Max Caulfield is back huh.. and after 9 years.
Let's take a look at the differences and similarities to the past and what that might mean for you.

Same old Max right? Well.. Deck Nine is the producer on this one and they're not the same producers as the original Life Is Strange back in 2015 (That was Don't Nod), this means that Max may look, feel and act a little bit different than you're used to. She may also still have a tinge of that familiarity to you that we all remember and love.

What's so different about Deck Nine?
Well actually they made the Before the Storm prequel game revolving around Chloe, they've been working on the franchise for quite some time now (including True Colors, those of you who played that game will probably feel quite at home in this environment and around this story).

Is Max still Max?
Honestly.. I don't know, I can't answer this one really, a lot of people are saying she feels like a completely different person but I personally haven't put in the time yet to tell you just how different or familiar she feels as a character, she'll likely definitely feel a lot older and possibly mature of a character and playing through this game I'm sure it'll feel a lot more like a Deck Nine game than a Don't Nod one.

Usually, I'll write down pros and cons on a game in reviews that I make but for this one, I genuinely feel like it's all down to personal preference, if you like Deck Nine games and games in the franchise that were made recently including True Colors then this game will probably click with you pretty well, however, if you absolutely adore the originals made by Don't Nod then this game might not feel right with you (Max doesn't talk like this, Max would never do that etc. etc. No she's not suddenly straight), you might be upset with how they wrote your favourite character and honestly I understand that.

How about the soundtrack? Is that still the same music that we adore in a Life Is Strange game?
Yes. The music is always extremely well done in these games and it always amazes me just how well they do with it, personally one of the best parts in the whole series to me is how well they use the music to match with the tension and around story beats.

The visuals? I also feel the same on this. Always incredibly executed.

One thing I will say is that if you feel like Max is out of place or something is missing like "Hey where's Hawt Dog Man?", the studios will always do their best to deliver the needed fanservice where needed (albeit even if it's behind a paywall, other references I'm not so sure on yet but I know they'll be in there and I'll be looking out for them throughout my playthrough).

If you know nothing about the franchise prior and you're new to Life Is Strange and this is your first ever game, I'm sure you'll have a great time, the story and premise will likely hook you in and I believe it'll be worth it.

• Sci-fi
  
• Choices Matter
  
• Mystery and Detective games

If you're a returning player, read above my thoughts on how you feel about the characters, this game might be a pretty polarising one and I feel it's best to at least go in with a bit of forewarning.

I recommend this game myself for pretty much anyone due to the way these studios work through story beats, music and visuals alone. I'm sure this game will be no different than the past few and you'll be left feeling.


Double Exposure will be polarising, let's see what else it brings.

She's just like me fr

The more you complain about the DLC, the more i'll GTA stripper walk at you

It's a fun and cute little hack n slash.

If you like RWBY, you'll enjoy it.

If you don't know about RWBY, you'll still probably enjoy it.

Simple and enjoyable.

If you're on the fence about buying this chapter:

The rework buffs Legion entirely and the sound design completely reworks their chase music into something amazing, if you like heavier stuff that is

Legion will be very popular soon, good luck

BHVR sound team needs a raise just for changing the chase music based on what mixtape you're running.

I found a way to stop my girlfriend playing League of Legends

10/10

Pros:

- relatively easy to pick up and learn.
- phenomenal sound design.
- every game is unique.
- you can play your own style and with the character of your choosing ranging from 25 Survivors and an equal amount of Killers with their own unique perks.
- Extremely fun with friends, honestly it's probably better to play this game with friends because you know who they are and you know how they play instead of getting people you've never met who could be hiding in a locker the entire reason for unknown reasons (you do you boo).
- Cosmetics and customisation, now i'm not saying you can make Claudette suddenly light skin but you can have her running around in a bright pink shirt with a pride charm on her pants.
- IT HAS CROSSPLAY

Cons:

- Skewed matchmaking.
- Honestly, the community can be pretty toxic.
- Killers can and do camp, basically ruining the whole point of the game (but you play however you want, if you wanna camp then camp).
- The Skillchecks I personally find to be annoying and tedious for the sake of being tedious, especially with how damn important they are in this game for fixing objectives, don't get me wrong, they're pretty easy once you learn them, I just don't personally see the necessity for it to be the way it currently is.
- This genuinely might be a deal breaker for some people but there is a battlepass style progression for cosmetics.


