*NOTE: Considering that this is a game heavily focused on storytelling, I’m going to have to bring up some MAJOR AND MINOR SPOILERS about Life Is Strange in order to examine how I feel about it. For this special case, it’s not possible to obscure all important details to examine it the way I want to here. Viewer discretion is advised.*
*NOTE #2: Review for this episode reflects thoughts on an updated version of the game. Initially played Episode 1 in late April.*
I’ve stayed away from reviewing episodic games of this nature. Sure, Alan Wake HAD episodes within the game proper but you still had a game that could be examined as a whole from beginning to end; the extra DLC was more supplemental in nature and revealed the trajectory of where the story’s madness was heading next. The first episode of The Wolf Among Us and the first…‘season pack’ for D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die were very enjoyable, but the continuously pushed-back scheduling for both of these had—and have for D4’s case—frustrated me to the point of sticking to buying the physical collection of episodic games whenever possible. Fortunately, DONTNOD Entertainment (developer of Remember Me) promised and has kept their episodic release schedule to a moderate waiting time of 6-8 weeks per episode.
But even with this considered, uncertainty has still been a factor because one can’t examine this sort of project as a whole. How can one explore the game’s core with only one-fifth of the game to go on? Then again, game episodes aren’t inherently different to that of comic book issues and TV show episodes. Though never writing about it in detail, I’ve mentally graded those individually all the time. This comparable portrait tempts me to test the waters for this very reason: while looking at the work as a whole is important so too are the individual pieces that make said final work. With this in mind, let’s examine the incipient stage of this aptly-named first episode—Chrysalis.
The story centers on Maxine Caulfield, a young woman who acquires strange abilities such as having strange visions and rewinding time for no explanation. Chrysalis immediately starts out with her vision of witnessing a tornado threatening to wipe out her hometown and snapping back to reality in her photography class. Soon thereafter, her immediate response to a tragic event on campus sparks her to time travel back to her previous timeline in photography class. From here, she’s impelled to realize her potential with this power while handling the typical anxieties of high school.
Life Is Strange (LIS) is an adventure game in the Telltale vein: a two-to-three hour episode focused more on dialogue choices and narrative than puzzles. Subtract the quick-time event oriented action sequences, add in a mechanical time travel conceit, and you’ve got the basic framework. It’s in that addition of time travel that the most clear difference between this and Telltale titles is shown. For example: decision-making with Bigby in The Wolf Among Us was oftentimes weighed with a sense of permanence to your actions. A simple dialogue option may say “Snow will remember that” or deciding which route to take first could result in a character’s demise. In contrast, LIS’s setup operates as its own save system; essentially encouraging the player exploration of the disparate reactions and consequences your immediate choices may have and rewinding a la Prince of Persia style to select which path to take.
This core concept shakes up the formula in some refreshing ways and provides a great number of benefits. As mentioned previously, the immediacy in which you get to see your choices and actions played out supplements the exploratory (see completionist) nature of games. It’s also a great way of getting to know the surfeit of side characters and how they react to different responses, fleshing them out as a result. It’s also contextually coherent with the attitude of Max. She’s just recently returned to her childhood homestead of Arcadia Bay, Oregon in order to improve her gift with photography under the tutelage of the renowned Mr. Jefferson. With this ‘new girl at school’ angle, she’s essentially trying to find herself and constantly muses whether she’s made the right decision; in effect, this makes her feel more like an open book than other voiced protagonists since it eases the player to pensively assess these decisions and what HE/SHE would want.
