the first episode due to not relating at all with the usual college\highschool American cliques thus not feeling really that engaged in the storyline.

[McNeil]

The first episode is mostly just an introduction to flesh out its universe, learning how to use your time travel powers and getting to know most characters. It gets a lot better afterwards with more intense and interesting stuff happening. I do have my own gripes with the game, like how they handled cliqued characters and high school drama and how insufferable Chloe can get. Choices do get carried over a lot but they do not drastically change an episode, I believe there are only a few that leave a major impact. I think for a storytelling game its doing a good job, but if your not into high school teenage drama then I doubt that you'll like it. I prefer other storytelling games like Telltale's Walking Dead, Heavy Rain and Untill Dawn which have much better settings to my liking. I also give praise for how open and interactable they make their enviroments, which adds to the playability rather then just going straight to your objectives and miss hours of extra fun.

[TheFirstOnes]

A boring story, with character tropes, and shittier graphics than secret world....

0.0/10.

Wouldn't suggest. Worst game. Not even kidding.

[Raetary]

the game is good.

but it becomes quite shitty toward the end, as it becomes very predictable.

[Skizzit]

Yes, I quite enjoyed it. It isn't perfect and there is one huge flaw that I think most people agree is a big negative but saying what it is would be a bit of a spoiler. I thought the rewind time mechanic was interesting and was used really well. It isn't just a tool to go back and change choices that you didn't like the outcome. There are times where you have to ask characters questions to see their response and then rewind time to use that info against them and a really clever part where, after you have been using the ability to the point where you come to rely on it, it is suddenly taken away from you and a very critical moment. The first chapter is not the greatest intro. The teen angst stuff does die down as it goes on but is still there throughout but the story does pick up as the game goes on and goes to some pretty surprising places. So if you absolutely hate it, further episodes are probably not going to change your mind but if you are willing to give it a chance you may find some redeeming factors in the game.

That said, I can totally see why you may not like it, especially if you are not a fan of the genre to begin with. Life is Strange is not going to make you a fan of a genre you hate. Plus, you played though one of the best examples of the genre in Tales from the Borderlands right before it. It's my second favorite game of that type just after another Telltale game, The Wolf Among Us and I was already a huge fan of the Fables series going into that game so I was a little biased there.

[Swalload]

The game is really good, sure the first episode is slower with less going on, it's basically a tutorial about the setting, the characters and the mechanic. It gets far more interesting, far more intelligent as you progress through. The game touches a bunch of subjects that we rarely see in video games and does it with maturity instead of nagging or forcing people into a specific belief. It's not really a game for gamers, it's opening the doors for a different kind of player and that's perfectly fine.

I guess it's not for everyone, specially not people who don't like narrative games, I guess you tried it cuz it was free but to start with you don't even have the right mindset to criticize it.
But I totally get it, there are genres of games that I just don't like but we can't just try to go against the waves of people loving these games and try to prove our point. It only means they're not made for us.

[dope_danny]

I think its more often than not an age thing. If you are below like 20 and shows like Buffy the Vampire slayer aren't part of the pop culture you grew up with it might seem novel, but when you have that 'whedonesque' meets 'tumblr quirky xD' stuff wears real thin. It was similar with Night in the Woods, but that had an art style, music and character development that life is strange just lacked.

[Deleted]

Tales of the Borderlands and Life is Strange were both the weakest I've played of that, interactive storytelling type genre, but I thought Life is Strange was better just by virtue of the fact that it was mechanically more interesting. Tales of the Borderlands felt extremely weak in terms of player interaction for me.

[Arrashi]

LiS is one of my most hated games ever.

[Kazlofski]

Oh I remember that issue, episode one was quite boring for me too and I just forced myself through it.
From episode 2 until the very end, wow what a game... Amazing, seriously give it another try.

[SwiftExE]

I thought episodes 1-3 were good/fair, episode 4 was really good, and episode 5 was bad leaving me with a lower opinion of the series over all (except for episode 4, I loved it haha).

[StationaryHawk]

Nobody does. That's why they're making a sequel.

Having never played it but watched all the episodes, I thought it was okay. It certainly starts off slow, and the last episode is rather weak, but there was enough going on inbetween to keep me interested. If you despise negative games however, I don't think this one is going to be the exception.

Insisting that a genre you don't like can't receive good ratings, and even getting angry over it, is a little silly.

