Adventure Gamers - Forums

The Diner

We get a long bus trip with the headphones in. In almost any other game I would be bemoaning this as a waste of time, who wants to witness a bus journey where nothing happens? Somehow here, it’s great. Again I am sharing Max’s life and am getting to see some of the town through her eyes, through a window with headphones setting her apart from it all as an observer. I can’t explain it, but I love it!

I like the ways they show the town being down on it’s luck. A deluded lottery winner, a woman travelling miles to get a second job and the ‘save the fishing’ bloke. Here I think the conversation is a bit rubbish. Having said that there is no way my city mentality would let me just go up to a bunch of strangers and talk to them about nothing, so what would I know!

In the diner there’s lots more optional talking. We Learn more about Joyce,something of Frank, and other bits of those we care to talk to. Then we get an actual puzzle!

Magic proof time. This is a fun little puzzle which again reinforces the idea of observing/looking around with the time travel. Just like you chrissie, it took me a while first time!

The Scrapyard

OK, so i’ve waxed lyrical about how I love all the boring real life things in this game so far, but in this section the old patience does start wearing a bit thin – collecting bottles is not the most fun thing in an environment full of rubbish.

There is however, a nice insight into Rachel & Chloe in the hut. Max is a little jealous as she looks at the evidence of Chloe’s friendship with Rachel.

Up until this point, all the messing around with time has been largely for silly stuff, and shooting at bottles moves it into the arena of stupid. It’s still a fairly inconsequential use of Max’s power, but this time the stakes are raised slightly as Chloe can get shot.

Then we meet Frank and it’s clear that Chloe is in way over her head.

In terms of the choice that follows… Shoot or not? No I didn’t. Firstly my Max is not being peer pressured into it by Chloe. My Max doesn’t like guns and isn’t going to be shooting people she’s just met. Even if Chloe is a bit disappointed, look where her lifestyle is getting her. Max should be the one influencing her, not the other way around. On the other hand, they have just lost a weapon to a self proclaimed loan shark who isn’t below threatening teenage girls with a knife…

Railway Line

More chat and then another actual puzzle! It’s quite a nice one I think, and one that could have worked fine without any time travel intervention, although there is something about being able to rewind, a sense of urgency, but also the knowledge that you can spend time to work it out. Takes it far enough away from the timed or action sequence type puzzle to make it exciting but not just a test of reflexes or speed.

The end of chapter 4

Below are HUGE SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 2 - but not for beyond that so you are fine if you’ve finished the chapter.

OK, now we get serious. Where Max’s powers have been used for mostly silly things (or for Chloe who knows about Max’s powers) before now suddenly things get very serious. Max needs to use her powers for something life and death for someone who has no idea she has them, and just as she needs them…

I love the way that this whole section is done. There is something beautiful and terrible about the frozen scene, people gasping, Victoria with her phone out for some snaps, drops of rain frozen like Ice, birds halted mid-flight. There is a tangible sense of Max pushing forwards against something, facing resistance from some huge force and pushing through with sheer force of will and/or desperation. It feels like a real effort and I love that.

[spoiler]So… what about the top of the tower. The first time I played LiS I didn’t manage to save Kate. Without spoiling anything from later in the game that is still the version of the story that is mine. I have re-played the game more than once since then and saved Kate too, but somehow I feel that (for the story), tragically, heart-wrenchingly, Kate should die here.[/spoiler]

I can think of other games where you have a choice to save a character or not, but I don’t think I have felt anywhere near as emotionally affected by a decision like this than I have in Life is Strange. This to me is the main strength of the game, it allows me to get so immersed and have such an emotional stake in the game, the characters and the world, that I don’t think the vast majority of games even get into the same league as this, let alone close.

So often in other games, the choice to save or not comes at the end (i.e. Malia in GK1) but here we are at the end of episode 2 of 5 and we’ve had to make the call, and will have to live with the consequences for over half the game.

