Life is Strange is unique because its one of the few pieces of ‘art’ that celebrates and romanticizes the modern (post 00’s) White American experience without an underlying message of how evil it is. LiS is definitively one of the whitest games ever created.
The setting is in the heart of an Artschool in small town White America and within it Max’s first world trials and tribulations highlight the relative suffering of a character that can only exist in such a setting. The drive for artistic success, the social dynamics of the school, the Nancy Drew mystery elements, many side characters like the doting and wormy Warren or the queen bee Victoria and Max and Chloe’s relationship all ooze with the explicit nature of modern whiteness. The mumblecore aesthetics of the clothes and the setting really drive this point home. The indie soundtrack is the whitest thing i’ve ever heard.
The romanticization of the modern White American experience and an endearing and genuine (French) outsiders look into Americana is what endeared me, and many others to LiS in the first place. Hollywood doesn’t have the love, or understanding, that’s required to pull it off.
