Life is Strange: Episode 1 - Chrysalis

Very strong writing, a terrific sense of small town supernatural mystery and believable characters make Life Is Strange a most compelling interactive movie. Echoes of Twin Peaks and Alan Wake resonate throughout and if you've ever been a freshman outsider at 18, you will find plenty of yourself in young Max Caulfield's journey to the unknown. Highly recommended.

A very intimate and suspenseful mystery adventure with convincing characters and loads of interesting decisions.

The reality is, Life is Strange is a really charming enjoyable experience with a great deal of character depth and an intriguing, if not entirely original, story.

Dontnod manages to create a new, fascinating and compelling world. A true chrysalis, that can hopefully rise and become a beautiful butterfly.

The next episode will surely define what Dontnod is out to accomplish, but Life is Strange’s introduction is a good look at the characters and dilemmas.

Life is Strange elegantly meshes time-travelling with nostalgia-riddled teen drama, producing a sympathetic debut.

Although the time-bending-feature isn’t as game-defining as it seems (at least for now), Chrysalis is a great first look into the world of Life is Strange. Only time – and future episodes – will tell if the story is strong enough to make the game as a whole worthwhile. But for now, thanks to an intriguing mystery plot and clever dialogue fans of adventure games can’t go wrong.

A very strong first chapter of an intriguing new adventure series. [Apr 2015, p.61]

“Life is Strange” doesn’t disappoint any adventure-with-story fans - the first episode starts a gripping story with a large number of interesting characters and narrative mysteries. What is the impact of the player's choices that is a question we do not know the answer yet. As a teaser the first episode works pretty well.

A Telltale-esque title set in suburban America that hints at maturity.

But the gameplay seems too limited after one episode and the story has failed to deliver anything truly engaging, other than a vision of a tornado, which I still hope is metaphorical rather than real.

If you're looking for something different, this is your videogame. You may love it, or simply not, but indifference isn't an option. An interactive story of friendship, beauty and choices.

A promising, if flawed first episode. Life Is Strange boasts believable characters and an intriguing setting. That said, the dialogue sounds awkward at times and some of the plot twists are a bit too much. [March 2015]

A good start that shows a lot of potential and great personality but is a bit dragged down by the clunky writing.

It shows a lot of promise as an episodic game, but there are certain mechanics that leave me feeling a bit skeptical for this franchise’s future.

An interesting first episode for this unoriginal but fascinating adventure game.

Life Is Strange has a charm that is hard to resist.

Adventure game – check. Developed by Frenchmen – check. Tells a story about an American – check – teenage girl – check – gifted with paranormal powers – check. Here’s where Beyond: Two Souls and Life is Strange go their separate ways, because the latter is actually good. [03/2014, p.74]

Life is Strange is a throwback to the classic "point and click" adventures. You can rewind time, you can decide the future, you can meet Max Calufield. But you will not play in Spanish, Japanese or German ...

More dull character for interactive drama is difficult to imagine. The LiS world is documentarily trivial, and the college, where Miss Caulfield will be studying managed to gather all the clichés from American movies for young adults: guys from sport team, kids with rich parents, nerds of all kinds... There is only one thing that is going to crush local routine: Max, for some unknown reason, is able to control time. [Issue #195, p.76]

The locales in Life is Strange feel much less like rigidly framed theatrical scenes and more like real places. [March 2015, p.102]

A solid opening to what could be a genuinely interesting episodic adventure. The mystery seems compelling, the characters are largely likeable, and the presentation is impeccable - but the emphasis is on "could" and "seems". It's still just episode one.

After quite a bit of meandering, Life is Strange offers revelations, along with dialogue that isn’t trying to ape how a teenager might sound. Or maybe the awkwardness is just drowned out by Chloe and Max’s sincerity. And, in the tradition of all good TV pilots - it owes as much to TV and cinema as it does to other games - there’s a cliffhanger that’s going to force me to come back.

Time reversal is Life is Strange's most unique element, but also its most problematic.

While Dontnod seems to have found an interesting concept with a stunning visual style and some promising ideas, it fails on executing it properly and comes out as more pretentious than deep.

Life is Strange is very pretentious but it is a very nice watch. The game misses the ability to really reel us in emotionally. The interesting time travel twist makes up for a lot, but it only makes us long for the next episode a little bit.