Life is Strange: Episode 1 - Chrysalis

Enigmatic in parts, frustrating in others, Dontnod demonstrates it can fuse the domestic with the supernatural with a deft hand, and succeeds in creating a pastel world brimming with intrigue in about three hours.

A world worth inhabiting; one full of intrigue and murky consequences. [March 2015, p.92]

Someone once told me to not buy things for what you want them to be, but buy them for what they currently are. Based on that sound reasoning, I would recommend holding off on Life is Strange for a while, but keep an eye on how well future episodes are received.

In this episode we take a first look at a strange world with some interesting characters. Life is Strange Ep. 1, gives the impression of a small piece of a larger story that will follow.

Life is Strange oozes potential. The female portraits are unexpectedly fresh, the basic concept originally formulated by Telltale still excites and the rewind mechanic is interesting. At the same time, it is also the game's biggest weakness, because it diminishes the impact of the choices made. Nevertheless it will still be exciting to follow the rest of the season.

Quotation forthcoming.

This first episode of Life is Strange depicts the universe, the characters and its protagonist's power with great application. If it's not technically perfect and even if some references and clichés can bother us, it is indeed a lovely introduction to a promising tale.

Inconsistencies of time reversal aside, Life is Strange is an involving slice of life that works because its situations eloquently capture a peculiar early-college state of mind.

With this first try, we can see that Dontnod tries to reach the quality of Quantic Dream and Telltale's work. But they're not there yet. You're not really free to do what you want and the game suffers from a certain number of clichés; the fact that we cannot really find any use for the rewind system is just the icing on the cake.

Life is Strange suffers from awful voice acting and writing that doesn’t do its characters and world justice.

Quite a strange little item. Its dialog makes me wince, but I will confess to being more amused by the awfulness than upset by it, at least half the time. It’s embarrassing and hella lame for totes, but there’s something almost charming about it. Still, I don’t quite think that’s what Dontnod had intended.

The story may be a bit grating, but those mechanics have laid some interesting groundwork. [Mar 2015, p.73]

Episode 1 is all intro, giving you a look at Max's powers and her supporting cast, but not much else. There's hints of bigger things on the horizon, but neither issue is immediate within Episode 1. I'm intrigued, but Episode 2 needs to give me a stronger reason to finish all five episodes.

The first episode of Life Is Strange is a mixed bag – the dialogue grates and inspecting items is a bore, but there is promise elsewhere. With the story's foundations laid down, the next episode could be a standout.