İlk olarak gamestacker tarafından gönderildi:

Bought it years ago, daughter is finally old enough to play together & understand the nuances, and when i go to start....same issue that affected everyone on release. Asks for "Safe Mode?" then immediately closes upon start. Have never played it, started it, created a game, saved a game.

That's normal. When you launch Life is Strange, it gives you two launch options:
- Play Life is Strange
- Launch Safe Mode

İlk olarak gamestacker tarafından gönderildi:

Tried everything suggested in your forum's post: Reinstalled all _common redistribute...etc etc, all 3.

So that would be VC 2005, 2008 and 2012 Redists. You also need to install both x86 and x64 VC Redists. What about PhysX? You probably want to download the latest one from here:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/physx-system-software/

İlk olarak gamestacker tarafından gönderildi:

Anything else suggested on the last DECADE of startup fails cannot be tried, as those file locations have been moved/updated by steam.

Even if the file locations change, there is always a place where Steam/Game looks up/stores the file.

İlk olarak gamestacker tarafından gönderildi:

HELP! It seems everything I touch has an unsolvable problem attached to it this year!

If you have problems with more than just one game, then there's something wrong with your system. Perhaps some 3rd party program is causing it.

Might also be good idea to compare the system requirements mentioned on the store page.

Yes, all VC are installed/repaired/ready from 2005 up to 2015-2022.
Yes, PhysX 9.23.1019 was freshly installed before running LIS, even though it felt redundant
since I'm running a fully updated NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti with current driver 566.36 (Dec. 5 2024) directly from the NVIDIA app version 11.0.1.184. But perhaps LIS exclusively uses the PhysX drivers/engine to play, no big deal.

My gaming PC is WELL BEYOND the meager system requirements, that's not an issue. This game is story based, not graphics-driven. I play Elden Ring at max settings, 60fps. No issues whatsoever with this PC or any other games loading or playing in Steam....just Life Is Strange.
Occasionally I'll get a rare crash from DETROIT BECOME HUMAN, but that is from running it for 5+ hours straight while simultaneously switching over from full-screen mode to the internet wiki help pages as I'm trying to 100% that beast.
The other issues I'm referring to are not in this subject matter, unrelated unsolved mysteries with zero support from their companies or help pages/youtube/fixit/etc. Suffering through life's complicated troubles while basic people get their basic problems all fixed and wrapped up with a bow....that was more the point.
I'm plagued by a legitimate problem here and still can't simply start the game, not basic step-1 fluff in the way. HELP!

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My gaming PC is WELL BEYOND the meager system requirements, that's not an issue. This game is story based, not graphics-driven. I play Elden Ring at max settings, 60fps. No issues whatsoever with this PC or any other games loading or playing in Steam....just Life Is Strange.

Just checking. You'd be surprised how many people on Steam have problems playing certain games. Like they can play a Triple-A game, but then they have problems with a simple 2D game, because that game engine's doesn't like integrated graphics (e.g. laptops).

So, it doesn't matter if a game is story based or graphics-driven. It really matters what type of engine the game uses.

I guess you have a dedicated graphics card as you're using NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.

İlk olarak gamestacker tarafından gönderildi:

I'm plagued by a legitimate problem here and still can't simply start the game, not basic step-1 fluff in the way. HELP!

If you're unable to find a solution on this forum, then you should contact Square Enix through their support page. I don't think they read these forums anymore.

North America:
https://support.na.square-enix.com/contacttop.php?id=11701&la=1

Europe:
https://support.eu.square-enix.com/contacttop.php?id=11621&la=2

I opened a ticket with Square Enix N. Am, thank you Make. You deserve a small gift.
Wish you could have solved the problem, I would have given you a GIGANTIC gift :)

Do you have any additional AV software installed on your PC or by any chance are you using Windows Defender?

İlk olarak Rook_ tarafından gönderildi:

Do you have any additional AV software installed on your PC or by any chance are you using Windows Defender?

Widows security is managed through my AV: ESET.
ESET does not interfere with gaming whatsoever, but I 'still' disabled it to be diligent during the previous troubleshooting sessions and still same result while disabled.
As far as Firewall & Network, WIndows asked me to allow it through firewall at the very beginning, and it was enabled before any of this started.
Windows Defender is not active since ESET is in control. Thanks for asking.

İlk olarak gamestacker tarafından gönderildi:

ESET does not interfere with gaming whatsoever, but I 'still' disabled it to be diligent during the previous troubleshooting sessions and still same result while disabled.

Okay, I asked because Windows Defender doesn't seem to like 'Life is Strange' games for whatever reason and is known for causing issues like deleting the saves etc., so I thought maybe it's one of those things but it seems like we can get it out of the way.

And I think I have an idea what you can do while you wait for the response from the Support, but before I write anything I just want to confirm something to make it 100% clear.
When you're starting the game you're choosing to play it (instead of running the Safe Mode) and it runs for a second (on Steam overlay you can see you're in game) and then it quits without any errors, am I right?

