Played on: PC, Xbox One
I can't explain why, but around the mid-2010's, I got really into the original Life is Strange. It could be because I was on a bit of a narrative adventure kick at the time, seeing as I was going hard at Telltale Games' various titles around that point. It could also be because I didn't have the energy or focus to play more demanding video games back then. Whatever the case, I played the hell out of Life is Strange, utterly fascinated by its strange blend of hipster-approved storytelling, and comic book-style convention interpreted through a slice-of-life lens.
For whatever reason, I also felt inclined to revisit the game this year. Fortunately, Square Enix has since remastered Life is Strange for... Most of the same platforms that the game was on already (???), and seeing as I'd gotten ahold of both PC and Xbox One copies of Life is Strange Remastered, that felt like as good a time as any to see if Life is Strange has held up with time.
Regardless of any feelings you may or may not have toward this cult favourite, you have to admit that its concept is pretty interesting; You play as an 18-year-old girl, Max Caulfield, who witnesses the accidental killing of another girl in the bathroom of her prestigious art school, at which point Max gains the ability to manipulate and 'rewind' time. Yeah, that hook grabs your attention, doesn't it?
From the perspective of a narrative adventure game however, there are quite a few interesting applications of this idea. You can, for example, go back and reverse a key decision if you don't like the result of it, or, you can play with the rules of time to reallocate NPC's, solve light puzzles, and sometimes even get a look in to places you wouldn't otherwise be able to access. This manipulation of time eventually adds up and becomes even weirder as the game goes on (more on that in a bit), but the rewind mechanic is definitely a compelling hook, one that meshes surprisingly well with an otherwise comically pretentious tone throughout Life is Strange's story.
When Life is Strange works, it's a nice, cozy experience that feels quite unlike most other video games, even within its genre. On the note of cool ideas, it's also a solid hook to have the murdered girl turn out to be Max's estranged childhood best friend, Chloe Price, who plays a key supporting role in this game, and eventually becomes the player character herself in Life is Strange's prequel game, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, which, as it happens, is bundled in with Life is Strange Remastered. When the characters thrive and the emotions swirl, Life is Strange really tickles the feels and captures the heart.
Unfortunately, Life is Strange is not often at its best.
As much as I enjoyed this game during the PS4/Xbox One era, I have to admit that it has been hurt by the passage of time. Narrative adventure games and other choice-driven offerings have become noticeably deeper and more expansive in the years since, really drawing attention to how the decisions in Life is Strange often feel like they don't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. This is especially exacerbated by the game's climax and ending, which I will go into now, so here is your warning to avoid spoilers, if that's something you're concerned about.
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So, Life is Strange's entire finale is actually WAY worse than I remember! The storytelling completely comes apart toward the game's climax, presenting the collapse of reality, a massive tornado seemingly created by Max's time powers, and a perverse photography teacher that drugs, kidnaps and forcibly photographs young girls, all as simultaneous antagonists for Max to square off against. This is just way too many opposing forces all fighting for attention, and the ultimate result is that Life is Strange's fifth and final 'episode' quickly becomes a narrative catastrophe of mismatched ideas, none of which gel together.
Even worse is that all of your decisions throughout the game are made extra pointless by the fact that everything throughout Life is Strange boils down to one singular choice at the end; Whether or not to allow the tornado that Max's powers created to destroy the game's setting of fictional small Oregon town, Arcadia Bay. If you defy fate and allow the tornado to destroy the town, thus allowing Chloe to live and not be killed in the past, everyone else in the town seemingly dies or permanently disappears, so all of the relationships you cultivated outside of Chloe thus become meaningless. Hell, even Chloe's relationship with Max doesn't change at all in this ending, regardless of whether you allow the relationship to become romantic, stay platonic, or whether you're always diplomatic, or confrontational toward Chloe during dialogue. None of it matters; The two just wordlessly drive off together, regardless of how you played them with or against each other during your playthrough.
