Life Is Strange - Episode 1 - Review

Life is Strange tells the tale of Max, a girl who returns to her home town of Arcadia Bay after 5 years away, to attend a prestigious art school, specifically to study photography. The first episode starts off with Max near a lighthouse in the midst of a horrific storm, of which she has no memories of the storm or how she got there. Then she wakes up back in class and has a private freak out about what is going on.

As you explore the world and interact with its inhabitants, you are given multiple instances where you can make a decision, choosing one of the two options, but sometimes, you can also gain a third option and then rewind time to put it into practice. This is shown off in the games tutorial space a few times, where you can rewind time to one up the schools queen, repair your camera and more. It is this premises that really defines the game, from here on out Max questions everything that is happening, is it a dream, is she really in class?

Navigating around the world is simple enough, interacting a little less simplistic. As you move around the world, objects you can interact with are highlighted by an arrow pointing at them and then once you are close enough, options appear for interacting with them. Even then, standing right in front of an object does not mean you can interact with it, you need to be sure that the camera can see it as well. This does not seem like a big issue, but when the camera is off by just enough, it can cause the icons to not appear.

But for the problem that the camera presents, the games core mechanic of rewinding time is its saving grace and is really well executed and fun to play with. When Max first uses this ability it is done through a cutscene, but then when you are given control you are shown the instructions on screen, simply pulling the left trigger will result in time being undone, if you have interacted with the world, a small grey dot will appear on your time meter and hitting the left bumper will rewind straight back to that time. These moments are usually found after you have to make a decision about something, so you can always just go back and undo that choice, to see what the other outcome might have been.

Where some other story driven experiences will make you decide in the moment and then make you live with the consequences, Life Is Strange will let you turn back the clock and try the other one, just to see if you like that instant change better. But of course as with all good adventure games, what choice you make will have consequences further down the line, so what you choose at the start could reflect the ending you are given. It is just fun to rewind time over and over again to see funny things happen.

But it is not just rewinding time that the game got right, I am also a fan of its visual style. A mix between water colour and cel shaded, the games visuals are really striking. There are moments of pop in, which are noticeable, but it’s usually only as you enter a space for the first time. The school and surrounding elements are presented in a way that you would think, this place actually exists. This is not some school that has floating signs or such, it has a very grounded feel. Heading into Max’s dorm room, you can see clothes lying about, laptop on and a host of other things that make it feel like it is an actual dorm room. Along the same vein, the characters feel grounded, thanks in part to the portrayal that the actors have done. The main characters you interact with have a nice balance in them, with the secondary characters the fill the spaces around the school, also clicking with the world.

The biggest problem that I have with Life Is Strange Episode 1 – Chrysalis is that very little is explained from a grand point, we learn about Max and why she left and then returned, we get glimpses of other elements, the Vortex club and such, but we are never given the chance to learn more outside of what the game is giving us, even when you can “use” a computer, all you can ever do is look at the screen, you are not able to interact with it at all. If the future episodes were able to provide that level of immersion it would be a welcome addition.

For all that the first episode does, it does one thing better than other episodic games released recently, it makes me want to play the next one. With how the first episode ends, knowing what is going on and how Max plays into all of it is a mystery I want to solve. Outside of a few quirks with the camera and the lack of exploration options, Life Is Strange is off to a good start. 

The Score

7.5

Review code provided by Square Enix

The Pros

+The start of a potentially grand tale

+Rewind mechanic adds fun to the game

The Cons

-The episodic nature may deter many

-Lack of exploration