Even Angels Need Angels, Max
Even Angels Need Angels, Max
Have you ever seen Twin Peaks? Remember the beginning where they find the body of Laura Palmer? Well, Life is Strange has a very similar beginning. The game takes place in the fictional town Arcadia Bay where a missing young woman has shook up the town. The young woman, Rachel Amber, was quite popular, and her face now plasters the entire town on missing person posters.
You play as Max, a young woman with a love for photography. You witness your (former) best friend being shot in the school bathroom by the son of a prominent citizen. Afterwards Max wakes up in her photography classroom with the discovery that she can wind back time. Heading back to the bathroom where her ‘dream’ took place, she rewinds time and saves her friend. The woman she saved was her former best friend Chloe and the two rekindle their old friendship.
Max soon learns that Rachel, the missing girl, was Chloes best friend and that Chloe is the one to put up all of the posters around town. This strikes the beginning of the mystery of what happend to Rachel, and who is behind it. All in the shade og Max’ vision of Arcadia Bay being engulfed by a giant tornado ripping the town to shreds.
Life is Strange, as mentioned, plays out similar to the series Twin Peaks. It sets up a mystery in a small town and introduces the element of ‘magic’ – or chaos. In this case time travelling. This game mechanic works throughout the game as a narrative-pushing mechanism. It enriches the story and shows it from different angles. It works quite seamless, and is an interesting addition into the game. Besides this, Max has her camera. Throughout the game are different photo-ops players can choose to perform, although these mostly are used for achievements within the game and are correlated with minimal dialogue and storytelling. Despite this, photography does play a key role within the story of Life is Strange.
Throughout the game you meet a lot of different characters and get to make your own choices with their own consequenses. If you are not happy with a choice you can use your time travelling ability to see a different output. Sometimes this comes in handy in order to get the best (or worst) possible narrative.
The game is chock full of references – not only to Twin Peaks but also other influences such as Donnie Darko, The Butterfly Effect and a lot of science references. Some of them are quite explicit, such as ‘Fire Walk with Me’ being written on the mirror at the Two Whales Diner or Chloes licence plate reading “TWNPKS”. Later in the game the player finds themself in The Dark Room – Life is Strange’s version of The Black Lodge. The Dark Room, a room where photographers develop their pictures, serves as the place of evil within the gaming world, and is the epicenter of the mystery. When Max goes to a party at The Vortex Club she also passes through red curtains just like Agent Dale Cooper does when entering The Red Room.
This is of course just skimming the reference layers of Life is Strange. The game is filled with them, and it makes for a nice surprise whenever you find one.
The story in Life is Strange is good. Real good. The game is split up in to five chapters. The game plays like your typical point-and-click game, you go around interacting with other characters and the environment. Even small things within the game world can have consequences in the later chapters such as forgetting to water your plant in your room. The story leaves you on a cliffhanger after each episode longing for you to pick up the next. One hiccup is the last chapter which seems to be cut a bit short due to time constraints from the developers. This leaves us with a weird segment within the game where you walk through your memories in a dark void. It is easy to feel that the developers had more in store for this section than what was implemented.
Despite this hiccup Life is Strange is still an excellent game with a well-written story. The game looks great with loads of things to look at in the environment – especially within the girls’ rooms. The characters are well-written and memorable, and interacting with them tells a great story for each one of them. The mystery works and has some interesting plot-twists.
Lastly, the soundtrack. Life is Strange has this two-split: the ambience soundtrack and the music soundtrack. Both are superb and worth listening to even after beating the game. The ambience is great, but the real winner is the music. In the beginning of the game Max puts in her headphones inside the school, and walks around whilst listening to some great indie music.
All in all Life is Strange is a superb game, and worth the time and money investment. It is sitting on Steam with an Overwhelmlingly Positive review score (with over 150k reviewers!), and for good reason. Even better, the first episode is free. So there is no excuse not to pick up this great game!