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Review: 9 out of 10! Why Life is strange deserves such a high score？

844 View2022-03-09

What would you do if you could control time to a certain extent? Most people might answer I would go back and fix my mistakes. But that’s not going to happen. Life does not give you a second chance. Thankfully, “Life is Strange” the game does. The only problem is, are you sure your decision is the right one this time?

Going in blind, I found Life is Strange to be a fairly refreshing take from the other adventure games. I did not have to grind hours or run for my life because of a monster chasing me. Instead what I got was a story that made me want to reflect on my life more and think about the decisions I made in my own journey.

As for an introduction, Life is Strange is a five-episodic Telltale-style adventure game made by Dontnod Entertainment that was first released in January 2015. Today the game has come a long way with many awards and has even released a version of it on android and iOS. The game is based on players controlling Max’s life choices and consequences. They also get to return to their mistakes by rewinding time to see what might have happened if they chose the other options. Each episode of the game had about four to five major decisions that will test a player’s judgment and it will later reflect as a butterfly effect.

So, what’s the story about?Without spoiling for any players who have been living under a rock for the past few days, you play as Max after her 18th birthday as she discovers that she has time manipulation powers. She can interact with a moment in her life where she can rewind a few seconds and change the present.

Later on, we see Max is attending Blackwell Academy to become a future photographer. There she meets her childhood friend Chloe Price and both of them connect with each other like old times. While she is still exploring her campus, I got to see posters of missing girl Rachel Amber. Apparently, she was Chloe’s best friend before Max.

The game often gave me hints on Max’s journal and photo collections that Max clicked. I found this to be very interactive and an effective way to tell the story of the game. The journal also helped when I was jumping in and out of different games just to get caught up on where things were left off.

Thankfully, the game despite being rebuilt for mobile devices does not have a too long loading time. The game has three different types of control systems with the default being the player tapping on the screen to move Max. But you also have your traditional joystick control system too.

I personally used the joystick as a version as there were sequences later on where Max needed to run and interact with objects that were far too difficult with tapping on the screen.

Now, let's talk about graphics. First of all, you have to be really considerate to keep the fact in mind that the game is now running on mobile graphics and it does look kind of bad. I could see pixels and particles in far that just did not load yet. But for a mobile game, this game has one of the best graphics. You can also use the photo mode in the game to do some creative photography with Max. The developers have added filters and simple adjustments that let you edit images and save them on your device. Not just that, they have also included different outfits in photo mode and poses for Chloe to become more interactive.

Final thought, the game is good, very good for someone who wants to enjoy a good story while being in control of the plot. The only critic for the is probably that it might not run on all devices, but if you have a device that does run Life is Strange then you should definitely experience it.

The minimum requirement for the game is Android 6.0 or higher that supports OpenGL 3.1. Your phone will also need a 64-bit ARM processor and a minimum of 2GB RAM. Some similar games like Life is Strange that you could check out are Oxenfree, The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead.

Overall I would rate Life is Strange- 9/10 (Mobile version)

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