Life is certainly strange in the world of Max, a young photography student who’s now immersed in a world with impending doom and the hectic lifestyle of teenagers today. Life Is Strange: Episode 3 picks up on the hunt for Rachel Amber, Chloe’s best friend replacement for Max while she was away. Both Max and Chloe continue to rekindle their close friendship while searching for clues about what really happened to the popular Rachel.
The search intensifies around a series of locations such as the school and tasty diner. It’s a shame that the same locations have been used again and we don’t really visit anywhere new in this episode and it all felt a bit too much of the same. Luckily, the plot was still just as engaging, with twists and turns around every corner. I feel an attachment to Rachel now and even I want to know what happened to her.
The gameplay is very much the same as the previous two episodes, with dialogue and your choices playing a heavy part. A few of your decisions from previous episodes will come into play in this episode, which is quite enthralling playing a story you’ve crafted. One thing to note is that you’re no longer pushing the limits of your reverse time powers, as you utilise them further to obtain the truth from various characters such as the troublesome Frank and Nathan Prescott. This episode felt like it taught me a lot about various characters in the game, especially Frank, the local drug dealer.
There’s also a juicy end to the episode, which will leave you wanting to play episode 4 straight away. In my book, that’s always a good thing to have in a game, especially when it’s episodic. I think Dontnod Entertainment and Square Enix are on to a real winner here.
Pros
- Still possesses a gripping storyline
- Finding out the back story to Frank
Cons
- Lack of new locations used