This review contains mild spoilers for both Life is Strange and The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit.
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit opens with a shot of a snow filled yard and a lonely house. As the opening bars of Sufjan Steven’s song Death With Dignity begin to play, you immediately get the feeling that even though you haven’t been here before – something is familiar. This is Life is Strange.
Like the previous seasons, Captain Spirit captures the essence of what makes a Life is Strange game unique and then takes that formula and makes it feel fresh again. While the marketing for the game has been a little misleading, make no mistake, this is the prologue to Life is Strange 2.
At E3 Dontnod introduced the game, making it feel like a standalone experience and one that would tell a complete vignette about a boy named Chris who loved superheroes so much that he believed he was one. It felt like we would have little snippets here and there that would remind us that we are in the same universe that Max and Chloe have long since occupied and Chris’s story would somehow connect to theirs. While we do have these snippets, it’s unclear as to how Chris’s tale intertwines with Arcadia Bay, if it does at all.
In our review for the bonus episode that came with Before the Storm, we said that at the conclusion of the episode it’s hard not to feel as though this is our farewell forever to Max and Chloe, and that may be the most heartbreaking part of the episode. Somehow they found a way to bid goodbye to these characters before the real story ever begins. This is storytelling at its finest. Dontnod created a magical world and Deck Nine has filled in the gaps in a masterful way. It may be a while before we find out how accurate this statement was, but it’s looking more and more like our time with those characters has gone by.
Finding the game can be rewarding in and of itself. If you go searching for it on your console of choice, you won’t find it. You download the game by finding the pre-order for Life is Strange 2 and then downloading the “demo” which is ultimately The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit. This is our first indication that this is Chris’s story, not just in the free prelude we have now, but probably throughout the course of Life is Strange 2.
Like the trailer alluded to, Chris loves super heroes. He created an alter ego for himself and goes by Captain Spirit. During the opening moments of the game you help him design his costume and by searching though his room, an element very familiar to any fan of the series, you learn a lot about him and his interests. As mentioned, anyone with previous experience with games in the Life is Strange franchise will feel right at home with the gameplay. Though the game has a nice graphics boost due to the developers upgrading to the Unreal 4 engine, the controls still feel as comfortable as they ever have. The one nice addition involves Chris interacting with objects using his “super powers.” He points at objects and uses this power to speed up the microwave or tame his foes. This never gets old and, though Chris has his own share of problems he’s dealing with, there is something incredibly fresh about his childhood innocence.
At a certain point in the story the game alters a bit from previous entries. Chris has a superhero list of things he’d like to accomplish, from making the costume you designed for him to fighting evil snowmen. How you accomplish these tasks is up to you. You have free range of the house and yard. Whether you complete everything on the list or complete them in random order, the ending of the chapter remains the same. If you come to that ending before you are ready, you have the option to continue completing the objectives even after the credits roll.
Even though we’ve never met Chris his situation feels familiar as another character is forced to deal with situations beyond his years. At this stage he seems to be handling them even better than other characters we’ve met in the Life is Strange universe. However, if we learned anything from Before the Storm it’s that things can change very quickly. As a credit to the writers you will begin to have an emotional connection with these characters in the short two hours or less run-time of Captain Spirit and you’ll find yourself bracing for what’s to come. The series has a way of knocking you down and keeping you there emotionally and we’d expect the sequel to be no different.
It will be interesting to see where things fit timeline wise to the events in the original. We know it takes place in the same universe and there are clues in the house that indicate about what year it is, which could make things very interesting as the following five episodes play out.
With so much of the game teetering between reality and imagination, it’s hard at times to know exactly what is real and what isn’t. With supernatural elements already at play in the series it will be very interesting to see where Chris ends up on his sure to come adventure.
Recommendation: The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is completely free so there is really no reason to pass it by. It tells a beautiful story and leads to what is sure to be another fascinating story. Fans of the series have probably already started the episode, but considering it’s a free download, everyone should at least try it out and see for themselves.
Check out some of our other reviews from the Life is Strange series right here at Handsome Phantom!
Life is Strange: Before the Storm (Bonus Episode- Farewell) -Review (PS4)
Life is Strange; Before the Storm (Complete Season) – Review (PS4)
