Recent reviews by Panda

If you like Visual Novels, you'll like Life is Strange.

If you don't, but like SE's artstyle and are in the mood for a time travel story, you'll also enjoy Life is Strange (known as LiS from this point.)

Graphics - 8/10*
It has a particular artstyle as TellTale games does with its Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us series, so it's not as realistic as a modern RPG/shooter would be. The characters themselves remind me of 2011 SE and their Final Fantasy models, but the backgrounds and particularly the physics used are quite well done. But thanks to this, the game is accessible to even the most basic PCs/laptops.

Audio - 10/10
If SE gets anything done well in their games, it has always been the music soundtracks and sound effects. The overall theme is a mellow string and piano duet with coastal ambience overlayed.

Gameplay - 10/10
I was a bit skeptical of how time travel would work in a visual novel. After all, it's an incredibly nuanced and flexible ability, but LiS pulls it off well, and giving enough consequences to each decision, without requiring you to explore every path at each fork (although you could if you wanted to.)

Story - 9/10
While it does use some tropes especially from the Butterfly Effect, the wide berth of choices gives a fulfilling story.

Duration - 10 hours
It's roughly 2.5 hours per episode, a little less if you don't explore alternate paths/collectibles, and about an hour more if you explore all paths.

Replayability - 710**
This is the issue with single player games, particularly with visual novels. Though it does have collectibles, because the game is very story-driven, many of the choices only matter up to the end, with the major endings unchanged. Like mentioned previously, 2 playthroughs of this game, and you're good. Fortunately with steam's in-home streaming/game sharing, you can allow others to enjoy the game at no additional cost.

Cost - 10/10
LiS is worth it if you can get the Complete Season for $15 or less. Fortunately, as of 12/24, it's only $13.39 ($12.38 if you buy the Humble Bundle for Episode 1 for $1.00 and the Season Pass for $12.38.)

Overall - 8.5/10


Notes
* Artstyle may not be for all people, rating reflects SE's use of said artstyle, not necessarily how LiS graphics compare to other modern games.
**Change in replayability score from 2 to 7 to account for the fact that this is a visual novel. Short of having a VN have dozens to hundreds of fail paths like the Fate/Stay series, VN duration/replayability is always short, or else the VN has grindy un-fun mechanics baked into it to artificially extend gameplay without story. And a Visual Novel without a focus on story is just a 1990 DOS game.

The only game where you hate:
to play,
to not play,
your friends,
your team,
your life,
Techies.