Having said all that… On this playthrough, I was resolved that I was not going to save Kate this time but go back to my original version of the story. But somehow, when Max was up there and Kate was so vulnerable and she’d been so cruelly treated by her friends and family I couldn’t do it. That sounds so stupid to me to write – it is only a story after all – but I’m so emotionally invested in this game that I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Maybe it’s because the first time I played it I was really trying to save Kate but failed. Although I didn’t get the outcome I wanted, it happened against me trying hard to prevent it. There’s something magic in that. Perhaps this time I just had to keep trying as hard, but knowing much more about the characters and the game I was able to save her. Who knows.

Either way, that’s enough emotional rubbish from me, clearly I am far too into this game for my own good!

OK, one more post and then I promise I’ll stop for a while!

chrissie - 18 June 2018 05:59 AM

   
Choices I made were:
Told Kate to wait for more proof
answered Kate’s call
Tried to shoot Frank
Couldn’t save Kate – I was gutted!
Blamed Nathan

My choices were:

Told Kate to go to the police
Answered Kate’s call
Didn’t try and shoot Frank
Saved Kate… I couldn’t help it!
Blamed Nathan

Love seeing all the different choices on this. Anyone else finished and willing to share?

I would actually play them in order of publication, the first game is simply amazing.

The 2nd is fun in a fan starved for more material way.

Just out of curiosity, how far along is the playthrough? Reason for asking is if it’s not going to be finished for another month or two, I might see if there is any interest in a parallel flash playthrough for either Shivers or Lighthouse. Particularly since Shivers is finally available on GOG at a very reasonable $5.99. That might interest some players who either didn’t have the original disks, or didn’t want to go the ScummVM route.

Just started episode 3. I firmly suggest you nominate those 2 games for a future CPT. We could be done in 3-6 weeks or so.

I myself WILL NOT play in a parallel playthrough - even if it is a game I love - like Danganronpa V3.

OK, so this game started on May 18, so it’s been played for over a month. And you’re estimating it will take up to a month and a half to complete. Wow!

I’m not sure what the record is for the longest AGCPT is. Whatever it is, this might be a challenger.

Anyway, I was not asking anyone in this playthrough to stop playing this and join my flash playthrough. And you can rest assured that Danganronpa will not be one of the games submitted.

I only have three in mind. Shivers, Lighthouse and Still Life.

You are way off topic may I suggest you post your fishing expedition in the time for a new community playthrough thread.

Or better yet, Start a new thread asking for people to play in your games. This CPT is going very well, this is one of the major adventure game releases of recent times.

I suggest you play this game with us and join in on the interesting conversations we are having about Life Is Strange.

@PlanetX, concerning the differences…

SPOILERS FOR REST OF GAME

If you fail to save Kate there are quite a few little differences in every other episode. The biggest one being that you miss an entire scene from Chapter 4. There are also some choices which aren’t open to you (definitely one at least) later in the game and some visual environmental things too. There are many people around crying for Kate and some contact with the family about her funeral…

...and just for this episode

PlanetX - 25 June 2018 07:20 AM

The Kate moment also managed to make exploration matter in a very crucial way, outside of the typical character building benefits. If you didn’t take the time to know about Kate’s father, her sisters or look through her bible you may simply not be equipped with the knowledge you need to talk her down.

Absolutely. It’s a really meaningful in-game reward for exploration rather than just some concept art or a steam achievement or something. One of the reasons I love this game!

Mikekelly - 22 June 2018 11:28 PM

You are way off topic may I suggest you post your fishing expedition in the time for a new community playthrough thread.

Or better yet, Start a new thread asking for people to play in your games. This CPT is going very well, this is one of the major adventure game releases of recent times.

I suggest you play this game with us and join in on the interesting conversations we are having about Life Is Strange.

No, I am not off topic. Others have asked these questions forever. The simple question was how long to you anticipate the playthrough you are currently leading to last. If you said it will be done in two months, that gives me one course of action. If you said we’ll be done a week from Thursday, that’s something else entirely.

Well, lots of great comments on the current episode - some I’ve read some that were better than most reviews I have read.

How about we now play episode 4 with a suggested end date of July 11th. That gives those still playing the previous episodes time to catch up.

I myself prefer saving Kate. She is a wonderful character and I could not bear the idea of her dying.