Last week, I did a video about Life is Strange: Before the Storm, saying how stupid I was to dismiss it before it even came out, and talking about why, despite it being a flawed game from developers who didn’t seem to know what they were doing, I absolutely love it. At the end, I talked about how it’s negated some of my love for the original Life is Strange, but there’s more to the story than that.
Love is Strange
When Life is Strange was originally announced in August 2014 with a hipster-y trailer with hipster-y music, I was immediately intrigued. I never heard of the weirdly named and spelled developer Dontnod before, who’s previous and first game was the middling Remember Me, but this is exactly the kind of thing I love. A narrative- and player-driven coming of age adventure game. What really sold me though was the time travel mechanic that allowed you to reverse your previous decisions and try other things if you didn’t like where things were heading.
Eventually I’d also come to fall in love with the great soundtrack and the absolutely phenomenal voice acting. This is the game that made me fall in love with Ashly Burch as an actor, who I was previously familiar with in Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin’ and as Tiny Tina in Borderlands 2. The fact that she could pull of such a meaty, dramatic role so damn well was mind-blowing, and that’s what actually got me into doing voice acting back then.
Why has my opinion on the game soured recently? Well, you’re going to have to watch the video above to find out. I only say “themes” 57 times this time! Or, you can subscribe to Cliqist’s YouTube channel for more videos just like this one. Or better videos, if you didn’t like this one. Whatever.
