After Kate’s near-miss or incident (depending on how you played the game), Max is distraught. Having seemingly unlocked a new tier in her time-shifting abilities, the plot keeps a focus on more serious matters rather than teenagers slinging mud at each other. There are mysteries to solve at Blackwell, as Chloe and Max decide to get to the bottom of the recent hullabaloos happening on the campus. On their journey, they learn many things that they may or may not like, and Max and Chloe’s friendship could come into question. Welcome to Chaos Theory, the third episode of Life is Strange. The first two episodes in my eyes were very run-of-the-mill dramas with atrocious dialogue with a touch of supernatural intrigue which it hardly mentioned. For episode 3, I can’t exactly say that it’s good, but there’s a definite positive rebound, as Chaos Theory begins to shape up the little adventure into something a bit more tolerable. Once again, this review will be set to more literary criticism than game, but game will be present, along with some minor story spoilers.
The episode begins with Chloe contacting Max in the middle of the night to play ninja and infiltrate the office of the principal to locate some more in-depth information about the recent goings-on. One makeshift bomb later, they blow open the door, raising the alarm. Max using her time powers simply rewinds while she’s already in the room and opens the door quietly. After that, you’re given the task of searching for student files to uncover any alterations of records or otherwise. As expected, there are some files on specifically Nathan Prescott, the local snotnose, saying he is a student worthy of praise and has a spotless record. Digging deep into the Principal’s computer, we find out something we basically already knew, which is evidence of the Prescott’s monetary influence as there are numerous buried and censored files alluding to Nathan’s more obvious behavior, along with a less obvious hint of a more deep-rooted psychological problem. Before leaving, the two decide to take a dip in the school pool and talk about things like Max’s powers, her apprehension about her actions, and Chloe strengthening Max’s resolve. They book it out of the pool area when the campus police show up and head home.
Now most of that sounds alright, and a decent sort of mischievous act that would be enjoyable to be a part of. However, the sequence I just relayed takes place over an arduous 35 minute chunk in an episode that is about 2 to 2 and a half hours. As in previous episodes, the pacing in this series is very bizarre, as some instances treat the events as pulse-pounding and intriguing. However, the dialogue sequences being so long and the end result of such an escapade being so fruitless makes the intro feel like mostly wasted time, in a game where time is your ally.
Speaking of dialogue, it hasn’t gotten much better here, even Max begins uttering the abominable word “hella” on occasion and annoying puns as “Release the Kra-Can.” It feels very weird as some lines are just thrown in when not much is happening. Max’s inner dialogue is rarely silent with painfully obvious observations when being silent would’ve been just as if not more effective. In fact, this episode seems to have a strange issue of constant speech. In writing, it’s obvious you want to be thorough with characters and their environment, but when the game tries to explain every inch of everything, it becomes bleak when there’s nothing left to think about. Characters rattle off everything happening with little breathing room and it begins to slowly feel like padding to meet a 2 hour time threshold.
Which brings us to characters. I’ve never seen such a weird phenomenon as characters changing personalities and writing styles between episodes. In most cases, it works out for the better, as some characters begin to save face with a less aggressive edge and the cast count for this episode is much smaller than the others, making sure you don’t have to deal with 20 some odd characters in one go. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to everyone, as the “lovable” Chloe becomes somehow increasingly worse as the episodes go on. One dialogue exchange between Chloe in the tail-end of the episode is a point for many players where she becomes 100% unredeemable and may actually be worse if the ending from the last episode didn’t exactly work out. If Chloe was a character we were supposed to convince, or someone we weren’t really affiliated with, then her behavior would still be bitchy, but still have her character be one to keep an eye on. However, this game is flat-out obsessed with Chloe, as she is constantly treated as the “troubled youth” that “was dealt an unfair hand” and never takes the blame for anything without a hint of apprehension or guilt. Only one type of character does that fit into. An antagonist or an obstacle for the protagonist. Having a character this selfish and constantly (and I mean constantly) bickering is not appealing, and I am still confused as to how anyone can like a character like this. Not only that, but the entire Price family seems to get the brunt of the bad for this episode. They seem to flip their attitude on a dime depending on the choices you made previously, and while I commend the game remembering something from the past for once, when a person’s attitude does a 180 to scold you out of the butt-f*** blue, it feels shoehorned.
As I said for the intro of the episode, this episode focuses more on the inner workings of the mystery sub-plot from the second episode. And that pretty much takes up the whole episode, minus a middle segment and the last few minutes. The hurricane that is going to hit in literally a few days is not brought up nearly as much as it should’ve been. What was a bit of a joke in previous reviews seems to be turning into a reality, which is the fact that the game is almost trying to make the players forget about the hurricane entirely. This is even more apparent by the surprising ending which leaves a decent yet foreseeable cliff-hanger to be handled by the next episode.
Presentation is still the same, with the excellent colors and texture use. However, what’s become more apparent are the looping body animations. It seems that most characters, if not all, have the same set of general animations when they’re talking. This issue was not as apparent in older episodes as the characters were more in motion. However, with the increase of cutscene and dialogue sequences, you’ll often stare at these characters talking about possibly dead friends while they stretch their arm. While most story-based games are guilty of the same crime, this one seems to be more apparent and distracting. Music selection is still good with acoustics leading the charge, and the indie selection, while probably unnecessary, is still decent to say the least.
Episode 3, Chaos Theory, of Life is Strange is interesting. It still has the painful dialogue, atrocious setup for mainstay Chloe, and the out of place scolding for choices takes you out of the experience. However the game does still look good, some characters are better written, and the ending is something to be invested in. All in all, it’s not a huge step up, but at least I can say it’s getting somewhere. Just not anywhere near the hurricane plot or a writing award.
The final 3 episodes of this unique adventure get reviewed at Player 2
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And most idiots are going to buy it for the MP and play the SP once, that you could probably complete in a weekend, right?
Nerd Rock from the Sun writes: "Life is Strange continues to tell a riveting tale of mystery and intrigue that, if the momentum is maintained, is well on its way to going down as a modern day classic. This is one journey everyone owes it to themselves to embark upon."
