Welcome back to Arcadia Bay. It's been five years, but hey, not much has changed. It is a change of pace, though, going from the hustle and bustle of the streets of Seattle back to the little seaside hick town. It's peaceful, though, and things seem to be alright.
As an aspiring photographer, there was no doubt you'd make your way back when you heard Blackwell Academy was hosting Mark Jefferson as their photographer professor. A world famous photographer as your personal teacher, what's better than that for a kid like you?
It's a slow day, nothing going on in class, nothing out of the ordinary. After a verbal torture attack from that bitch, Victoria, the bell rings and out you rush to the bathroom to collect yourself.
Taking the moment in the bathroom to compose yourself, you start to feel a little better. And in the moment of your silence, a butterfly floats through the window. Following it behind a stall, you realize you'll probably never get a chance at a shot like this so you;d better take it.
Crouching down, you inch closer to the bucket the insect is perched on and snap the photo. The photo being printed instantly. You shake the photo out for the ink to dry, and the butterfly flies out while you are still standing behind the stalls.
In a split second, the door the washroom is thrown open, and you hear someone, a boy, speaking frantically to himself. He's in a manic state of panic, and you can hear him pacing as the door swings open again.
"So what do you want?" the male voice asks and the rest of the conversation is like a blur for the moment it takes place. And suddenly the panic is back.
"Get that gun away from me, psycho!" A girl shouts, and before you could even think, the shot fires and you lurch out from behind the stall screaming no! Your hand out in front of you and in that moment, time freezes.
Rewind.
You're back in Mr. Jefferson's class.
What the fuck just happened?
Giveaway!
Life is Strange is an amazingly phenomenal game that I just want to share with you all, so in the spirit of that I will be doing a raffle here, partnered with the Event Team and giving one digital copy of the game away.
RULES & REQUIREMENTS
- You must have a Steam account, since that's where I will be buying and gifting the game.
- Your Steam account must say you are 18+ years of age since the game is rated M. I personally don't care if you are since CoD or GoW are much, much worse, but what Steam says, goes.
- You must post your VP username in the comments below, with #LifeIsStrange
- Entries will end Thursday, September 1st and the winner will be announced that day or Friday, September 2nd.
Good luck!
Characters
There are a ton of characters in Life is Strange, and they all have amazingly well thought out personalities and opinions. So much care was put into each character and to go into each character would take forever, so I've picked out 5 main characters.
Max Caufield
Max is the character you play as. She's a slightly blank canvas for you to project yourself on. She comes across as shy and a bit cowardly. She fears rejection and doesn't want to look uncool to her new classmates. She wants to make friends.
Chloe was her best friend before she moved to Seattle to pursue her dreams. Coming back to Arcadia Bay, she meant to call Chloe but it took a month before she ever saw her and they met in the most insane way.
Back in action, it's Chloe and Max. This time with the power to rewind time and fix everything Chloe fucks up.
Chloe Price
The typical problem child, smokes, drinks, drugs, theft, and expulsion. How much more could make a mother cry?
After Chloe's dad passed away and Max moved away to Seattle, she went through all the stages of rebellion and now with Max at her side again, she's able to screw up her life twice as hard because there's no consequence when you can rewind time.
Mark Jefferson
A world renowned photographer, spending his days teaching at the every so prestigious, Blackwell Academy.
Talented, charming and good looking, he's got students falling all over him and teachers eating out of the palm of his hand. You've got nothing on him, but a huge crush.
But, don't judge a book by its cover.
David Madsen
Head of security at Blackwell Academy, you don't want to mess with him. He's a war veteran and completely paranoid to the max.
He's also Chloe's step-father or step-douche as she likes to call him. He's got some serious issues, and maybe you should keep an eye on him.
Nathan Prescott
Heir to the Prescott fortune, his family practically owns your school and the town you live in. He's a rich spoilt brat who has to get his way.
However, he's got some deep psychological and mental illness bubbling and brewing deep inside him.
he has an explosive personality, but when you have a father like his, can you really blame him?
Development
Life is Strange is a graphic adventure that takes place over the course of 5 episodes in a third person view. Developed by Dontnod Entertainment and Published by Square Enix, the creators of Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest.
The game takes place back in 2013 in the fictional town of Arcadia Bay, Oregon, USA.
The team at Dontnod are of a French background but knew they wanted these characters to be from the USA with American accents to make them seemingly more relatable to most audiences.
The game had amazing success, selling a million digital copies worldwide by July 2015 while the game having just come out in January 2015. At that time they'd only released episodes 1 trough 4 and the hype was only building as the climax was at its peak.
The game had won several awards, but most notable were the BAFTA Games Award for Best Story, the Peabody-Facebook Futures of Media Award and The Game Awards’ Games for Impact Award.
A game like this had every right to win as many awards as it did and be nominated for as many as it did. The story was phenomenal. Tackling subjects like bullying, drugs, death, abusive relationships, suicide and so much more.
It's safe to say there's room for a trigger warning here, and the game is rated M, but realistically, the game is a great example of real life minus the rewind power.