Chase Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 This thread is nothing but a hot-take. It also should be known that I do like the first time we set foot in Arcadia Bay and that there are some great things DontNod and Deck Nine have accomplished with these games. The best gameplay mechanic is the photo/graffiti hunt mechanic. Especially in Max's Nightmare. The different angles and MacGuyvering that it takes to get all of the pictures and tags really accentuate Arcadia Bay's set-pieces and motivates the player to explore and examine everything. Since the days of the examine _____ option existing in RuneScape, laughing at captions the game developers give at games has been some unexpectedly good fun - and I've always been a fan of adventuring in seemingly open worlds. Before the Storm's 'Backtalk' mechanic isn't time-travel, but it's much more fun even if there are some situations where guys like the mill bouncer and Skip Matthews have no reason to be taking sass from Chloe. Time-travel causes me to cringe (especially later in the first game) - but I -do- appreciate the ability for Max to use this power for her own gain and gather intelligence that may or may not matter. More dialogue that is meaningless but something I asked for? Awesome. Max's Journal and Chloe's letters to Max are great exposition dumps that are not "in your face" and are just accessible when you want them. Present but not invasive? It's like the guys at DontNod actually have played video games before! Plus, if you're into the whole teenage slice-of-life stuff, this tab is a goldmine for that. Minor issues. Pokémon Reborn might somehow be more accommodating to male characters - and that's something Reborn has some notoriety for lacking. Cain (who would fit right into these games) at least isn't given a negative undertone. Two examples of this are the obvious 'friendzoned' guys in this series. Warren and Eliot. Both gentleman show obvious interest to the female leads, but only one has a chance to be shipped and -both- have various degrees of "obsession". Warren can be spotted peeping through Max's window from around the corner of the girl's dormitory, while Eliot (who has no chance at all because we already know Chloe's not on the market) snaps at Chloe and makes an angry appeal for being "better for you than Rachel is". Then you have guys like Nathan who has psychosis, David who's vilified by his stepdaughter that we're supposed to like/we are playing as, Frank the perpetually grouchy drug dealer, William who's actually a good guy but very dead, and Mr. Jefferson, who is the big bad of the first game. Dead, Evil, 'zoned with issues, or irrelevant to the story. Such is the fate of a guy in Arcadia Bay. In contrast - the progressive same-sex options (Chloe in the first game, and Rachel Amber in the second) are presented as the seemingly "unrivaled" match for the protagonists. Chloe gets a pass, because her hooking up with Rachel is 100% "canon" - but in retrospect it clearly looks like DontNod is being ham-fisted with the message of loving whomever, or is comprised of a bunch of male developers who really just wanted to see two chicks kiss each other in their games. This is a shame not because I'm a conservative male and the game isn't supposed to appeal to me, but I generally thought it was wrong to kiss Chloe because I thought saving her for Rachel was the best way to go. Either of those counts as an annoyance. Major Issue. In the first game, Max travels through various timelines to save her friend Chloe from death over, and over, and over, and over...and...well yeah. There seems to be a point of this being worth the effort. Max also uses her time travel powers to better the town of Arcadia Bay, and there's so many things Max is able to do in order to go from some hipster chick that's easy to insult to a real 'Everyday Hero' (which is the point of her taking a selfie and submitting it for the contest. By the time she actually gets around to submitting it - she's literally been a heroine the whole time. It's not arrogance if it's TRUE my dudes!) The whole game does a great job of making the people at Blackwell and in town matter too. This leads, at first glance, to a very powerful choice of sacrificing your best friend or your home filled with people that also matter....however. Neither of these choices comes without a price...and I'm not just talking about Chloe Price... (heh!) Bae > Bay If you choose to sacrifice the fishing town of Arcadia Bay, Oregon - you are basically allowing all or most of the people you helped and befriended to die. It's not so much that these people or even the quantity of humanity involved is more important than Chloe. It's that this choice invalidates things like saving Kate Marsh from herself, or Victoria Chase from Mr. Jefferson, or Warren, or Chloe's own mother who is literally stranded at the Two Whales, or Frank if you were able to befriend him, from importance, and ultimate wastes your time! Bay > Bae If you choose to sacrifice Chloe, you don't only lose your best friend, all the times you spent saving her from Nathan's gun, Mr. Jefferson's gun, the gun that she just fired herself, and a fucking train end up completely meaningless, and again, your time is wasted. Before the Storm only play this one if you're a fan of the characters. Spoiler: Rachel Amber finds her way to being drugged by Nathan Prescott so he can take disturbing photos of her in the Dark Room underneath his family barn. He sucks at it, and Rachel dies of overdose. It doesn't matter if you tell Rachel her father is an asshole or if you don't. (unless you know how to get the secret ending...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GenEric Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 i always thought that life is strange is about cherishing the people around you like chloe like how max gets to befriend people in blackwell and gets to spend time with chloe once we get to the ultimatum where we choose who to sacrifice we have to choose someone we cared about the most chloe or the town like max’s powers is giving her a chance to give a shit about people so she wont regret it hence the name life is strange because life just doesn’t make sense when it comes to the importance of people Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokeFailure Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 I like the games but they have massive flaws.... You pointed out most of them though so thanks for saving me a rant xD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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