Recent reviews by quest

Well, that was depressing.

Life Is Strange is the best game I've played in a long time. After finishing Episode 1, it's been haunting my thoughts constantly.

It's told from the perspective of an angsty high school senior trying to break out of her shell at her new boarding school. The opening scene was extremely reminiscent of Donnie Darko; that's what made me get the game right away when I saw the trailer on YouTube. In fact, the game is very aware of pop culture and chock full of references to anything and everything.

Gameplay-wise, Life Is Strange feels good. The WASD controls are simple and the mouse-controlled camera functions smoothly. I haven't experienced any framerate issues or game-breaking bugs yet. The best part about the game is that your actions matter; they have concrete consequences that can shift the story onto numerous different paths depending on which actions you take. While recent choices can be "rewinded" immediately for a re-do, this window of opportunity only lasts for a limited time and your decisions stick once you move out of the area.

If you enjoyed TellTale's Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us or Quantic's Heavy Rain or Beyond: Two Souls, you'll love Life Is Strange. In my opinion, this is the most fleshed out game of the genre so far. LIS's controls bring a much higher level of interactivity and engage the player far more than those other titles. Sure, the cutscenes are extremely well done, but you're actually in control, playing the game, instead of just watching a movie. The level design and attention to detail are superb and your actions feel tangibly consequential. Like, you can just tell that a decision is going to bite you in the ass in some way down the line when you choose it. But you don't know how. Maybe you should rewind and choose a different path? Or maybe not. I love it. The physical and social settings of the game are beautiful and relatable. Even though the protagonist is an 18-year-old girl, I think everyone can recall the drama and angst of high school life.

It's not often I write reviews for anything, but in this case I just had to. What a strange and beautiful game indeed.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The soundtrack is awesome and perfectly complements the beautiful visual scenery.

If you ever get bored of the game, you can always get into trading (and betting).