Life Is Strange Episode 1 Going Free Tomorrow
Time-twisting teen 'em up
The full first episode of Life Is Strange [official site] will tomorrow be set free forever. We've written a lot about one of our favourite games of 2015, about individual episodes as they each came out and giving them the Fail Forward and Cogwatch treatments and... it's weird to be thinking about Episode 1 again. Now knowing where Life Is Strange was going and what it would become, I want to add disclaimers like "Look, Episode 1 is awkward but it really does find itself, okay." I'm weirdly protective.
Let's briefly rewind. Life Is Strange is an episodic adventure game in the Telltale-ish style, made by Remember Me devs Dontnod Entertainment. LIS is about a teenager at an art school in Oregon who suddenly and unexpectedly gains time travel powers. Joining up with her childhood best friend, they try to solve mysteries ranging from a missing friend to the glimpsed future in which a tornado destroys their town. They investigate, they get into trouble, they rekindle their friendship, ahhh it's all very nice. A teen melodrama with time travel.
Square Enix previously released a demo with the very start of the first episode but this will be the whole thing. Presumably the rest of the season will be discounted to make up for a fifth going free.
Looking at the stats now, there's a 47/53 split on the final episode's big final decision. For a choose 'em up adventure game, a balance like that is mighty impressive - especially given my conviction that the other 47% are massively wrong. It comes to feel personal, this.
Here's a wee new trailer introducing Life Is Strange:
