catcher in the rye the video game
Life is Strange maneuvers players through key plot points in a way that seamlessly blends realism and fantasy. The game continually toys with spectrums and sense of scale. Small daily hassles are juxtaposed with life-defining moments at key junctions in the story. Max may have suddenly been granted supernatural powers, but she is still a high school girl with all the problems and details that come with that time in life. Sometimes, even with her powers, Max is utterly helpless to change the course of events in a display of fate's power. With many small moments in the game, know that there is some unseen force at work, preparing to herald the destructive tornado. High school dramas and rumors all play an integral aspect in creating an atmosphere of intrigue surrounding Arcadia Bay and its denizens. The quiet, seaside town hides dark secrets and acts as a warden to memory, always asking Max about what could have been. Though Max can rewind time, she must eventually settle on a course of action. The difficult interpersonal conflicts that Max confronts are played out in the shadow of the town's destruction as ominous events remind players of the bigger picture. Seemingly isolated incidents come to intersect and connect with each other as fantastical occurrences permeate Max's daily life in subtle and disturbing ways.
shoegazing the video game
Much of the narrative in Life is Strange is focalized around Max and Chloe, her childhood friend. Max is somewhat of an interloper in Arcadia Bay. Max is returning to her hometown to attend Blackwell Academy, but she hasn't kept in touch with Chloe for the years that they were apart. The reunion is bittersweet and Max finds a vastly changed Chloe. Since Max's move, Chloe's father has passed away and the bright Chloe Max once knew is now a delinquent dealing with a step-father she disdains. Though Max and Chloe have fond memories of one another and are able to catch-up (kind of), Chloe can't but feel abandoned by Max during her most difficult years. Max's return also comes during the disappearance of Rachel Amber, Chloe's close friend during Max's absence. Max begins to ponder what is it exactly she brings to her friendship with Chloe as past and present collide upon her return to Arcadia Bay.
Motifs for chaos and disorder manifest in both regular life and strange supernatural events that occur in Arcadia Bay. Vortex imagery symbolizing the tornado in Max's vision makes a prominent debut in the elitist Vortex Club at school. Members of the Vortex Club are in the center of most of the rumors at Blackwell Academy and are mean-spirited towards Max for being the eclectic outsider. As the Vortex Club gears up for its unknowingly aptly named "End of the World Party," Max has visions of the tornado with increasing frequency and intensity. Ominous events also transpire: snow begins to fall way too early in the season, an unscheduled solar eclipse occurs, and animals begin to die en masse and act erratically. Max wants to act as an agent of order and good, but her actions have unseen consequences, both minute and impactful in unbelievable ways.
the second coming the video game
Having played through episodes 1-3 so far, I initially thought the game was tedious in its world interactions, but I quickly came to love them. I came to appreciate Max's thoughts, however cliche they sometimes may be. Though Max is essentially the player's point of entry into the story, she is still a character of her own with her own perspectives and philosophies. Max is strange and eclectic, but I think that's what makes her an easy character to relate to, in the sense that everyone is strange in their own way. The way fantasy interrupts normal life in Arcadia Bay is awesome and ominous. Life is Strange tells it to us promptly: life is strange.
