Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
  • TV
  • Movies
  • Hardware
  • Video
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Deals
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Total Film
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
Subscribe now
Trending
  • Gamescom 2025 schedule
  • Gamescom
  • Battlefield 6
  • New Games for 2025
Don't miss these
Mixtape reveal trailer
Adventure Games Nostalgic new Mixtape trailer demonstrates the impossible power of a Life is Strange-like: I now want to attend my high school reunion
Mass Effect 2 - Garrus
Adventure Games The 25 best video game stories to play right now
A toilet and a romance partner in Date Everything
Simulation Games I thought Date Everything was a silly little romance game about flirting with PC desks, but it's actually the best representation of love I've seen in games
Jan sadly presses a hand on a screen that says 'deceased' in The Alters
Survival Games The Alters has changed the way I play games for the better, and after 18 years I can finally finish Mass Effect
The Alters gameplay screenshot showing
Survival Games After 10 hours of The Alters, I've been trapped in a Groundhog Day of mutiny and magnetic storms – and I fear even movie night can't save me
Mixtape protagonists lounge in a sunlit bedroom with purple walls and fairy lights
Adventure Games Nostalgic indie game from publisher Annapurna is a "respite from the current cursed reality" inspired by real-life, dev says: "Ended about as well as you can expect, including a nice scar, and cow s***"
Multiple Jans discuss their situation in The Alters
Survival Games My current GOTY contender sold itself to me with an out-of-nowhere musical number, and I can't praise that choice enough
Best visual novel games: a close-up of Monika looking ahead with a bright light behind her during Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!
Games The best visual novels that'll capture your imagination
Actor Neil Newbon as Chase, a character in Dead Take standing in front of a camera with a red overlay and horizontal digitized lines.
Horror Games I thought the scariest thing about Dead Take would be its Final Fantasy and Baldur's Gate 3 stars doing American accents, but no horror game has stunned me like this since 2022
Death Stranding
Adventure Games 6 years too late, I bring lukewarm takes: Death Stranding rules, and we should all play more games outside of our comfort zone
Quantum Witch screenshots
Platforming Games This stunning 2D "plotformer" is the ultimate cottagecore fantasy with an extra dose of mystery, sapphic witches, and a giant lady who fights you
Into the Unwell promotional screenshot of a duck in a brown eye mask and striped shirt raising a giant icecream over a collapsed enemy's head
Roguelike Games I'm an Alice Madness Returns stan, so this dark, classic Disney-tinged roguelike might be my next obsession after Hades 2
Jan sadly presses a hand on a screen that says 'deceased' in The Alters
Survival Games The Alters review: "More tactile and story-heavy than the Frostpunk dev's earlier games, but the fight for survival is just as fierce"
A Cairn screenshot shows an impressive mountain during sunset
Adventure Games The best new game I've played all year is a 30-minute demo where I just climbed rocks and ate chocolate bars – and I still care about it more than Borderlands 4 and GTA 6 combined
In first person, a hand grabs onto a set of prison bars against a fleshy pink backdrop
Horror Games This insomnia simulator has Outlast enemies, Alan Wake dream sequences, and "evil" music by a Nine Inch Nails guitarist, and I already need to watch about 50 lore videos on it
  1. Games
  2. Adventure
  3. Life is Strange

Life is Strange: An entirely realistic tale of teen trauma and time-bending

Features
By David Houghton published 15 August 2014

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Turn back the clock

Turn back the clock

Because Life is Strange, the brand new, episodic adventure game from Remember Me developer Dontnod, isn't taking the grandiose, superheroic approach to temporal tomfoolery. Rather, it integrates its clock-bothering malarkey into an otherwise entirely naturalistic tale of estranged childhood friendships, troubled parent/offspring relationships, and the strains of becoming an adult amid the numerous traumas of school, small towns, and non-ideal peer groups.

There is a central mystery at the core of the story, namely one relating to the recent disappearance of a local girl, but however that plays out, the game's refreshingly matter-of-fact, personal, and introspective treatment of its content already gives me high hopes for an unusually engaging tale. Playing like a quiet, sedate version of Telltale's The Walking Dead, it concentrates its time-warping not on epic, world-saving situations, but on the fixing of minor but important mistakes.

The careless screwing over of a friend with a panicked, badly thought-out dialogue choice can be undone. The whole preceding scenario can be struck from the record by going back a little further. Environmental puzzle solutions can be reverse-engineered by coming to understand their causality backwards. And all of this is wrapped up in a quietly thoughtful--but thankfully non-angsty--vibe of underplayed humanity. However much the game's core mechanic might flagrantly break the fundamental laws of physics, it's all to the end of making little, but hopefully far reaching, improvements in its very real characters' very real lives.

