By: Robert Murphy
The series continues to live up to it's title as I entered into the second episode "Out of Time." Max returns to her life at Blackwell Academy and begins to feel a wave of care free nature in the wake of her new abilities. Things will not be as light and breezy as the opening to the episode would suggests though and I start to feel the first real signs of tension and drama that I was missing out on in the first episode.
Almost immediately this chapter starts off with an overwhelming level of peace to it that drastically changes in an instant. Max starts her day and relishes in her new found power and how she really can go about her day with ease because of it. This was the issue I pointed out with episode one as your rewind powers seem to almost be too over powered to generate any real problems. This issue would soon become irrelevant as Max begins to learn of the torment that her fellow classmate is going through. Bullying, sexual abuse and drug use all begin to weave their way into the story and Max will end up being mixed into all of it due to her inherently good nature. Max remains a character that deserves the gift she is given, she may joke about using her power for little things like not being late to class but she mainly ends up reversing time for a greater good.
That greater good though is quite hard to find in this episode. The decisions you are faced with are extremely difficult ones in this episode and I felt like I was right back in Telltale's Game of Thrones adaptation where no choice I could possibly make is the right one. This is due to the fact that your relationships with the ones around you get more involved. The main out cry for this episode came from a character that I barely paid any attention to the first time around but quickly became invested in once I learned what was happening to her and that was Kate Marsh. She it seems got into some trouble and you will need to decide whether or not you have what it takes to help her but depending on the decisions you've made up until this point her fate and yours may be intertwined and you could help one another out. This brings me to the fact that many of the decisions you made in the first episode begin to start showing some meaning. Here and there I found information and issues arising from the choices I made, whether it was receiving texts from an unknown number or stopping a certain security guard from picking on my friend, the effects began to show. This was interesting because often times I don't feel any sort of effect in these decision making games from the choices I've made and here I've found myself confronted with issues that would have gone differently had I gone another route.
From here players will see that your relationship with Chloe which also begins to get stronger too as last episode you revealed to her your gift and you two begin to bond like the good old days again. Chloe does became one of this episodes problems however as she felt the need to put your powers to the test for herself just to make sure you aren't crazy and who can really blame her. This leads to a mind numbing rewind and retry sequence in the first few scenes of the game. You have to correctly guess the items in her pocket at one point and notice the most insignificant details about the items it would seem. Then you must predict the future to Chloe and call out the actions of what happens in the diner you are in. Following this you have to play a find the bottle game at Chloe's secret hideout. It was all nitty gritty objectives that I was glad were done within the first portion of the episode and not spread throughout. However, the pace does pick up considerably once you get all of this out of the way and your relationship with Chloe will lead you to two of the most tense moments of the episode as her past comes back to haunt her and you must decide what you must do to help Chloe out. Constantly exposing your powers to this strain of everything that you two do will also have a big effect on the finale for the game too which took my breath away.
The only thing that did not show signs of improvement and probably will not change any time in the future for Life is Strange would be the dialogue. I'm not exactly sure what teen drama or crummy TV show that the developers got their teen slang from but it is certainly a dated and annoying one. Max and her friends walk around spouting out typical teenage jargon but at the same time they also use lines that feel completely out of character and out of place in every day conversation. At one point Max asks to "rap" about what happened the other day to Chloe and I cringed. People do not talk like this in the real world and it makes me shutter every time one of these cliche line comes pouring out of someones mouth which is quite often.
That being said, "Out of Time" takes some very positive steps forward from it's first episode. The overarching story starts to take shape as the decisions I've made in the previous episode start to carry some weight and make it seem that far bigger problems may lie in store for Max because of it. Players will also see a big ramp up in the tension in the story and I finally begin to feel real concern for the characters in the game and also more invested in interacting with everyone I see. I certainly hope the tension can continue forward as more and more is revealed about Max and her abilities, along with the mysterious goings on at Blackwell Academy.
Good:
- The ramifications of my decisions in episode one already start to show
- Exceedingly hard to make choice
- Characters start to gain more appeal especially the one with Chloe
- An ending you won't forget
Bad:
- Horrible and cliche dialogue that doesn't appear to be going away any time soon
- The mind numbing sequences with Chloe testing your powers
Scully Rating: 7.5 out of 10
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