REVIEW

Life is Strange Episode Two: Out of Time Review

by Ian Stokes, May 13th, 2015

Episode two of DONTNOD Entertainment’s Life is Strange is here. Can they continue their systematic trampling of everyone else in the genre, or was Episode One a fluke?

Out of Time starts with Max waking up, but rather jarringly it puts you in control, by which I mean it makes you press A to hit snooze on her alarm clock, then press B to get out of bed. It smacks a little too much of Call of Duty’s press F to pay respects fiasco. If there is no meaningful gameplay or interaction to be had, don’t force one in. Just let the scenario play out and put the player in control when you actually have something for them to do. The use of Alt-J’s Something Good for this section is phenomenal though.

Whilst I shall do my best to avoid spoilers for this episode, it’s almost impossible to avoid spoiling to previous episode and explain the plot in any meaningful way, so if you haven’t played Chrysalis yet, go play it now…I’ll wait. Back? OK great.

Continuing from where episode one left off, Max has been reunited with her childhood friend Chloe and embroiled in a mystery at her art academy involving missing girls, a suspicious chief of security and a whole load of teen drama. Oh yeah and she has discovered she has the rather useful ability to rewind time. Out of Time focuses on Max and Chloe getting to know each other again after years apart, as well as Max setting out to prove her powers to her BFF. Max also struggles to help out her friend Kate Marsh, who is being mercilessly bullied after a leaked video of her goes viral around town.

Without spoiling anymore of the story, I will say that episode two continues to build upon the excellent groundwork of the first episode, with plenty of unexpected twists and some fantastic character development. DONTNOD also deserve immense kudos for handling some heavy issues with a level of tact and realism that is unheard of in the video games industry. Despite the time travel aspect, Life is Strange is dealing with very realistic, down-to-earth issues. There is no cartoonishly evil bad guy, though there are villains to be sure, but their grounded nature makes them so much more evocative. We deal with bullying, the dangers of viral videos and some other issues I don’t want to spoil for you, but through it all Life is Strange avoids being edgy for edginess sake.

Life is Strange’s story is almost impeccable, but sadly where it falls down is on its dialogue; rather the oversight considering most of the gameplay is having conversations with other characters. Far too many lines try to be funny or referential, usually falling flat as a result. Thankfully the worst offenders are reserved for Max’s inner monologue when she is inspecting the world around her. After seeing a rather grim picture drawn by Kate, Max remarks to herself that “Kate must be going through her H.R.Giger phase”. No, people don’t talk like that; people don’t even think like that. If you absolutely must make the reference, just say Giger, or better yet just say it looks like Alien. That is what any sane human being would think. Other particularly flat lines include “I’m hungry like the wolf” and “amazeballs”. Nobody, not even the most irritating #yolo swagmeister has ever used the word amazeballs in conversation without industrial amounts of irony poured all over it, irony noticeably absent from DONTNOD’s attempt at teen dialogue. Not every line has to get a laugh or a CaptainAmericaUnderstandsThatReference.gif in order for your dialogue to work.

The lip-synching is hilariously bad, a consequence of trying to keep production costs down to be sure, but disappointing considering the focus on dialogue in this title. Just don’t stare at their mouths too intently and you’ll get over it though.

When not delivering sweet puns and epic lols references, Life is Strange throws in a few sections of actual gameplay to offset all that delicious dialogue. These segments are pretty much just fetch quests with a context, such as collecting bottles to shoot at in a makeshift firing range, or finding wire-cutters to, wouldn’t you know it, cut a wire. These sections keep the game feeling fresh and are surprisingly effective at changing the tone of the game. The bottle collecting is a very chilled out, serene sort of experience as you’re basically just exploring an abandoned scrap yard with Chloe, free from the concerns of the outside world. Juxtapose that with the wire cutters, which without spoiling anything, you need pretty urgently if you want to avoid some grim consequences.

You’re also required to make key choices at several points in the epidsode that will shape the story in meaningful ways, so we’re told. It’s a case of a thousand time bitten, very shy when it comes to our ‘choices’ having ‘meaningful’ effects on the story but for now things seem to be progressing well.

There is also a musical scene part way through the game where Max puts on her headphones and gets on the bus. I’ve never been more engrossed by watching someone ride the bus in my entire life. Listening to José González’s Crosses to the scenery of Arcadia Bay is such a peaceful and immersive experience, despite the complete lack of action or even control of the character.

Out of Time is a fantastic continuation of the story and further cements DONTNOD as the new kings of the episodic adventure genre, a title long held by Telltale Games. I really can’t urge you enough to play this game, it’s like totes amazeballs for sho, as Max would say.