Also available with screenshots and formatting at: http://www.thefourthquarter.org/articles--reviews/life-is-strange-episode-1-chrysalis-review

Do you remember the moment in BioShock Infinite where you find the guitar and Elizabeth sings ‘Will the Circle be Unbroken’? How about the bit in The Last of Us Left Behind DLC where Ellie and Riley take photos of themselves in a photobooth? Well, Episode 1 of Life Is Strange (Chrysalis) is full of these compelling little character moments.

Life Is Strange is about Max Caufield, a shy photography student at college who suddenly learns that she has the power to manipulate time when her panic attempt is interrupted by a gun-touting snob. Once she discovers her powers the rest of the game’s first episode revolves around negotiating the social hierarchy of Blackwell Academy whilst picking up on hints that something bigger is afoot.

It’s essentially an adventure game in the vain of The Walking Dead. The main gameplay mechanics revolve around talking to people, collecting items and some very basic puzzling. I realise this doesn’t sound compelling (adventure games on paper never do). However, Life Is Strange is one of those games that’s more like an interactive movie. Also this is the first episode and there’s plenty of time for the cause and effect puzzles to develop into something more complex.

The strength of Chrysalis really does come from the writing. Before I played it I was strongly of the opinion that adventure games could only work when they funny. Now, I now that emotional adventure games can work too, you just have to lay it on REALLY thick. To that end, all of the characters are playing a high-stakes emotional game basically known as ‘being a teenager’. Some commentators have criticised the writing for being immature (‘Ugh, chillax much.’) but I think that actually angsty teenagers often do resort to pastiches. When you’re struggling to figure out who you are, it is sometimes easier to just ‘borrow’ a ready formed personality. Plus, they’re all always being ironic ok?

To this end, Max wanders round campus chatting to fellow students, taking photographs and writing in her journal whilst maybe manipulating time to achieve her goals. Sometimes actions have consequences (as the game is not afraid to tell you) but the game does a much better job of hiding how these splits in plot will play out in future then games like The walking Dead. Also, the time reversal mechanic adds a nice little bonus in that if you immediately regret the choice you made, you can reverse time and choose again.

A lot of what’s great about Chrysalis are the littler things. There’s a ‘sub-plot’ in that every time you find a plasma TV, Max will gush about how amazing it looks and how badly she wants one. This culminates with her planning to sneak into her friends dorm room to watch Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within on a plasma (“I don’t care what anybody says. That’s one of the best sci-fi films every made.’). The game is also littered with hidden cutscenes which flesh out the relationships between the characters. My advice is to interact with anything and everything.

Further, the whole package is very cohesive. Subtle hints about the future of the game are littered throughout the first episode from the opening class lecture being about how photographs are ‘little moments in time’ to the posters around campus (they’re EVERYWHERE) about the missing girl Rachel Adams. Another example of this cohesiveness is the music of Life is Strange. I actually normally dislike airy, acoustic indie guitar music but could not imagine a more appropriate soundtrack to accompany Max’s melancholy throughout the world of Life Is Strange (also, its actually some really good airy, indie guitar music: https://play.spotify.com/user/officiallifeisstrange/playlist/1f5ZzLDTXHTDR8CYIEddpW?play=true).

OK, the time mechanic is a little tacked on. Max first discovers she can use it in a moment of panic but then has complete, almost flippant control over it. However, I think we should give the game a pass on this just like we give first person shooters a pass for the thousands of people whose shootings aren’t really justified. The gameplay benefits from the added mechanic (even just allowing a puzzle which would normally be ‘hide in a closet’ to turn into ‘hide in closet, realise doing so breaks a lamp, rewind time, hide in a closet’) and the story doesn’t suffer because of it, so a little suspension of disbelief is in order.

Unless this more relaxed style of gameplay is likely to bore you, then I strongly urge you to at least pick up the first episode of Life of Strange. For £3.99 ($4.99) for a beautiful three-hour movie, there’s definite value-for-money here even if you don’t feel as good as I do about the themes of the game (you can then buy episodes 2-5 individually or for £13.99). Life is Strange really has the potential to become a timeless classic.

+Did I mention that it looks great?

+The writing is strong on all levels – story, characterisation, pacing and thematically.

+I have to give a game that’s essentially about teenage angst, photography and time travel props.

-Inability to replay with skippable cutscenes (I wanted to quickly make a save file with all different choices, but I’m not gonna watch everything again).

-Some of the lipsync in cutscenes is off.

90/100