DONTNOD’s latest effort should not really strike such a chord with me. It’s a story about the struggles of a young girl in college as she deals with douchebaggery, self-expression, and self-discovery. Oh, and time travel. I’ve never necessarily been a young girl in college dealing with any of those things, but this introductory episode really impressed. Or rather it almost does if it wasn’t for a couple of quite missteps.
This first episode, entitled Chrysalis, follows Max Caulfield - a floppy-haired, introspective photography student - around Seattle and the Blackwell Academy. During a visit to the bathroom on the verge of a panic attack, Max discovers she can rewind time. Enter a bevy of teenage cliched characters next to a couple of cliched older types. Each person Max meets has something to hide or an ulterior motive. Add on top of that Max’s constant dreams of a vortex attacking her tiny seaside town. The game world is very “Twin Peaks” in its existence, setting Life Is Strange out to be more a character study than an exercise in an overall narrative, which, personally, I prefer.
The characters that Life Is Strange hints at exploring in future episodes would be so much more effective if the dialogue was better. Much of the time, every spoken word just feels disingenuous. I mean, if there was an uncanny valley for audio, Life Is Strange would be sitting directly in it. The tortured vernacular of teenage robots masquerading as normal people is utterly cringe-worthy. Everything is hella good. Everyone you meet is a bro. Every day consists of taking sick selfies. I mean, like totally. One girl even verbalises the words Sad Face. Another says the word Sheeple. This one time, about an hour in, the main character and her “bad girl” friend rawked out and thrashed to some hilariously inoffensive pop-rock. In a world where Telltale Games have arguably defined the modern adventure game, the dialogue and performances in Life Is Strange look terrible in comparison.
Even though it’s rather reductive, Life Is Strange plays like a mix of The Walking Dead and Gone Home. As Max, you’ll be exploring the world of Blackwell Academy, poking around, talking to people, make decisions, and dealing with consequences. If you’ve played either of the previous games, you’ll know what you’re getting, except with better presentational values - the game looks really great and uses music in quite stylish ways. Where Life Is Strange differs is Max’s ability to control time. Pulling the left trigger at any time will take you back to before key events in that scene. For example, Max misses a question in photography class only for the snotty girl next to her to get it right. Rewind time and you can nail the question and rub that snotty girl’s nose in it. Or don’t rewind time, but just put up with her being a bitch. The rewind adds a new level to making decisions in these games purely because you get to see each decision before making your choice, which in turn, makes every decision horrific as you know both bad outcomes. However, many of the choices don’t seem to mean anything in this first episode, but seems to stack up an interesting domino effect for later entries.
From what I can garner about Life Is Strange is that its heart is totally in the right place. Despite the fact that the majority of the pieces are kinda off, I never hated any moment with it. I’ve brought into Blackwell Academy and the story of Max. This first episode did what was required of it, but not much more. All DONTNOD have to do is capitalise on what they’ve started. Oh, and tweak some of that dialogue… it’s hella annoying.