Game Of The Month: November - Life Is Strange
No need to rewind.
Life Is Strange [official site] Episode One came out all the way back in January of this year but with the release of the final episode a couple of weeks ago, this is a fine time to celebrate the series as a whole. Dontnod's episodic adventue is a mystery-drama set in a small Oregon town. Combining time travel, photography, tragedy, terror and scrapbooks, it's all but untouched by the typical canon of gaming inspirations and feels entirely comfortable within its episodic format. If you only have time for one game this month, catch up with this unexpected treat.
We've written about some of the individual episodes as they released, and discussed our thoughts and feelings as some of the twists and turns hit us hard. All of those links contain spoilers though. Thankfully, good ol' Quinns was on hand to explain the game's central rewinding mechanic in one episode of his fabulous COGWATCH series. No spoilers there.
There's even more video analysis in the form of a critical piece by Marsh Davies, created as part of his Fail Forward series, which covered the aspects of games that don't quite work.
Why is November’s game a game that was released in, uh, January, March, May, July and October?
We pick a released game because we want to be able to play the games we choose as Game of the Month, not speculatively guess at what might be worth your time. That means that the games we choose will already be out, and in some cases may have been released years ago if they have suddenly become relevant again. It also means you can start playing the game we pick immediately if you so choose.
Have you guys done this before?
Yes. We’ve so far included Cities: Skylines, Grand Theft Auto V, Invisible, Inc, Her Story, Rocket League, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Undertale. All of their respective features and GOTM coverage can be read here.
More Life Is Strange coverage will follow between now and the end of the month.