1. This game is called Life is Strange.
2. Life is Strange was developed by the indie game studio DONTNOD.
3. It has a handful of genres, but the main two are Graphic Adventure and Interactive Movie.
4. The game focuses on two main characters: Max and Chloe. Each character is made to appeal to a different audience.
Max is a shy but creative teenager, and so will mostly attract young people who relate to her stereotypical quiet and arty personality.
Chloe, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of Max – she is a rebellious punk rocker in her late teens, and so will attract audiences ranging from, as one of the developers said, “people who can relate to her, and people who want to be her”.
I personally like the characters because I can identify with Max’s social awkwardness; I also want Chloe’s freeing not-giving-a-heck-about-what-people-think attitude.
5. The main objective of the game is to find out how to stop a giant tornado from destroying Max’s town; that she saw in a dream. I also think that another big objective of the game is to develop emotional connections to the characters, as most of the events within the narrative are centred around their feelings, and are structured to make the player feel a range of emotions; but none of that would mean anything, or have any significant effect on the player, if they did not care about the characters.
6. I find this game fun because I get to play as characters that I care about, and relate to. I like getting an insight into the characters’ thoughts and memories, and feeling strong, genuine emotions when good or bad things happen to them in the story.
Another thing that makes this game fun is the story; it is so intriguing and makes the player want to keep playing to see what happens next, eg how will the main character be able to stop the tornado from destroying the town, and who the girl on the missing person posters is, and where she is.
Something that also hooks me to this game is the music (the majority of my favourite games have an amazing soundtrack). The music in this game is just so well chosen, and throughout the whole game it creates the perfect atmosphere for the scene; whether it be a character lying cosily in bed in the morning, or a party blaring heavy bass club music…it’s all just so good. Even though I finished the game nearly a year ago, I still listen to the music all the time, because I love it so much.
7. I think that the main reason why this game stands out is, again, the characters – they are just really likeable. Even though the gameplay has a couple of nice touches like being able to rewind time, the characters are the most important aspect of the game, as they are very unique and likeable.
8. This game’s art style is unusual, in the sense that it uses realistic shapes with cartoon-like, stylised textures. Laying around the environment are photos and magazines for the player to ogle at, and their obscure, colourful messy art style is heavily inspired by the art of Alberto Mieglo. The art director of Life is Strange wanted the whole game to look like animated concept art, and that’s exactly how it turned out.
The effect of not having photorealistic characters means that the player isn’t distracted by the graphics and how the characters look, but instead are forced to concentrate on the plot, which I think is especially important in Life is Strange, because it is a heavily story driven game. It is easier to identify with stylised characters, which is also an important aspect.
Ciaran :3 