Life is Strange: Episode 1 Chrysalis
Life Is Strange is a series of primarily episodic graphic adventure decision based games published by Square Enix’s European subsidiary. Created by Dontnod Entertainment, the series debuted with the first installment Episode 1 Chrysalis, which released in 2015.
Life is Strange is an adventure game that the story progresses based on the decisions you make. This is and odd type of game for me because this is the first time I have ever played something like it. In this game after a nightmarish vision the main character Max discovers she can reverse time and is able to save a woman in the bathroom which turns out later to be her best friend from her childhood. This game progressively gets more intense in terms of the story and wastes no time getting right into the heavy stuff that any high school student might encounter.
I did think there would be a bit more of an introduction to the story than just the one classroom scene before we get introduced to her powers, and even though it didn’t have that long of an introduction it didn’t really need one the game was still good regardless of getting straight to the point and it became one of my favorite things about the game. As the game progresses you meet more and more characters and a bunch of conflicts arise that aren’t resolved in the first episode. Even though this is a multiple episode game, why not just do one conflict at a time? I can understand being introduced to the characters, but bringing up some type of problem with each of them when they are introduced was a bit odd. But, then again I have never played a game like this before so, I didn’t think to much of it.
Overall I really enjoyed the first part of the story and the time rewind mechanic is awesome. I am a huge sucker for an game that has anything to do with time manipulation. The game itself was extremely pretty even though the drawing and animation was relatively simple. For this game it wasn’t really level design but more of setting design because you back and forth between different locations within Arcadia Bay. But all the settings were extremely beautiful and very lifelike. Another thing this game did and I thought was cool is that, even though a character isn’t a main character they still have a name and most you can still interact with to an extent. that is mostly around the school but it is still an awesome feature. The creators definitely took great care in creating this game. The story so far is really good and I have put the rest of the episodes on my need to play wishlist.
Overall I will give this game a 4/5 for the Spartan Score. The graphics, setting design and story were all good but the conflicts started to add up with no resolve within the first episode and it left you at a good cliff hanger, but its still a cliff hanger.
This sounds like a game I would try out. I like the games with a storyline, keeps me rather engaged.