[Deleted]

According to ratings, a lot of people. Personally, I have no idea what it is about, but I'm guessing it's just some irrelevant drama revolving around some irrelevant nobody and it follows that nobody's irrelevant, regular human life. I don't watch soap operas or other pointless drama shows that don't at least come with some hook, even if it's just a lame supernatural or procedural one. I watched Dawson's Creek back in the day, but that was solely for Katie Holmes. Since then, I've gotten enough of real life drama, be it in real life, or in TV show or a movie. Thus, I for one would get absolutely nothing out of playing a game that is just a story of someone's pointless life, regardless of how well it's written.

[KrazyK923]

I liked it quite a lot, actually.

You have to go into it knowing what to expect. It is a cliched, angsty, teenage soap opera choice game with a time travel aspect. It was done this way on purpose, that's kind of why the setting is a preppy art college in Oregon.

From your own OP you admit you don't like narrative games, so I'm not sure what to tell you. It's a narrative game. I think it's far superior to probably anything Telltale's barfed out in the last 3-4 years, since even though LiS falls into the trap of choices kind of not mattering at the very end, all of Telltale's crap really doesn't matter in the end. Plus they added in an actual pretty interesting and fun gameplay mechanic, unlike Telltale, all the games of which play almost identical. The timetravel mechanic lets you scratch that itch of, "What if I chose the other option?" without having to go replay the entire game.

Also Episode 1 isn't the greatest. As others have said, its an introductory episode that brings in all the characters throughout the game and teases their plots throughout. All episode 1s are like this. I'm also not sure why the soundtrack gets so much hatred. Because its indie band artsy fartsy stuff? Once again, that's intentional. I think the soundtrack is one of the best parts of the game.

Chloe sucks though. The story, whether intentional or not, made me hate her immediately and continue to make me hate her throughout. I can't tell if this was bad writing or intentional, based on the final choice of the game, but if it was intentional, well done. Max and Warren clearly the correct pairing there.

And that's kind of why I don't give any shits about the prequel episodes. I don't like Chloe, and she's the main character, and after knowing what happens at the end of the main game, I find it kind of pointless overall. At first I thought it was a sequel where you still played as Max, since the shot of Chloe from the back at the VERY beginning looks like her and I got super excited. But then it was stupid Chloe.

[Truhan]

I've never even played it and I love it for all the wrong reasons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exo8uUlvj9g

[Derah]

I loved it. The first episode IS slow as shit, but the art style, the amazing soundtrack (both original songs and licensed indie songs), and the plot kept me interested, even if the characters didn't click with me at first. Specially chloe, took me 2 more episodes before I warmed up to her.

By the end though, it was one of the best games I've played, and my only regret is that its replayability is kinda low as the "choices" don't really affect the plot all that much.

[Mirishka]

Hi everyone. Reposting it here since I previously did it in the WoW section.
(Premise: I despise narrative games. I just see them as semi-interactive movies which is annoying if anything, and it always infuriates me when a game of this kind gets a review with almost as many stars as solid, 100+ hours actual games)

Recently, Ps Plus gave me two narrative games: Tales from the Borderlands and Life is Strange. I tried Tales first, going in with my prejudices I've already mentioned.
I was impressed. The story catched up right away, the plot twists were interesting, and the choices were frequent and timed, so you had to follow the story (which was fairly entertaining). The characters made you feel immersed in the world, and even the last boss was done well, even as quick time event material. Most of all, the platinum trophy was just "Finish the game", which is always interesting for many gamers. While I still believe reviews were too generous, it was a solid experience, and I couldn't find any forums against it.

So I picked up Life is Strange. Holee molee, that was brutal... I have completed champter one so far, and the story feels super boring. The main character is unlikeable: an angsty teen girl against the world, surrounded by students that are walking stereotypes (arrogant and uncaring, even when there's no reason to be like that); the choices are scarce, mostly you can look at things and hear your character voice commenting that. There's a time rewind mechanic that destroys all sense of exploration, since you can just go back and change your mind about important choices. And the worst of all for a trophy hunter, the platinum requires you to take "secret shots" with your ancient camera, which means exploring every corner of these asshat-teens filled levels.
I looked at the reviews. I couldn't believe this thing is one star out of ten away from The Witcher 3. It made me so angry; and apparently I wasn't the only one, because this time around I was able to find TONS of forums of enraged people asking what's so good about this game. The replies are either "I am wondering aswell" or "Shut up". The latter doesn't really help in determining why the game is somewhat loved while being so lackluster.

Did anyone here play it? It is normal that the first chapter killed all my interest in the game?

I'll let you in on a little secret: you not liking something does not automatically make it 'lackluster'. You are not the bar, you are not the measuring stick of any game's quality.