Life is Strange is a franchise that became very famous for being one of the first video games which revolutionize the games based on choices and consequences. The three video games are created by Dontnod and distributed by Square Enix. Many people feel affection for the franchise and its way of telling a story and using unique animation and art. Many people were surprised when they saw the gameplay of the first Life is Strange, and even a lot of known streamers wanted to play it live. I already finished playing the three titles of this great franchise, and I want to show my thoughts about each one, compare them to see their unique features, and conclude which of them was better in my opinion. So let's get started!
Life is Strange 1:
I had to say that the creators were so clever because they used everything they got and their best ideas for the first video game. This first project was very good, and the main structure of the success of Dontnod, in which lead the people to buy Life is Strange 2 and True Colors too.
First of all, I am going to start with the animation. It has strong and unique picturesque techniques that make it like everything in the game is drawn by a professional artist. Literally, the first thing I said when I tried the first game is: "This is art". And the same goes actually for the rest of their titles, everything in these games has an amazing visual art. This is why I liked to walk and explore all the areas and views of them.
The protagonists of each game also have their artistic talents. In this case, the story is about Max Caulfield, and his main talent is to take photos, especially Polaroids, and also plays guitar. And like I think they wanted to show us everything they have in this first title, most of the plot is centralized in the life in a school specialized in science and art which is called Blackwell Academy located in Arcadia Bay (a fictional and picturesque seaside town in Oregon). That way, they could explode more their value to deliver an artistic experience.
Also, each game achieves to mix this great art with the powers that each protagonist is going to have. In this case, they also want to show one of the best powers we could ever imagine which is rewinding time, and I have to say that something they did it good at this game is giving us the freedom to use it whenever we want. Another thing they did it well is to see how a teenager like Max Caulfield uses her power in school life.
Speaking of, choosing someone like Max Caulfield as the main character made the game even more perfect as you sympathize with her and she has a more passive, introverted, and friendly personality with which many people can feel identified.
Let's talk now about the plot of the game, Max was having a normal life at Blackwell school, but one day she was hidden in the bathroom hearing a strong discussion between two people, after seeing that one of them pulls out a gun and shoots the other person, Max was forced to go out and, in that tragedy, she awakes her power, that allowed her to rewind time and avoid that awful event. It was not after a while that she discovers that the person she saved was her old friend called Chloe Price. After revealing her power to Chloe, both realized that some other crazy things are happening in Arcadia Bay that are linked to Max's powers, a great mystery, and some visions that Max is having about a storm that is going to happen. Also, this game deals with the chaos theory.
With all of this, Dontnod brings everything they got to create a perfect mix of all these elements and awakes an interest in us to solve the main mystery of the game.
Life is Strange 2:
Like the previous game, this also starts with a tragedy where the character awakes his hidden gift or power. This story is about Sean Diaz and his little brother Daniel Diaz. They were having a good life in Seattle until a tragedy happens that led to the death of their father, and at that moment we discover that the one with the hidden power is Daniel and it is telekinesis, he can manipulate and levitate objects with his mind. The first challenge we got here is that now we can't go back in time and take other decisions. For me this is something good, it is better to use a different approach, and using always the same power would become boring later. Also, the talent of Sean is drawing, and you will not control Daniel who is the one who has the power.
The main message of this game is the relationship between the brothers and the responsibility that the older one has to protect his little brother. After the death of their father, there was a misunderstanding and Sean have to run away with Daniel. The authorities blame Sean for the death of a cop who was present in the tragedy too. In order to have a life, Sean decides to go to a place called Puerto Lobos located in Mexico, because part of the family on their father's side is Mexican. So, to reach and cross the border, Sean and Daniel have to go through many situations and to know new people. I do not know if I missed something but in there is no scene at the end where you will watch the family from Mexico.
I have to say that I didn't like this game a lot as the previous one, for me it has many incoherences and exaggerations. First of all, I do not know really why they choose this specific direction that the story takes after the death of the father. I actually felt more curious about Sean and Daniel's life in school. Maybe it would be better to show us how would be their life in school after losing their father. Also, I didn't like so much the mechanic of the game, because, the characters from the first chapter are not going to appear anymore in the second, and so on. For example, in chapter 2 you meet Sean and Daniel's grandparents but then you have to run away and in chapter 3 they introduce you again to new characters that would be the whole group they will live with that also have no home to go.