A couple extras I wanted to add:

When you originally buy the base game, it'll only come with 5 survivors and 3 killers that you can play, this does not mean that you cannot play against and with the other killers/survivors in a match but it does mean that in order to play them yourself, you'll need to be the corresponding DLC.

It's also gonna take you some time to get used to the game in itself, the sound design, how different killers and survivor perks work, how the game plays, that's okay, just take your time and learn at your own pace.

Players can be easily tiltable, this game deters away those people pretty fast, killers put up with survivors taunting them constantly and vice versa, strong mental is gonna be pretty important to play this game.

Bloodpoints are earned based on how well you do in the game, you'll always earn them the more you play but the amount you earn is dependant on how well you do throughout your games, this could be deterring for new players who haven't learnt the system yet and want to progress faster as they feel they're behind the curve perks wise after being matched with people who play the game frequently.

I've been playing FFXIV for nearly a month now and this review is taken just after i reached Heavensward.

Edit: just before reaching Shadowbringers, nearing 1000 hours.
I have now nearly taken 2000 hours and have completed Endwalker.

Pros:

- Free Trial, you can play the game for FREE up until level 70 (with some limitations) and i highly recommend doing this if you're sceptical whether you'd enjoy it or not, you should at least try it and get a feel for it.

- Every combat system is inter-changeable, wanna play a mage one day and ranged the next? well you can absolutely 100% do that. every class is unlocked once you reach level 15 in your starting class and you can switch between them whenever you like.

- Enjoyable story. A lot of people say the A Realm Reborn story is quite hit or miss but personally i think it's quite good, there are a lot of fetch quests and small things to do near the start of the game but i personally liked this. They have also shortened a lot of the tedium out of it.

- There are 'classes' for things such as Fishing, Mining, Leatherworking, Blacksmithing and so on which could help with creating gear to make Gil or for yourself and are quite relaxing if you're into that thing.

- Fast Travel (once you've unlocked the Aetherites)

- Minigames (Golden Saucer, unlocked at lvl 15 in Ul'Dah)

- Customisation. (Dyes, Glamours, even changing your hair with the aesthetician or even your entire character with Fantasia)

- Multiple zones throughout the entire map that players can play through at any time.

- The Story is Linear, unlike some other MMOs where you progress the story multiple times in one zone with lvl 50 fights being in multiple different expansions, FFXIV has a very linear story and your level will match to the area you are in.

- The music use for fights is immaculate (especially Shiva and Garuda imo).


Cons:


- You cannot change your hotbars per job, if you change your keybinds for Black Mage and switched to Gunbreaker, your hotbars are the exact same.

- The Map can be a pain to use sometimes, especially when their are quests covering the area you want to fast travel too.

- A lot of the things in the game aren't told to you and sometimes you often need to look for information on the internet to help you with certain jobs or sometimes even just to find out that the quest NPC you are looking for is below you downstairs, this doesn't mean that the tooltips and advice the game gives isn't that good, in fact i think it does it's job quite well, it just takes a decent amount of learning for new players to understand fights, mechanics and locations. This includes knowing when or that you can even get mounts, which is possible at lvl 30.

This includes Blue Mage, which is a class that you can unlock that is basically considered it's own minigame inside the game and cannot be used as a main class.

- You can burn out easily. (this is my personal opinion)

- Aether currents can be a pain in the ass and you need to do them for each expansions zone which can be somewhat tedious but once you've done them you've unlocked flying entirely for that area.

