One more game review (because I only bought
three games during Steam’s big 4th of July sale and I have now
played all of them), and then I will go back to my regular posts complaining
about the lack of viable consumer goods, my drama-prone cat, and my addiction
of the week, which is, currently, reading lifestyle pieces about Pokemon Go. (I
have little desire to actually play it, but I’m fascinated by the cultural phenomenon.)
Warning: Mild spoilers. So, I delved into “Life
is Strange” and I have played through most of the chapters. It’s a frustratingly
flawed, but compelling game. I’ll explain the plot shortly, but just to get it
off of my chest, here are my gripes so far: It skews really young. That’s not
the fault of the game; I am just far out of its target demographic. There are
too many scenes in which I am forced to wander around the halls of its
fictional high school while some querulous emo band plays in the background. High
school was horrendous and I do not wish to dredge up those awful memories. I
haven’t figured out how to skip those scenes, so I find myself trapped in a
nightmare of re-living the days in which I literally would have preferred death
to going to school, complete with a bad soundtrack to round out the anguished
walk down crap-strewn memory lane.
Secondly, a big part of the storyline revolves
around a female student, Kate, who is getting bullied and slut-shamed due to a “viral
video” of her making out with a bunch of guys at an underground party. It
appears that she had possibly been drugged before the party, but at this point,
it’s not totally clear. “Life is Strange” has been lauded by critics for addressing
serious issues not normally tackled by video games, and it does a phenomenal
job of addressing disability in later chapters, but something about the
bullied-girl storyline rankles me. Due in part to my ineptitude at picking the
right dialogue choices, Kate eventually commits suicide by jumping off the roof
of the dorms. After her death, the inevitable schmaltzy alter is erected, and
there is token talk of how she was cruelly bullied and how unfair it was that
no one was nicer to her, but the deeper issues surrounding slut-shaming are never
tackled. It seems to accept that it’s par for the course that any female who
gets “caught” expressing their sexuality is going to be harassed into oblivion,
and that’s it’s just really unfortunate that it happened to nice Christian girl
like Kate. There is something maudlin and off-putting about how that whole storyline
plays out, and at no time do any of the characters address the underlying cultural
hypocrisy and misogyny that lead to Kate’s tragedy.
Complaints aside, “Life is Strange” is an
absorbing and innovative game. You play Maxine (Max), a sensitive aspiring photographer
who gets a rare scholarship to a prestigious arts high school in the fictional Oregon
town of Arcadia. On her first day of school, through a terrifying incident in
the girl’s bathroom, Max discovers that she has the power to “rewind” time. The
core of the game revolves around using this time-warp mechanism to change the
outcome of your choices, manipulate time, and create your desired outcomes. There
is a steep learning curve at the beginning, and many of the early puzzles are
specifically designed to train you to use the rewind mechanic. It takes a bit
of getting used to, and it’s best not to think too much about the logic of how
it plays out most of the time, but overall, once you learn it, it’s a joy to
use. Early in the game, Max reunites with her long-lost best friend Chloe, and
at first, the two of them play with this new-found power like it’s a toy. But
very quickly, things get dark in Arcadia, and young Max is faced with some
serious existential dilemmas surrounding choice, power, and morality. Unlike
most games that use the “choice” mechanic as little more than a pretense, in “Life
is Strange”, your choices actually do affect the outcome of the story. So far,
I’m quite disappointed in myself, but I can’t seem to help but make
questionable decisions, like stealing money and selling out my classmates. Look,
I’m a total goody-goody in real life and I have to blow off steam somehow, so
just stop judging me. Jeez.
I still have a few chapters
left to play, but overall, I’ve found the game incredibly absorbing, despite its
flaws. And while I’m not thrilled with how it handles the Kate storyline, it delves
into disability with an impressively in-depth and sensitive perspective. I
learned some things I didn’t know, and it led me to think about disability in a
new way. Also, while the character of Max is little bit of a Mary Sue, her wild-at-heart
friend Chloe is a brilliantly-written character, as are Chloe’s mom and
stepdad. Unfortunately, the voice acting is distractingly uneven at times, but
Chloe is by far the most consistent. Despite its bumps and rough spots, I’m looking
forward to playing it through to its conclusion. As stated I’ll be back with a “normal”
blog post next week. In the meantime, here’s a fun launch trailer.
--Kristen McHenry
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