I started to think I can just post this even without any additional info. Just let me know if it worked in case you decide to try this:

1. Uninstall the game and make sure to manually delete all the remaning files from following locations:

X:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Life Is Strange (or similar location; you know what I'm talking about)

and

X:\Users\YourName\Documents\My Games\Life Is Strange

2. Install the game from scratch and then run it via Steam, just like you were doing all the time. It should run for a split second and then automatically quit and that's exactly what I want to happen.
3. Keep Steam running in the background and go to the location where you installed the game. Now look for 'Binaries' and 'Win32' folders there, the path would be something like I wrote above:

X:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Life Is Strange\Binaries\Win32

With Steam client running in the background run the game from the FOLDER using the 'LifeIsStrange.exe' file.
4. And here's the moment of truth. After reading everything you wrote in your previous posts I'm pretty sure that after running the game via the folder, not via Steam you'll see an error message. Could you please take a screenshot or post here exactly what it says? But if for whatever reason the error does NOT appear, then I'm completely out of ideas.

SquareEnix has given up after 20 steps of troubleshooting!!! They cannot see the problem, can't help any further, and redirected me BACK to Steam.
They actually recommended I do what you just said @Rook_ around the 7th email (although they always point to the "vdredist>2012" location, which I of course do not have as that is not how Steam installs LIS anymore), instead it's in the Program Files(x86) folder, and I get the same error message:
"The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)" error.

İlk olarak gamestacker tarafından gönderildi:

SquareEnix has given up after 20 steps of troubleshooting!!! They cannot see the problem, can't help any further, and redirected me BACK to Steam.
They actually recommended I do what you just said @Rook_ around the 7th email (although they always point to the "vdredist>2012" location, which I of course do not have as that is not how Steam installs LIS anymore), instead it's in the Program Files(x86) folder, and I get the same error message:
"The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)" error.

Yeah, each game used to download redists to a subfolder in the game directory, but that has been changed to "Steamworks Shared" directory in order to avoid wasting drive space:

As a last resort, have you tried using System File Checker utility to diagnose any errors with system files? Launch Command Prompt with administrator rights and type:

İlk olarak gamestacker tarafından gönderildi:

[...] I get the same error message:
"The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)" error.

Basically it's an issue with 32bit .dll files being used by 64bit app and vice versa. We're getting somewhere and that's the good news, the bad one is that fixing this error is sometimes like looking for a needle in a haystack.

In the location mentioned by @Make you'll find 'vcredist' folder and there should be another one labeled as '2012' in it (and probably dozen others depending on how many games you have installed on your PC etc.). Try installing the VC Redistibutable package from there and let us know if it works.

İlk olarak Rook_ tarafından gönderildi:

[...] I get the same error message:
In the location mentioned by @Make you'll find 'vcredist' folder and there should be another one labeled as '2012' in it (and probably dozen others depending on how many games you have installed on your PC etc.). Try installing the VC Redistibutable package from there and let us know if it works.

That was done, and it did not fix the issue Rook. Thanks anyway.
System file checker came back clean as well, 45 days ago when this was first reported in discussion threads (and promptly deleted by mods and referred to tech support section)
.

I wish Steam would refund this game & all future episodes purchased, as i have ZERO minutes played, and exchange it for the remastered version which works fine. Ugh

İlk olarak Rook_ tarafından gönderildi:

[...] I get the same error message:
Basically it's an issue with 32bit .dll files being used by 64bit app and vice versa. We're getting somewhere and that's the good news, the bad one is that fixing this error is sometimes like looking for a needle in a haystack.

SquareEnix made it sound like it was Steam's fault for distributing a faulty install packet to users. Because if the game were potentially installed via original CD disk, it would work fine.

Since you could play the remastered fine but can't for the original, and based on what I understand about your GPU, I'd have to assume (until I'm proven otherwise) that it's Nvidia's fault. Basically for whatever reason, Nvidia decided to make their RTX cards not really compatible for DirectX9 API, even though many popular classic games and some recent ones like Far Cry 5 use that. This may not happen to all RTX owners and may not happen to all DirectX9 games, but it occurs enough that it's well documented and Nvidia themselves iirc even acknowledged such an issue.

However, they're never gonna fix it from what I remember, and the only solution (assuming this truly applies to you) is to use DXVK to bypass that completely. DXVK stands for DirectX 2 Vulkan, and originally a translation layer to make Windows games compatible on Linux by translating them from DirectX to Vulkan. It's also available for Windows and can make many older games run way better and/or more stable; the catch is that it only applies to DirectX9, 10, and 11, so DirectX8 and older is not supported. Ok the other string attached is because it comes as DLL file, you'll risk getting banned from online multiplayer games that implement anti-cheat system.

Ok I just checked the store pages for both the original and remaster, and I strongly suspect that my theory might be true for you. Life is Strange originally used DirectX9, but the remaster uses DirectX11, which doesn't have any problems running on RTX. But you didn't seem to specify what your CPU is, so it may be that if it's Core 12th Gen or newer from Intel because CPUs with hybrid core architecture have issues with many older games. I don't think being on Windows 11 is an issue at all because I'm on that OS and I have no problems running this game (also helps I don't have hybrid CPU nor RTX GPU).