- YOU CAN AND WILL DYE OVER YOUR GEAR AND GLAMOUR OVER GEAR THAT YOU HAD ALREADY PUT EXPENSIVE DYE AND WORK INTO AND WILL NEED TO FIX IT (unless you've added the dyed piece to your glamour dresser).

- Glamour Dresser and Gear Space is quite limited and you will likely need to spend time on your inventory a few times playing this game.

Depending on the person:


- You will either love or hate the dialogue choices for the characters and how they communicate.

- There's a lot of reading, it is a story based game after all, albeit they have voiced dialogue later in the game (at least in MSQ).

- A lot of the quests on the map are completely unimportant and you only need to focus on your MSQ (The main story) and 'job', (class) quests, also "blue" quests are often quite important which can be locking you from getting side content or aether currents for your mount. you will ever find this to be very good and loving ignoring every quest in an area or absolutely hate it and want to complete everything anyway.

FATEs - this is a mechanic in the game which spawn at random intervals around the map that players can choose to do and you will either find this very enjoyable or very irritating when one spawns right on your quest you're doing.

Blue Mage - you'll either love the challenge or absolutely hate it and wonder why it was even added to the game.

All in all I really enjoy this game and the story and I enjoy being able to use glamours on my classes to make my character as personal as possible, I especially love the dungeon and trials designs and especially the use of music in fights.

How does it stand up as a standalone game?

In my opinion it works quite well by itself, sure there's reoccurring characters between both games and the story might not be as interpersonal but I believe it's still an enjoyable experience.

Mechanics

There's no time manipulation in this game, just the pure skills of a teenager and their mouth, I do personally think the mechanic is a bit unforgiving in certain situations but it's highly enjoyable to play with and use.

I do not recommend this game if you're against or highly against:


-Drugs and Drug Use
-LGBTQ+ Relationships
-General Teen Angst

I've been playing Runescape since I was 10 in 2008 and i'll tell you one thing, it's addictive, you can play it for hours and days on end but what makes it any different from any other MMO?

Pros:

- You can play entirely FTP like i have for the majority of my time playing.

- Every combat system is inter-changeable, wanna play a mage one day and ranged the next? well you can absolutely 100% do that.

- Hours of quests and content to keep you enticed for a very long time.

- A wide array of skills which intertwine nicely with each other including Attack, Strength, Defense which are Melee damage stats, Ranged which is for Ranged stats (that's archery), Prayer which will help you in PVP or PVE situations, Magic, Constitution, Crafting, Mining, Smithing, Fishing, Cooking, Firemaking, Woodcutting, Runecrafting, Dungeoneering & Fletching.

Need some food for your quest or some PVP? just get some fishing and cooking in, cook up some delicious lobster.

Don't have a stove nearby? just use your Tinder and make a fire.

Need some runes for your mage spells? all you need is some Runecrafting.

- Minigames (who doesn't love minigames, my personal favourite is the clan wars where clans battle against each other in an arena).

- Customisation.

- Multiple zones throughout the entire map that players can play through at any time with Teleports that anyone can use between them which makes it easier for players to travel and not get lost.

- Old School Runescape: if you ever get bored of the current iteration of the game and you wanna go back in time and play the old version, you can, whenever you want. (not on steam). (or you can just play with Legacy mode enabled and play the game just like the good old days)

Cons:

- Name changing is locked behind Membership.

- some skills are locked behind Membership including Agility, Herblore, Thieving, Slayer, Farming, Construction (build your own house Sim), Hunter, Summoning, Divination & Invention.

- The grind to level 99 for skills can be very exhausting and time consuming and can take literally days or weeks to level which has caused some players to even use bots to attempt to reach their goal.

As you can see most of my issues with Runescape is the membership system but even that you can buy with Bonds in the game which creates a free system to allow players to play on Members accounts for entirely free.

I highly recommend this game and OSRS, I've put so many hours of my life into both and I think it's a very enjoyable game.