favourite life is strange game?
okay i cant really choose one to be my favourite but i do have 3 which i really like!
these 3 are Life is Strange, Life is Strange Before the Storm, and Life is Strange True Colours!
I still adore LIS2 and LIS Double Exposure, but I played the other 3 first and they've just stuck with me
massive rant incoming guys (spoilers are also kinda in here)
Life is Strange
The game follows Maxine Caulfield as she returns to her hometown to study photography during her senior year of high school. She's now a student in the prestigious Blackwell Academy and is enrolled on a scholarship. She reconnects with her estranged childhood best friend, Chloe Price, while discovering the depths and limits of her newly found powers which allow her to travel a few moments back in time to reverse any event that has just happened. The two friends try and figure out what happened to Chloe's runaway friend, Rachel Amber, while uncovering secrets about those who are associated with the school.
This is the first Life is Strange game I played (as well as practically everyone else who has played the Life is Strange series) as it was the first one that was released.
I really liked it, the plot and all the characters had captivated me and I fell in love with the game instantly, and after I finished playing it I downloaded the other games right after (which were Life is Strange True Colours, Life is Strange 2, and Life is Strange Before the Storm, at the time Life is Strange Double Exposure wasn't released).
My favourite character here has to be Max, obviously. Not only is she the main character, shes also such a relatable figure. I adore her honestly, she's clumsy as fuck but extremely empathetic, she's the only character who tried and did help Kate Marsh (justice for Kate) while she was being harassed by Victoria Chase and Nathan Prescott (even though he is the secondary antagonist, I do feel bad for him, i'll probably make another post to explain all this). She even stops her from committing suicide while shes literally on the rooftop? She's done so much for Kate while most of her own family and friends have turned their backs on her, and she wasn't necessarily Kate's close friend to begin with, but they became closer while they were trying to get justice for her.
She does hate Victoria Chase, and we as an audience also harbour hate towards her as she's the epitome of a spoiled rich girl who doesn't know the meaning of strain and hard work as she's had everything handed to her on a golden plate, and she's seen as a minor secondary antagonist in the game along with Nathan Prescott. However, Max does not allow her hate for Victoria to allow her to get hurt, in Episode 1, she does have the choice of either consoling or taunting Victoria, and if you choose to console her, she deletes the slip photo of Max that she took moments before. Furthermore, in Episode 4, she has the choice of steering Victoria away from Jefferson's path, thereby saving her from being harassed, assaulted, and traumatised by the man like he's done to so many other students. Max is a morally grey character in my eyes, and that just adds another layer of complexity to her.
I also absolutely adore Chloe Price, she was so cool? Okay she was a little cringe at times but it adds to her charm, she was so amazing. She's so intent on leaving Arcadia Bay and her dedication to do so is honestly so relatable. She also has issues with her mother and her step father, which adds another layer of sympathy for her because at the end of the day she's just a girl who wants her father to be alive again and she wants to get out of Arcadia Bay. I also broke down with her when we found out what happened to Rachel during the last 2 Episodes, you can really tell that she truly does care about her loved ones. To me, she seems like the type of person who won't trust you until you've proven you're someone who is trustworthy, and she'll go to the ends of her limits to help them if they're in trouble.
The ending of the game was honestly one of the best game endings I've ever seen. I personally at first went with the "Save Arcadia Bay" ending first as I chose for Max to kiss Warren in the diner and had previously completed all of the romance choices linked with Warren, so I didn't see the point of saving Chloe at first.
Warren is a little weird (to say the least) but I still love him, he's such a silly guy and a science nerd and that's honestly really cute (i love nerds omds).
This might be a hot take but hear me out on this: all of the things that happened in Arcadia Bay was because of Chloe, it wasn't her fault but since Max decided to help her and mess with time more freaky things happened which lead to the massive spiralling tornado and the beached whales and the random snow. Max is arguably heroic for wanting to help Chloe in Episode 1 (even though she didn't realise it was her) but she could have also easily been killed if Nathan had shot her instead. When the two girls reconciled, I feel like Chloe constantly begged Max to abuse her rewind powers as if they were a toy, and Max literally states that she can't use them all the time as it'll be detrimental to the world around them.
