Game Review · Purchased August 31, 2024 · $29.95 CAD via PSN
The Setup
This collection bundles remastered versions of the original Life is Strange and its prequel, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, cleaning up visuals, animations, and lip sync from the original last-generation releases, timed ahead of Double Exposure’s launch later the same year.
The Review
I picked this up specifically to refresh my memory before Double Exposure, and it turned out to be exactly the right call. The visual and technical upgrades are meaningful without changing the fundamental experience that made these games resonate in the first place: strong, grounded character writing, a distinctive time-rewind mechanic that the original built its entire narrative structure around, and a willingness to sit with difficult, real emotional material that set the series apart from a lot of its contemporaries when it first launched.
For anyone who only played these on previous-generation hardware, or never played them at all, this remains the definitive way to experience the story that everything else in the franchise, Double Exposure included, builds on.
What I Liked
- Two well-regarded narrative games bundled for well under $30
- Meaningful visual and technical improvements over the originals
- Essential context before playing Double Exposure
- Strong, still-resonant character writing years later
What I Didn’t
- If you already own and have played the originals extensively, the remaster alone may not feel like a necessary re-buy
- Core gameplay remains simple by modern standards, this is a narrative experience first
The Verdict
Rating: 4/5
Especially as a lead-in to Double Exposure, this is a strong deal: two well-regarded narrative games, cleaned up and modernized, for under $30.
The Compulsive Canadian Gamer 