I didn't even feel curious to know more about some characters. I felt like they did this game on the fly and improvise. They forced you to socialize with some characters that you don't have enough time to know. And I think here is where the magic got lost in this game because also the good from the first game is how the plot in the story of a group of the same characters collides. And the beauty of the first one was also the creative and artistic place they created which in this case is Arcadia Bay. What this game does is just introduce the characters and places so quickly that I could not even enjoy it.
Now, this is something that many people can have different opinions on, but I actually ended the story by hating Daniel. I think there were many situations in which no one would act like Daniel did no matter what power do you have or if you are just a kid. Also, I thought that the story would be about their lives in Seattle because of how they introduced us to the story. It started with Sean and his friend Lyla coming back from school and talking about going to a party. They just need to have a small talk in the beginning to awaken my interest to know more about them and their lives in school. Lyla was the character who just appear for a while and was the only one that I wanted to actually know more about in the game. I thought both would be like the new Max and Chloe team for example. Also, like she cared a lot about Sean, I thought she would have a bigger role in the next episodes but no, the most interesting character did not appear any longer, you just have the chance to call her in some cases but no more.
There are also a few things that can be rescued from this game. First, they show us that the games are from the same universe, and they did it great to respect the decisions we took from the first game and show how it follows into the next one. Depending on what you chose in the first game, some dialogues in this one are arranged, and gotta see what happened with some old characters and Arcadia Bay after. That is something not so many games do. Also, their way to create and vary different endings was unique and different from the first one, depending on how you teach Daniel some values in the course of the story, he will decide how to act. That was also something pretty cool. Unfortunately, I think with a so different direction, this could have the potential of becoming even a better game than the previous one, but I think they exaggerated a lot the idea of running away and crossing the border to Mexico, and I think what people wanted to is also a plot with another interesting mystery maybe. But, the good of this is that Dontnod knows to hear the audience and learn from mistakes, and that takes us to the last game from the franchise.
Life is Strange True Colors:
This is why I will still rely on Dontnod and the Life is Strange franchise, they literally pay attention to the audience's opinions and create another great game that is the representation of how they care about the gamers and the work they try to do. This has everything we wanted and more with a new original story that makes sense at the end when you resolve the new mystery. In this last game, the main protagonist is Alex Chen, who has empathy powers and abilities that lets her see, manipulate, and absorb strong emotions from others, each of which has its own color. This was something pretty cool to use and helps you to make decisions. And not just that, they introduced us to a new fictional place called Haven Springs (located in Colorado) which is the most beautiful I have seen in the series and gives you more freedom to explore than in the previous games. This place is the best description of where I would like to live someday, a special and quiet place where you can be very happy. Of course, as this is the most recent game, it would have better animation than the others.
The story starts with Alex arriving at Haven Springs and meeting his brother Gabe Chen after 8 years. Before that, she was in a foster care group home. Unlike the other games, she already has their powers since the beginning, but while we play the game we discover more about her past in which she had a difficult life as a child. So maybe she awakened her powers in some specific moment of her past. Alex and Gabe are having a great time reconnecting, but something tragic is going to happen. While they are trying to find and save an important person in Gabe's life, the mining company called Typhon, for some inexplicable reason, decides to ignore them and continue with the explosion in the mountains they have been planning to do. As a result, Gabe dies in the explosion. So the main plot is going to be figuring out why Typhon, despite knowing what was happening, decided to still create an explosion.
This game is just the opposite of the previous one, with interesting characters that are going to appear in all chapters, and a beautiful place to explore, it shows us the magic and the great art of the franchise at its finest. This time, Alex's main talent is singing.
Animal Symbolism:
This game has many artistic and creative elements and one of them is the animal symbolism. Some characters are identified with some spirit animals. Max is identified with the doe, Sean and Daniel with wolfs, and Alex with the canary.
Conclusion:
After reviewing the three games, maybe we can agree that the second game has more mistakes than the others. The first game was very good, like I said, I think they wanted to use everything they got, but the last game was also amazing and is on the same level or even better than Life is Strange 1. I always will have an affection for the first game but the last one was the representation of how Dontnod wants to keep evolving creating a nice place to explore better than Arcadia Bay. True Colors is better but not for a lot, I would say it is almost a tie between this and Life is Strange 1.
DLCs:
If you liked a lot these games, you might want to know that there are also some DLCs. For Life is Strange 1, there is Before the Storm, which is about the life of Chloe before the events of the game. And for True Colors, there are Wavelengths, which is also before the events of the game and is about a bonus story, where Steph Gingrich is the protagonist.
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