Conceptually, it sounds like a great way to explore characters and throw in some neat time travel-esque puzzles; in execution, however, it’s not always used effectively. As the subtitle for Episode 1 implies, Chrysalis does have a “cocooned feeling’” for its first half hour. The dialogue choices are most often between two variants, typically binary in nature. On occasion, there’s the chance of manipulating rewind to disinter a third underlined option that, in effect, insists on being the correct one to make. It works well in the context of Nancy Drew detective parts, but with the extended tutorial segment prodding you to make that third choice feels artificial. It’s effectively making the two earlier choices a façade so you can just rewind and select the ‘correct’ one. Even one instance only enables you to use rewind to take your teacher’s John Lennon quote to dodge a question about not submitting a photograph for the contest…which doesn’t really do anything to remedy Max’s overdue submission aside from brown nosing.
The rewind-oriented puzzles are also well-designed in their simplicity but don’t have the zing of those dialogue choices. It’s oftentimes a manner of assessing a simple problem like getting a snobby group of teenagers out of your way, manipulating the surroundings before an invisible time limit hits zero, and watching the sequence play out. Although most are straightforward, there’s definitely potential here of making a Rube Goldberg-esque game system of using rewind to do x, y, and z. For now, most of them are used in subtle ways to test the waters.
There may not be much in the way of that traditional puzzle gameplay and there’s some current design flaws; however, it’s important to consider how much emphasis is on storytelling for this particular subgenre. And in this regard, Episode 1 really does shine through. There’s some lunacy anchored to big antagonists but it’s overall a colorful cast that I’ve been initially drawn to learn more about them.
That isn’t to say there isn’t a clichéd template being drawn from for this high school drama. The whole gang’s here: social misfit, science nerd, spoiled rich kid, artistic types, Goth girl, and yada yada yada. It’s conversant with both the stereotypical character ideas and art references. Yet, even with that stacked against it, a lot of earnestness was put into this varied cast and the intentionality behind the various pop and art culture references that makes it feel more than easy typecasting. Because of the rewind exploration, you’re able to provoke different responses from these characters and those responses go a long way in making them feel more believable as a result. Even down to the very artistic design and voice acting choices, a lot of attention was given for many side characters.
A lot of the more interesting characters brought me back to watching great high school dramas like Freaks and Geeks. This felt most prevalent with the geeky science nerd, Warren. Sure, he hits the clichés hard early on, but his continuous desperate nature of getting Max’s affection results in some moments between texts and conversations that come off as both awkward to watch yet really endearing. Max’s old friend Chloe also fits the rebel archetype, complete with blue-dyed hair, punk clothing, and that ‘anti-establishment, man!’ attitude. Despite not really making a big impact until the second-half of this episode, her house effectively gets the Gone Home treatment ( http://glowsticks4less.org/... ) of encouraging the player to learn more about her past via environmental exploration and hearing Max reminisce to herself about some of the fun times they had together years ago.
If there are any misfires to be had it would be with a couple of the key antagonists. The spoiled rich kid, Nathan Prescott, practically runs this school thanks to his parents’ wealth and deep ties to the town. His crazy attitude and bits of enraged violence seem like they’re typical for him yet he doesn’t seem to get in any real trouble whatsoever. The school’s security guard is just a former soldier who’s basically just some neo-conservative caricature here. And it’s a shame that there’s hardly any kind of tangible humanity between them in this episode. Fortunately, another snobby character, Victoria, actually has a lot of nuance woven into her bratty attitude towards Max. She has that Social Darwinism attitude of picking on the less popular, like Max, but away from the clique it’s really just dissimulation for her pleading for attention. And those anxieties are elucidated even moreso by doing a bit of snooping in her dorm room. It’s a shame that only one of these individuals got much in the way of character development.
The one more glaringly consistent issue to take with this episode’s story would be the corny dialogue. Hearing characters literally say things like “Sad Face,” “Are you cereal (?),” and more made me wonder if this were just another case of thirtysomethings trying to emulate what this generation is saying or maybe internet talk like that could be catching on. I honestly can’t say for sure since I haven’t been to high school for a while; and even then, the geography and cultural milieu of my school was completely different than this one. If it’s indeed true to its setting then God help us all because it can sound terrible at times.
