Life is Strange

I've played a lot of games in my life, but none of them have affected me as much as Life is strange. I've bought all the games multiple times, chosen different endings, and even the font I've chosen for this website is derived from the games. It’s a game series that has gotten me through a lot of bad times in my life, and a game I feel like I can really connect with the characters. I think it's an all around great series and story, and if you ever get the chance to play any of them you 100 percent should.

Life is strange is a series of games about choices and consequences. Life is Strange is a beautiful story that shows how your choices affect your outcomes and other people's lives. Not to say too much about the end, but it ends with you making a choice that affects everyone around you, and makes you pick what you are willing to lose. Another element I love about this game is their use of photography. Photography is one of the passions that I’ve picked up in my life that I’ve really held on to. I remember the day I bought my first camera. It was one of those big purchases that I spent way too much on something I knew nothing about, but I'm glad I did. I love to be able to connect with a main character who shares one of my biggest passions.

There are 5 games in the series, Life is Strange, Life is Strange: Before the storm, Life is Strange 2, Life is Strange: True Colors and Life is Strange: Double Exposure. While all the games take place in the same universe, they all tell different stories with lots of different characters, scenes and choices. There are a lot of major and minor things that connect the different choices and characters from the different. Such as Life is Strange 2 and Life is Strange: Double Exposure are both affected from the final choice you made in the first game. Also a character from Before the Storm plays a major role in True Colors. There are many other small connections that go through all the different games.

While I could go on an explanation on each game in the series and the impact and the different things they do so differently, it would frankly be too long. So I am going to focus on what I believe are the two best stories in the series, Life is Strange, and Life Is Strange 2.

In the first Life is Strange your character is a highschool aged girl named Max. Your character has recently moved back to her hometown in Arcadia Bay, Oregon, attending an art centered private school named Blackwell Academy as a photography student. Through an unfortunate event you find out you have the ability to rewind time, and use your power to save the life of your childhood best friend, Chloe Price. A best friend who you have not spoken to since you originally left Arcadia Bay, right after her dad died in a tragic car accident. Using your power you and Chloe try to uncover the mysteries of Arcadia Bay, such as the disappearance of Rachel Amber, a student at Blackwell and a good friend of Chloe Price. Through the use of your powers you find that changing the past can have consequences and that maybe you can’t save everyone. You have to choose what kind of future you want to create.

Life is Strange 2 is at the end of the day a story about brotherhood. In this game you play as a teenage boy, whose life gets turned upside down out of nowhere. You have to take your nine year old brother, Daniel, and go on the run, leaving everything you've had behind to protect your brother. Daniel has developed telekinesis and unintentionally caused an accident in your home city of Seattle, Washington. This causes you to have to hide from the police and try to get your brother safely down across the border to Mexico. Life is Strange 2 is so different from the first game because not only are there no redos, you also aren't the one in control of the powers. What's so great about this game is that Daniel learns from the things you do, the things you say, the way you act towards him and the way you approach problems. This changes your gameplay a lot because depending on your relationship with Daniel that can cause situations to not be entirely in your control because Daniel has a choice too. This is best represented by just like in the original Life is Strange, you are given two choices for your decision on how the game will end; however, depending on your relationship with Daniel, it can lead to 7 distinct endings. Which goes to show you that the choices are not always in your control.

I believe these games are some great examples of story telling. If you are ever wanting a compelling story to sit down and just get lost in I would highly recommend these games. I've had a lot of fun playing these games through the years and experiencing different choices and different endings. I can truly say that these games have touched my life in so many ways, and I hope you can find as much comfort in these games as I have.

"I wish I could stay in this moment forever. (...) But then it wouldn't be a moment."

-Max Caulfieled, Life is Strange