Playing Life is Strange, it felt like I was looking at a hazy photograph of myself. It follows Max, a nervous, geeky teenager with a love of photography and obscure alternative bands, with big plans for her life but no idea how to achieve them in a world that feels simultaneously overwhelming and incredibly small in her remote hometown. She’s her highschool’s weirdo, tumbling through life trying to do her best and avoid the asshats that seem to wait around every corner. She is, so much that it almost felt creepy, a digital recreation of the person I was and in a lot of ways still am (though certainly a cuter one). This is the most I’ve ever felt like my character in a game was “me”, and that makes for a powerful tool for sparking empathy in a story as personal and scarily relatable as Max’s.

Read More