I played
Episode 1 yesterday in full. Took me about 3 hr 39 mins, according to Raptr. Yeah, I loved it.
The game does such a great job w/ its setting + characters, which reminds me quite a bit of Gone Home - but, this is in a much bigger scale (since Gone Home took place in a house in around 2-4 house, while One Episode of Life Is Strange takes place in multiple locations & one episode itself takes around 2-4 hours). While the graphics technically ain't anything special, I absolutely love the art-style + attention paid to details by littering areas w/ so many objects & things that Max (your playable lead female character) can interact with + that she comments on inside of her head (like many adventure game characters do, often to give the player hints on what to do, where to go, etc etc), as this stuff really sets the game-world + its story so well.
You can even read Max's journal, which looks like a Journal a High School journal/scrapbook from a high-school kid. This serves as the in-game Lore mechanic - this has background of some characters (and Max's thoughts on them). Also, the Journal contains the game's story so far, constantly updating when you make decisions and you can read how things are going so far, in the game. You not sure about your decisions? Go check out the journal and read what has happened. It'll clue you in - and do a good job of that, as well.
Puzzles ain't that hard, often seemingly quite logical - which probably (in a sense) is a good thing for its pacing, since you never feel like you get stuck. B/c of this, it can really keep the game going at its actual normal pace. Doesn't seem to be that many puzzles in Episode 1, either. Most of it seems to introduce & set into play the story + characters - and you will make quite a bit of decisions, based on this. And all of this is very well done + put together. The most important thing in this game really does seem to be the decisions you make, as they seem to shape the story + plot into certain directions based on what you decide.
Tackling real issues head-on that are issues for school these days, especially in high school...
...such as bullying in person + on the Internet; how cliques in high school operate; social media issues by sharing private things w/ others publicly, which may not be of the person's knowledge that it was recorded and/or even to their own consent; parents mistreating their significant other + children; parents who are spying on their kids; kids carrying weapons to school; and other things of that sort...
... yeah, this stuff sounds like something you'd see more so in a drama genre movie than in say your typical video game. It's refreshing as can be to have a game based on something like this, set in such a location that we normally don't see in video games.
So many storyline threads are set-up in Episode 1, but never really go too far b/c it's just one Episode in; still got 4 more to go. Seems like there were a bunch of decisions to make - and some of those really might really come into play later. Some already have, in Episode 2 - as I've made certain choices, that seem to be already possibly setting some things up, that wouldn't have happened if I went w/ another much different said choice or direction.
My only real complaint is this - sometimes, dialogue just seems, at times, kind of stilted or off. I don't know, but sometimes I feel characters say things that either a teenager wouldn't say (i.e. who says "Amaze-balls?" in this era?) or have dialogue that really sound like it's facilitating the plot more so than anything instead of actual real dialogue an actual character would say to another character.
So far, loved Episode 1 and I am currently loving Episode 2. I need to go play some more.
EDIT:
Just finished
Episode 2.
With Ep1+2 done, got a total of 7 hr 32 mins, so far. Loving this game.
Yeah, this is really strong stuff.