Graphics and sound design are some of the best qualities found in LIS. The environments and characters have this impressionist look as though they had been painted. Extra visual details like with Max’s rewinding and subtle white crayon color contrasts for stuff like choice indicators and dialogue choices blend in well with that painted aesthetic. Unfortunately, the technical side of things doesn’t hold up very well. The two key issues: the lip-syncing is robotic and typical problems with Unreal Engine 3, like texture loading issues, crop up every now and then.
As mentioned earlier, a lot of effort went into these voice actors. Though not without any dry line delivery in some moments, the central characters like Hannah Telle’s Max and Ashley’s Burch’s Chloe are well-done and fit wonderfully. Mellifluous acoustics for the original soundtrack mixed with the variety of pleasant licensed indie tracks encapsulate so many serene moments throughout. Although not used to a great extent, even the small sound queues work well.
So...yeah, there’s a lot of the typical praise to be passed around for this heartfelt title that’s almost become a given for these types of games: wonderful artistic vision, a unique mechanic that has some kind of overarching theme to the game’s world and characters, and a mellow soundtrack hipsters like me really enjoy. Well, there is one other fascinating motif interwoven in the game’s world: photography.
The game makes its conviction quite clear on the power photography has, for good or bad. Specific photographers and filmmakers are mentioned often and they sometimes present a point the game’s trying to make. Rather than casting that aim at the concept about photography, or film since that’s just pictures in motion, it shines that light on many of the side characters and Max and to what ends they use it. Security Guard David uses it as a means of surveilling others in both his work and private life; Victoria uses it to strive in filling that need for appreciation by others; the photography teacher Mr. Jefferson uses it to encourage each of his students to reach their fullest potential with both his techniques and critical analysis; Chloe’s chock-full of photos capturing her early and late teen past and speak about her clinging to those moments; and Max has a selfie obsession that fits perfectly with her current situation in life. With just about any character that has at least one photograph taken by them, be it cell phone cam to Polaroid, gives us a small window of who that person is.
This subject also harmonizes well with Max’s power. Photography is, in essence, a moment of time captured. It’s able to be framed by said person taking the photo and the resulting photo can be analyzed and commented on. Similarly, Max’s power enables her to see the immediate aftermath of certain events, comment on their desired or undesired outcome, and “frame” them as she sees fit. Even within the beginning of the game, Mr. Jefferson even spells out her “gift” of photography that has a clear corollary meaning that resonates with that kind of examination.
It’s tough to tie this review of Chrysalis in a pretty knot because it’s so tough to anticipate what may happen next or if certain ideas reach their full potential in the course of this series. Nevertheless, I’d say it remains on solid ground despite slogging through the mire of poor lip-syncing and questionable design choices. What had me vaguely interested in Life Is Strange was the simple promise of keeping to a tight release schedule; what had me totally invested to purchase the rest of this—even at the risk of going digital before the possible physical release—was a combination of the story, a unique twist on this adventure formula, the wonderful artistic design, and the overwhelming amount of heart that seems to have been poured into this project.
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In this month's feature a couple plays Nier and Life is Strange together.
Contemplation Corner is a series that discusses some of the biggest choices you have to make in video games. For its debut, the writer discusses all the major decisions thatcould be found in Life is Strange Episode 1: Chrysalis.
Hope everyone enjoyed the review. Please feel free to leave any comments and/or questions below. :)
Running behind on trying to get these out so I can catch up but it's pretty tough for me to do so atm. Anyways, would like to see your thoughts on it. If you haven't tried first episode yet, I think steam sales still have it at a nice discounted price of $2.49, but don't take my word on that since many are subject to change daily.
Great review as always, coolbeans. I'm so glad I discovered Life is Strange. I can't wait for the next episode. I'm just depressed that there's only two left.
I thought the dialogue was great, it seemed to be more real compared to the majority of the other games.
Edit: To be more specific, the dialogue is grounded well in what appears to be reality.