Page 1 of 5
Page 1 of 5
The games two leads are Max and Chloe, former childhood friends who lost touch when Max left town

The games two leads are Max and Chloe, former childhood friends who lost touch when Max left town

Page 2 of 5
Page 2 of 5
In the preceding five years, Chloe has changed drastically, going off the rails after her fathers death

In the preceding five years, Chloe has changed drastically, going off the rails after her fathers death

Page 3 of 5
Page 3 of 5
In addition to the core mystery, theres tension with a gun-toting, drug-dealing bad kid at school

In addition to the core mystery, theres tension with a gun-toting, drug-dealing bad kid at school

Page 4 of 5
Page 4 of 5
The games important story triggers seem to lead as much to quiet, emotional revelations as major story progression

The games important story triggers seem to lead as much to quiet, emotional revelations as major story progression

Page 5 of 5
Page 5 of 5
CATEGORIES
PC Gaming PlayStation PS4 Xbox Xbox One Platforms
David Houghton
David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.
See more PC Gaming Features
Read more
Mixtape reveal trailer
Nostalgic new Mixtape trailer demonstrates the impossible power of a Life is Strange-like: I now want to attend my high school reunion
Mass Effect 2 - Garrus
The 25 best video game stories to play right now
A toilet and a romance partner in Date Everything
I thought Date Everything was a silly little romance game about flirting with PC desks, but it's actually the best representation of love I've seen in games
Jan sadly presses a hand on a screen that says 'deceased' in The Alters
The Alters has changed the way I play games for the better, and after 18 years I can finally finish Mass Effect
The Alters gameplay screenshot showing
After 10 hours of The Alters, I've been trapped in a Groundhog Day of mutiny and magnetic storms – and I fear even movie night can't save me
Mixtape protagonists lounge in a sunlit bedroom with purple walls and fairy lights
Nostalgic indie game from publisher Annapurna is a "respite from the current cursed reality" inspired by real-life, dev says: "Ended about as well as you can expect, including a nice scar, and cow s***"
Latest in Adventure
Snatcher
Hideo Kojima's overlooked cyberpunk adventure game is one of the three games Atari's CEO would love to remaster: "I don’t know if it would do well, but I’d probably push it through"
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle screenshot of Indiana
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle director says gameplay has been one of the most "challenging aspects" of development because even Wolfenstein was "very linear"
Haunted Chocolatier
Haunted Chocolatier was announced almost 4 years ago, but don't worry, Eric Barone says Stardew Valley 1.7 won't "hinder" the development of his next life sim
Danganronpa
In the face of countless live service shutdowns, Danganronpa creator believes devs should be "taking responsibility" to give "players a sincere conclusion"
Honkai: Nexus Anima
Pokemon goes gacha in Genshin Impact devs' new adventure strategy game Honkai: Nexus Anima, with pudding-themed puppies and bunnies peddling "tainted donuts"
Out and About screenshot of the player character forager who has purple hair and wears dungarees
Out and About is a very cozy foraging adventure that's taking me back to my fish obsession in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Latest in Features
The Outer Worlds 2 character holding bottle and glass, with the GamesRadar+ Big Preview frame and Reaction sticker
Channeling big Fallout energy means The Outer Worlds 2 could be the Starfield I always wanted
Cropped key art for Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles shows two characters stood side by side.
45 minutes of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles has me certain that Square Enix "rebuilding" the remaster after losing the original source code was worth the effort
Battlefield 6 multiplayer screenshot
I'm still concerned about Battlefield 6's map sizes, but there's no denying it gets chaotic urban warfare right
Where Winds Meet hands-on preview
I played Where Winds Meet and fell in love with the RPG's open world so fast I could barely pay attention to any of the missions
Borderlands 4 screenshot shows someone holding a weapon forward towards the camera.
"We tend to commit to the bit": Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford talks Borderlands 4, the evolution of looter-shooters, and $80 game discourse
Valor Mortis
Ghostrunner devs abandon parkour for Valor Mortis, a first-person soulslike that might explain why the rest of the genre follows Dark Souls' lead
  1. Twisted Cryptids card on a wooden surface
    1
    This gorgeously weird monster board game warms my Halloween-loving heart, and it's a delight
  2. 2
    Lost Soul Aside review: "We (don't) have Final Fantasy Versus 13 at home"
  3. 3
    Hell is Us review: "The lack of waypoints and explicit objectives is a double-edged magical sword that pulls me deep into its harsh world"
  4. 4
    Shuten Order review: "The Danganronpa creator's new multi-genre mystery feels like a forgotten DS cult classic I would have been obsessed with"
  5. 5
    The Rogue Prince of Persia review: "I roguelike but don't roguelove this freerunner – there's just not enough to stand out"
  1. Demon Slayer Infinity Castle
    1
    Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle review: "Roars past Mugen Train as Demon Slayer's best adventure yet"
  2. 2
    The Long Walk review: "One of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made"
  3. 3
    Frankenstein review: "A classy, if somewhat safe, adaptation"
  4. 4
    The Fantastic Four: First Steps review: "An occasionally thrilling heroic adventure that sits safely within a B-tier MCU range"
  5. 5
    Superman review: "A triumphant reinvention and a promising start for the DCU"
  1. John Cena as Peacemaker holds a gun to the head of a different John Cena as Peacemaker in Peacemaker season 2.
    1
    Peacemaker season 2 review: "Darker and sadder than the first year, but there's still a lot of fun to be had with the 11th Street Kids."
  2. 2
    Wednesday season 2 part 1 review: "Complex and exciting but weighed down by too many subplots"
  3. 3
    Alien: Earth review: "Arguably the franchise's strongest outing since James Cameron's Aliens"
  4. 4
    King of the Hill season 14 review: "Hank Hill himself has evolved into a much more open and accepting person"
  5. 5
    Eyes of Wakanda review: "A creative premise shortchanged by the runtime and Marvel bloat"

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...