Hey guys, maybe a little background on my gaming history to give you some context about me. I started gaming as a child in the 90's growing up on NES/Sega and seeing arcade cabinets in pharmacies and grocery stores. I love a wide range of games, but my first love was always online gaming. Something about the competitiveness really gets me going, be it a fps game, rts, racing, moba, etc. If there's a competition, chance are I'll be interested in it. I've played some games competitively back in the day in leagues like ESEA, CEVO, CAL, and TWL. Despite this, I do really appreciate video games as an art form and as a medium to tell stories. I feel like they add much more depth than just watching a movie as the player is really engaged and making the choices they want to make. Some of my favorite singleplayer, story driven games in recent past are Nier: Automata, God of War, and The Wolf Among Us. Anyway, enough about me, on to the review! I'll try to keep it as spoiler free as I can.
I've honestly been a huge fan of the Life is Strange series since the first, so I was super excited when they announced this one. It took some time to come out, and honestly, I kind of forgot about it, up until I read about how Chinese nationalists were review bombing it for the Tibetan flag being in it. Honestly, that made me want to play it even more because fuck the CCP.
Anyway, the game starts as most Life is Strange games do, an amazing backdrop with a folky background song playing. The player's point of view is from Alex Chen's, a empath, who can actually see and feel people's feeling's and thoughts. The game starts off with her arriving in New Haven, a small mining town in Colorado, to meet with her long lost brother after 8 years to live with him in this new life. The city atmosphere captures the homely feel of a village where everyone knows each other by name, but also knows everyone's business too.
It's obvious Alex's brother, Gabe, is super excited for her to be there and has been telling the New Haven residents so much about her for so long, that she feels welcomed almost instantly.
For me, the game is filled with amazing scenery, perfectly fitting soundtrack, and a story that will tug your heatstrings. I'm not ashamed to say I cried pretty often throughout the whole game. If you're looking for a singleplayer, story driven series that has replayability due to the choices you can make in game, I think the Life is Strange series is perfect for you.