Anyway disregarding this I love Chloe and she's an amazing character guys trust I love her, I just have a lot of "what if's" that I wanna explore. (I mean, the "what if Max didn't save Chloe in the bathroom" question was answered in the "Save Arcadia Bay" option, but I wanna explore more)
Overall, this was a 10/10 game, and one of the best indie series that I have ever seen. It was such a strong start into the franchise and it instantly got me hooked.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm
This game is set a couple years before Max returns to Arcadia Bay, and it follows Chloe Price, the deuteragonist in the original. We see Chloe explore her blossoming relationship with Rachel Amber while they both deal with their own problems, such as maturing, family, and identity.
This was so heartbreaking to play, not only do we already know what happens to Rachel Amber in the end of the first game (making it dramatically ironic), we see the depths of their relationship, which leaves a lot of unanswered questions as to what could have been of them if Rachel lived.
Rachel seems to be this confident, well rounded individual who seems to have everything going for her, but we do get to see how troubled she is with her family and her own identity crisis.
We also get to see how far Chloe goes for Rachel. She does whatever Rachel asks her to do in regards to her biological mother, Sera, and she can either sugarcoat the truth and why Sera had to leave so Rachel can keep up the facade of the happy family that she believes she has, or tell her the truth, break down her relationship with her family and cause her to question the validity of everything in her world.
I loved how their relationship had played out and how it flowed, and my favourite scenes that showed this was the play scene in Episode 2 where Chloe gets dragged into it last minute, and also the scene where the two girls are laying in bed after Rachel's dad told them the truth about Sera, Rachel's biological mother.
The plot line also had me captivated, sure they weren't dealing with villains such as Mr. Jefferson, but Damon Merrick proved to be an equal threat to the girls.
We also got to see more of Frank, and it's cool to see why he's so hostile to Chloe in the original game compared to how he's friendly with her in Before the Storm, and we see reasons for this and its honestly really well thought out.
It was genuinely a game well done, it was cool to see what Chloe's world was before Max came back into her life, and it gives us more insight about her character and as to why she acts and behaves the way she does.
However, I do think that the final major choice and the ending of the game was sort of anticlimactic. The choice was to tell Rachel the truth or protect her from it, which really didn't lead to much in my opinion as if you tell her the truth, her relationship with her parents would deteriorate further, but that was already happening and it seems useless to try and stop it. I can't complain however as it was still a great game!
Life is Strange: True Colours
The protagonist of the story, Alex Chen, was separated from her older brother Gabriel as children, and grew up in foster care for 8 years without him. Gabe tracked her down and manages to get her out of the system and to his newfound home of Haven Springs. Alex harbours the ability to uncover people's emotions as well as the skill of absorbing them, which in some cases proves to be more of a curse than a blessing. Familiar faces return, most notably Stephanie Gingrich, who we were introduced to in Life is Strange Before the Storm, and she becomes a valuable ally and friend to Alex. Secrets are uncovered about Typhon, a prominent mining company that is deeply embedded in the town's culture and history, and Alex races against time to uncover the truth about the town she now calls home.
Firstly, I love the new world and setting that we have been introduced to, it's my favourite area out of all the games! Haven Springs is such a calming atmosphere, it's a quiet town nestled in nature and serves as a stark contrast to the loud, urban city of Arcadia Bay. It has such strong community ties and everyone is willing to help each other without a second thought, while in Arcadia Bay you may need to grease someone's hands if you require their help. It's literally the epitome of small town vibes, and it's a place that I would definitely move to if I was in the Life is Strange universe.
