Life is Strange is sort of momentous to me in the sense that it's one of the most engaging adventure games of all time. There has never really been a game that has captured my attention as much as Life is Strange has, both in the current sense of playing it, and afterward where I find myself obsessed with thinking about the story and desiring to replay to find more clues out. Since this is about other games you might like, I'll skip to the chase about spoilers, they're going to be here.
To take up your time a bit I want to make the argument that I feel like the entire series rests on that one moment when Max saves Chloe's life at the beginning. I don't know if we're going to go full Dark Tower here, but you know what let's talk about this tomorrow, right now here are two games that are free to play that you should look at if you're a fan of Life is Strange and just don't want to play a Telltale game or some run of the mill popular adventure series.
'Til Cows Tear Us Apart
Words fail to materalize when I come up with attempting to find a way to describe this game in a way that gives it the proper attention and hype it deserves. You play as two space cowboys traveling in a ship with a lot of stolen cows that are um, well, you find out in the game but let's just say it's adult material inside of an adult game that deals with a lot of interesting subjects, from sexuality to the meaning of loss and gain. Part of the Space Cowboy Jam, it has some very strong and emotional themes attached to it, made in such a short time. Oh and the music is figuratively out of this world.
Each choice you have in each chapter affects the ending in some substantial ways. The game is rather short, but you'll find yourself playing through trying to game each option and a lot of times you'll get so stuck on some specific choices that you'll totally skip out on specific endings. There is five total endings and five ways to be saved, but each of them concludes in different ways.
It's a very deep game for something with so little content and some of the endings had me almost bawling while others had my heart set to how the Greench felt when he found love on Christmas. It's basically Life is Strange turned into a cowboy mini-novella.
A Matter of Caos
Somewhat less of a direct analogy, A Matter of Caos deals with a lot of paranormal themes and is part detective story part cthulhu cult hunter. The storytelling is very rich and each of the characters that you meet continue to build personalities as each episode arrives. It's not just a run of the mill point and click adventure game, but something of a point and click visual novel, of sorts.
The characters aren't specifically drawn in any kind of overly interesting way and the art style reminds me more of a Lucasarts game than anything, but it's a series that definitely snagged my attention and has kept me engaged enough to check back, in addition to making me form and build opinions around the characters, motives, etc. I recommend it because it has a lot of content for a free game and it delves into a lot of deep emotional attachments to various characters. Your opinion of various characters change and alter as you find out more. Much like Life is Strange, the puzzles are satisfying and not "hard," if you read the text you can easily figure out what you should do, rewarding you for engaging with the dialog.
I think that other series similar to it like Reincarnation and Several Journeys of Reemus delivered interesting and compelling stories, but A Matter of Caos is also very recent and each chapter continues from the last.
The Longest Journey
To take a step back in the past a bit, The Longest Journey is pretty much (to me) the best greatest adventure game since forever, and honestly Life is Strange feels like an extension - like a world where similar characters were reborn. I won't go too much into it, but if you haven't bought it yet or got it in a pack or bought it on sale, then you need to buy it right now. Seriously, keep buying it, but every part of it. The original game, The Longest Journey Remastered (just kidding, the controls are horrible, play the original game), Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, and Dreamfall Chapters. Buy every bit of it. None of it will fail you. If you like Life is Strange, you'll fall head over heels for TLJ. Promise.
It's been like 15 years since it launched and I don't care how bad any of it looks or plays, the story is what matters the most. Seriously go, hurry, please, it's all amazing. Gogogogo.
In addition, if you have bought and haven't played it. Shame on you.
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