“…Max, start from the beginning. Tell me everything.”

Many people know that I love movies. I’m a fanatic. I will watch almost anything given a trusted friend with a recommendation. I have watched many movies in 2015, and quite a few I immediately had to/plan to buy on Blu-ray. However, there is one piece of cinema that I experienced that sticks out among the others because well, it is actually not even a movie, at least in the traditional sense. It’s a Video Game.

That video game is called Life is Strange.



Woah, woah, woah, now I know what you’re probably thinking:

“Wait, isn’t this a movie blog? What are you doing talking about a video game? You’re Cheating!”

Let me explain.

Life is Strange is not what one would generally think of when you think of video games. No evil plot to destroy the world, no super villains, no armies at war, or even anyone to beat to make it to the next level… None of that. If you were to ask me what Life is Strange is like without actually sitting you down in front of it, I would say it’s an independent film that would almost definitely get a ton of praise at Sundance, combined with the DNA of those old Choose-Your-Own Adventure books you used to read in school, and injected with a shot of Twin Peaks for good measure. Are you intrigued yet?

Playing LiS is an experience that is unlike most games. You watch various scenes, like a film, taking control 0f Max in different locations around Arcadia Bay to make decisions and effect the world and people around you. I recommend you take your time, which you will want to if you get even half as invested in the characters as I did. This is because choices matter in this game. If, for example, you decide to take a photo of someone. You may be able to use it to your advantage later down the line. Perhaps maybe you make fun of a bully in a moment of distress to show them how it feels, their dialogue and actions towards you may be more more or less severe going forward. It’s things like these that make the overall experience more personalized to the player and someone else playing may have had the same event with a different outcome. If you don’t like a decision’s immediate consequences, you can do something ( I will get to that in a moment*) to change it and choose another…but keep in mind, immediate results may not reflect things in the long run and once you leave an area, that choice is solidified.

You play as a young girl named Max Caufield; An aspiring photographer who goes to a prestigious boarding school known as Blackwell Academy. After having a vivid vision of a cataclysmic storm headed to her residing town of Arcadia Bay on top of witnessing a fatal shooting after an argument gone wrong in the girl’s bathroom, Max realizes in a moment of panic, that she now has the ability to manipulate time*. Max uses this ability to save the girl who was shot, but doesn’t recognize her until later, as her childhood friend Chloe Price, and this is where our story really starts.

At Blackwell Academy, things are indeed strange. As you work your way through the story, you will realize some characters are not as they seem, weird events start to happen around town, and the ever-looming fear of the giant storm from Max’s vision destroying the town and everyone in it, grows more and more plausible.

The characters themselves are written and voice acted incredibly well. The two main characters: Max and Chloe, feel like real teenagers, from the way they act and dress, down to the way they talk — Their lingo sounds like something you might hear from characters straight out of a flick written by Diablo Cody, which isn’t a bad thing, as it fits their quirky, cool personalities. This is probably more true for Chloe, who is lively and wild, while Max is more cautious and innocent. The other voice actors bring their characters to life as well, and the fact that they all develop over the game and aren’t just one dimensional was a nice surprise, given that some first appear to be on the surface.

Not only does like the game itself play like an interactive character driven movie, it also drips of indie film personality and style. With our main characters being two strong teenage girls (something that’s even more uncommon for a video game, unfortunately), a backdrop of a unsuspecting little sea-side town, and a fitting soundtrack that includes artists like Bright Eyes and Alt-J, it’s wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine Life is Strange under the banner of something like Fox Searchlight.

Much like a TV series though, the story is told over the course of episodes, 5 in total, each taking around 2-3 hours to complete. In all, making it at most, a 15-16 hr experience, and thats probably if you take the time to look for collectibles taking the form of special photograph opportunities. Realistically, a 12-13 hour experience for someone just playing for the story. At around $20 for the whole season, it’s a steal. If you don’t feel like taking the whole plunge, you are also able to buy each episode for $5 a pop. So even if you wanted to check it out skeptically, you can do that for less than half the price of a movie ticket.

The thing that really makes Life is Strange deserve the level of praise I am giving it, is it’s level of smart storytelling. It decides to put it’s focus on it’s characters and the mystery behind it all, rather than large set pieces and action. If you are someone who loves thrillers, mysteries, or even just emotional well told stories, this game was made for you. I recall two moments specifically, over the course of the story that broke me; Shattered my state of calm and collected as I sat there with visible tears rolling down my face because of what just happened. This may sound ridiculous to some, but I kid you not. You feel like you are Max Caufield. The events seem all the more real because YOU are the one involved in the decisions behind them even if some of those events are inevitable.

That is one of the few problems I did have with the experience, is that some events happen to everyone no matter what choices you have made. I do give them the benefit of the doubt though because I realize there is probably a complex system managing all these things in the background, with different directions/dialogue choices and whatnot while also giving all players a varied, but overall somewhat similar vision of what the creators had in mind. Another problem I had, although smaller, was that Lip-Syncing can get a little wonky from time to time. It doesn’t always line up with what the stellar voice actors are saying and it kind of pulls you out of the experience for a minute if you are constantly focusing on their mouths. I think some people won’t mind this, as what the characters say is usually interesting or funny enough that it overshadows this technical aspect.

As a lover of cinema, developed characters, and original stories, Life is Strange blew me away. In an age of milked franchises and sequels, you don’t see something like this come along often. In other words: This is a special experience and I can not recommend it highly enough. After a year of interesting and quality games and movies, this one shines through as a real gem and overall as one of the great stories of last year.

All episodes of Life is Strange can be experienced digitally now on Steam, Xbox One, and PS4 with a limited edition retail version hitting stores on the 16th, later this month.