Life is Strange
For: PS4, Xbox One, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
From: Square Enix
Rating: (R13)
Five stars (out of five)
Life is Strange is an episodic series, where you play as Max, a teenager following her dream of being a photographer in college.
Fairly early on, Max witnesses a traumatic event and discovers she has the ability to pause and rewind time.
It's similar in most respects to the much-lauded Telltale Games series style of branching dialogue trees and investigating areas for clues.
Life is Strange, however, blows those games out of the park with its story execution and character development.
Without wanting to delve into spoilers, Max gains a better understanding of her powers as the game progresses, and begins to alter time and fate.
It begs an interesting question in my mind: if you had the chance to go back in time and change one particular event or someone's life, would you do it?
In a particularly memorable and heartbreaking scene, Max does this and discovers that by doing so it doesn't always work out the way you'd hope it would.
It's unlike any that I can remember in modern gaming.
Life is Strange genuinely has difficult decisions, and they have significant consequences.
In most games, your decisions have very little or no effect on the ultimate ending of the game.
In Life is Strange the consequences are severe and, at times, tragic.
It makes the decisions so much harder to make, and many fall into the old adage of choosing the "least worst'' option.
The way it handles issues such as bullying, suicide and death in general is also unlike most games.
The events will genuinely affect you and make you think.
It's not like most games where if a character dies, you're just like "Oh well'' and carry on.
Death in Life is Strange leaves a mark.
If you're an action fan who needs explosions and guns, then Life is Strange is not for you.
If you're after a very different experience, then there is no better game I can recommend.
It's a masterpiece.
- Simon Bishop
