Life is Strange is a great game that any writer should play, just to learn what to avoid when writing teen characters and stories.

Now let's talk graphics. It is ass.
The lip syncing is absolutely abysmal, and since Life is Strange is a dialog-based story-focused game, it makes it borderline impossible to immerse in the story. Especially at some points, the character mouths stop moving at all, at a rate so frequent one might mistake it for a stylistic choice.

The character writing is extremely inconsistent. The writers took it on a rollercoaster ride where sometimes the dialog is relatable, but most of the time it sounds like a 35 years old googled internet lingos and tried to cram as much as possible into the game, because it is. The result is the characters seem stereotyped instead of nuanced.

Talking dialog, there is just way too much of it. To really hammer it in that "your choices matter", characters would talk about EVERY choices you made, and I mean EVERY, almost like they has a checklist handy. The characters would also list these choices like they are Forrest Gump, but it is all serious. I don't fault the voice actors for this, because it seems they don't have much of a good script to work with in the first place.

The story has good ideas and intentions, like tying the main message with the core gameplay mechanic, and it can be seen in the middle of the game that it is capable of intrigue and emotional-impact. However, most of the time, the writing continuous beats its messages over the player's head with the effectiveness of plastic hammer. Like it get it, Life is Strange, bully is bad, yes bully man bad, yes bad bully, i get it bully not good, person bully not good person.

Life is Strange feints depth when there isn't any. The game tries so hard to be compelling but ends up overstuffed and unsatisfying. And I dread any reviewers that have to play the other 3 games of this series.

5/10, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks.

Life is Strange is a great game that any writer should play, just to learn what to avoid when writing teen characters and stories. Now let's talk graphics. It is ass. The lip syncing is absolutely abysmal, and since Life is Strange is a dialog-based story-focused game, it makes it borderline impossible to immerse in the story. Especially at some points, the character mouths stop moving at all, at a rate so frequent one might mistake it for a stylistic choice. The character writing is extremely inconsistent. The writers took it on a rollercoaster ride where sometimes the dialog is relatable, but most of the time it sounds like a 35 years old googled internet lingos and tried to cram as much as possible into the game, because it is. The result is the characters seem stereotyped instead of nuanced. Talking dialog, there is just way too much of it. To really hammer it in that "your choices matter", characters would talk about EVERY choices you made, and I mean EVERY, almost like they has a checklist handy. The characters would also list these choices like they are Forrest Gump, but it is all serious. I don't fault the voice actors for this, because it seems they don't have much of a good script to work with in the first place. The story has good ideas and intentions, like tying the main message with the core gameplay mechanic, and it can be seen in the middle of the game that it is capable of intrigue and emotional-impact. However, most of the time, the writing continuous beats its messages over the player's head with the effectiveness of plastic hammer. Like it get it, Life is Strange, bully is bad, yes bully man bad, yes bad bully, i get it bully not good, person bully not good person. Life is Strange feints depth when there isn't any. The game tries so hard to be compelling but ends up overstuffed and unsatisfying. And I dread any reviewers that have to play the other 3 games of this series. 5/10, fucking sucks.