Even in the (likely 'true') ending wherein Max accepts fate, and rewinds back to Chloe's killing so she no longer stops it, allowing Arcadia Bay and everyone in it to live, while Chloe dies (that aforementioned evil photography teacher, Mr. Jefferson is also subsequently arrested because the student that kills Chloe was his protegee), your character relationships remain pointless, because they're erased by a new timeline! Moreover, Life is Strange never adequately explains why reality threatens to collapse as Max keeps creating new timelines, but she ultimately solves all of the game's problems in this ending with... Another new timeline? Then everything is just fine?
Like I said, Life is Strange's ending is not very good from a gameplay standpoint especially, regardless of which choices you make during your playthrough. In fact, Life is Strange's controversial conclusion has since become downright infamous in online circles, for being one of the worst executed endings in the narrative adventure genre. Now that I'm well into my 30's, I notice this issue WAY more than I did in my late 20's, when I first played Life is Strange's vanilla build on my PS4 and Xbox One.
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Going beyond how Life is Strange itself has or has not held up with time as well, it should also be noted that Life is Strange Remastered is a pretty crappy re-release, sadly. On top of the head-scratching release plan of designing this remaster for the PS4 and Xbox One, the exact same consoles that the original Life is Strange already released on (albeit with last-gen Xbox 360 and PS3 versions on offer as well, in that case), the remaster itself is riddled with bugs and optimization issues, on all platforms.
My PC playthrough of Life is Strange Remastered was especially finicky in several places, with game-breaking physics bugs that would sometimes stick me in the scenery, a few scripts that didn't load properly, and control glitches that make some prompts fail to function properly if you're playing with a mouse and keyboard, like I was. When playing the Xbox One version, there were no game-breaking issues in that case, but I still ran into a few scripting glitches here and there. Plus, for some bizarre reason, the Xbox version of Life is Strange Remastered had an especially evident audio bug that left pre-rendered cutscenes completely silent throughout my playthrough. Maybe this was a clumsy way to get around expired music licenses or something, but if that's the case, why is this cutscene audio otherwise intact in the PC version of Life is Strange Remastered?
Between laughably cringe character dialogue, a very problematic ending, and too little weight behind your character choices, Life is Strange has already struggled to maintain its appeal almost a decade later. The astonishingly poor quality of this remaster makes that issue even worse, especially when said remaster already feels redundant, due to not even releasing on upgraded consoles! Aside from some reworked lighting (which is either not noticeable, or is just as inclined to make some scenes look worse as it is others look better), a few touched-up textures, and an option to play at a full 60fps performance clip, this remaster doesn't change a thing from the vanilla build either, beyond adding more bugs. It was disappointing to see a narrative adventure game I used to really enjoy seemingly fall apart to a significant degree by 2024.
Still, I did find enough to enjoy to prevent the experience of Life is Strange Remastered from feeling like a complete waste. I still think Life is Strange's main collectibles, which involve finding opportunities for Max to take a photograph, are clever, and pretty fun to seek out. Likewise, I did find the core character relationship between Max and Chloe pretty endearing, even if it is also pretty awkward in the dialogue especially. Some of Life is Strange's time-based puzzles are also fairly solid, even if the storytelling doesn't consistently do an amazing job of establishing how the game's time-manipulating rules work.
Fortunately, Life is Strange has since been followed up by a couple of sequels, and it's possible that maybe some of them deliver better storylines and gameplay mechanics. I haven't actually played those sequels yet, so my Life is Strange experience is so far limited to Arcadia Bay. Regardless, Life is Strange Remastered re-releases a rough game, and stands as a truly poor remaster that only makes the experience worse. You might still find some enjoyment here, especially if you're an achievement hunter, but nearly a decade on, Life is Strange feels less like a millennial time capsule and more like a rough selection of narrative adventure ideas that have all been better refined by its competition.
IF I HAD TO SCORE IT: 4/10
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