Flabby

I've been playing through Life Is Strange and I have to say, it's got a great hook: What if you could reverse a decision? I can't tell you how many times I've thought: ah, if I could just get that moment back!

The problem, I think is that it's a great storytelling decision, but not a great gameplay decision, or a great gameplay decision but a bad storytelling one.

As always, it's all about the execution.

From a storytelling perspective, the narrative is giving me a ton of stream-of-consciousness from the main characters point of view. I get to find out what she thinks about everything and everyone.

But what she thinks about everything and everyone isn't relevant to the story at hand. So I get her thoughts about finding syringes on the ground in a junkyard (it's gross), but this information doesn't a) give me any depth to this character nor b) advance the story in an important manner, or even an incremental one.

This is all over the place and it's distracting. I can look at and get her thoughts on so much stuff, but none of it feels informative.

This is made worse when paired with the primary gameplay loop; changing a moment in time and reversing it. In any situation that results in a 'game over' state, (your friend dies, you aren't allowed into the dorm) then the implication is obvious: Go back and do it over, kid.

In any situation where it doesn't end the game, the main character seems to have no confidence about her decision. I feel as if I could reverse my decisions twenty times and it wouldn't matter: I wouldn't be any better informed and she wouldn't be any more certain of her judgment.

 And since those situations don't feel like they have an impact on the overall story, the choices no longer feel meaningful or important.

So what drives this game? What matters to this character? I never get a sense of what that is, and if your primary gameplay loop doesn't matter, and the story you tell is poorly executed, what's my motivation to continue?

It's a bummer, because I like the concept, and I like that the protagonist is rarely seen in videogames, with the potential of a refreshing point of view. But, stories need to have meaning and the execution of the gameplay loop undercuts that meaning. Conversely, the story doesn't give that gameplay any weight, because any choice you make never seems to have consequences, but more importantly, the main character never seems to have any conviction.