The great joy of video games is that, with the exception of a few titles, we can always go back and try again. Replaying until you get things right is at the very heart of gaming. I believe the industry is so beloved precisely because we can hit the pause button, restart and try again until we get it right. If life played like a video game, what power that would be.
That belief rests at the core of Life is Strange, the new episodic interactive narrative title from developer Dontnod. The difference, though, is that there is no right or wrong way. Just like real life, the game hinges on small, seemingly insignificant moments whose greater importance is, as yet, unknown to us. Is Life Is Strange a good game? Again, the answer is, as yet, unknown. This first episode, named Chrysalis, certainly points it in the right direction.
After living in Seattle for the last four years, Max Caulfield returns to her hometown of Arcadia Falls in Oregon as the newest student in the elite Blackwell Academy to train in their famous photography program. A shy, introverted teenager, Max is all elbows and hesitation. Despite being in town for over month, she hasn't even contacted her childhood best friend Chloe to tell her she's back.
Hidden under the idyllic, John Hughes-esque exterior of Blackwell is the story of Rachel Amber, a girl who went missing several months back and who looks to factor into the story in a big way in later chapters. Think of it like My So Called Twin Peaks, an over the top teenage drama set against an ongoing mystery investigation, all of which runs on "diesel oil and Donnie Darko daydreams", to quote Frank Turner.
Oddly enough, the way the game handles the consequences of your choices is my biggest criticism. It wants to be like life, in all its strangeness in so many ways, yet every time you make an "important" decision, the game will notify you that this action or choice will have consequences to it. Shouldn't everything have consequences? Doesn't everything already have consequences? I found myself beholden to that little sketched butterfly and heard a voice say 'choose wisely', which in my head translates to 'choose correctly'. How things would have been different had I not been told that this part matters in the game.
If only life worked the same way. Even a vague heads up 'Hey, eating that burrito at 4 am will have consequences.' would be a nice little learning tool to have, at least for a while.
Life Is Strange, like Life Itself (TM), may end up being a lot of things: good, bad, a disappointment, a triumph, flawed and ambitious; it's hard to tell. The voice work is above average, I've been listening to the indie-inspired soundtrack on repeat all day and even on my lowly PS3, the visuals evoke a sense of beautiful loss, of faded photographs long since ruined by Time, of highschool yearbooks filled with faces we no longer recognize. Life is truly strange, and sad and heartbreaking and, above all, wonderful.
The board has been set, I look forward to returning to Arcadia and seeing where the game takes me. And then I look forward to returning again and again, my finger on the rewind of this unique and refreshing indie-teen drama.
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Life Is Strange: Episode 1 - Chrysalis was reviewed using the full retail copy of the game via digital download on the PS3.