I love the new characters that we've been introduced to, the father-son duo Jed and Ryan Lucan, your local radio show host Steph Gingrich, and of course, the siblings of Alex and Gabriel Chen. Each one of these characters have such amazing stories to tell. Even the side characters of the mother-daughter florists, Eleanor and Riley Lethe, have such a massive impact on Alex while she's in the town and it's cool to see. Same applies with Mac Loudon, Riley's ex-boyfriend.
It's also really cool to see Alex connect with her family, which only consists of her brother through blood relations but by extent, Charlotte and Ethan Harmon are her family.
Charlotte and Gabe fell in love and were partners for a long time before Alex came back, and her son Ethan looks up to Gabe as a father figure. This practically makes Charlotte and Alex sister-in-laws and Ethan is Alex's nephew now.
In the scene where we get to talk to Charlotte afte Gabe's death as she's sculpting is constantly stuck in my mind. We see how incredibly involved Gabe was in both her and her son's lives, and that grief seems to be 100 times greater as she's trying to be strong for her son while trying to pretend that it doesn't affect her.
I think one of the most prominent scenes that really showcase both Charlotte's rage after Gabe's passing and Alex's power really well is in the scene where we walk in on Charlotte sculpting. We see how every little item brings back memories of Gabe, good and bad, and it's affect on Charlotte. She drowns herself in her work as a coping method to deal with the rage and the grief (which is a relatable coping method, although not the healthiest, for me and a lot of other people). At this point in the game, the player has to make a major choice: either absorb Charlotte's rage or let her mellow out on her own.
If players go choose to absorb her rage, they're actually doing more harm than good. Firstly, it affects Alex's and Steph's relationship, Alex blows up at Steph and breaks the empty alcohol bottle that says "foosball world champion" (or something along those lines) which Steph gifted to Gabe as a joke, but he kept it and treasured it dearly. Steph then storms out of the apartment, and now it makes it more difficult for Alex to pursue Steph romantically. Secondly, it turns Charlotte into this depressed, soulless person. During the festival, Alex and Charlotte have a moment alone and they talk. If players chose to absorb her rage, talking to her becomes similar talking to a wall, she gives short answers, and not even in a rude way. It's as if everything that made her, her, has been taken away from her, and she's now reduced to a soulless vessel of what she once used to be.
I'll admit I made this choice during my first run-through of the game, which was arguably a mistake but it did teach me lesson: no matter how much you want to, you can't take someone's pain away to fix them, you have to let people deal with their own stuff sometimes as it can potentially backfire on you as well.
But if I am being honest I did want to end up with the option of ending up in a relationship with Steph, which I did manage to get in the same run-through, you just have to do every remaining romance option relating to Steph while disregarding Ryan HELP
I loved this game though! We had bisexual through Alex (was really cool to see as I am also bisexual, and Alex is one of my comfort characters) and trans representation (even tho Izzie, Steph's ex-girlfriend, was only mentioned briefly in the game and Steph's DLC expansion game, it was cool to see).
Even having more Steph content was really cool in the Wavelengths DLC!! Unfortunately, I haven't played this for myself yet but I have watched game-play of it, and it's really cool to see Steph's life before Alex came into it.
₊₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━ ✧ ₊˚₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━ ✧ ₊˚
In conclusion:
One thing Square Enix will do is show up when it comes to representation of the LGBT community. Sure, we don't see may POC LGBT characters in the earlier games, but in LIS 2 we have Sean Diaz, who canonically is a bisexual teenage boy of colour, and in LIS Double Exposure, we have Gwen Hunter, a transgender woman who's a professor at Caledon University. I love the representation of so many cultures and backgrounds and I think that's a reason why Life is Strange is loved by so many people and it's generally perceived very well!
So, if you told me to pick my favourite game from the series, I genuinely could only say that these three games were my faves, but it doesn't mean I hate the other two games!
thank you for this question, it did take a lot of time to answer but I loved it! at least now I have all my thoughts of these games in one place ^^
