Life is Strange has been an episodic series that has consistentlypushed the bar higher and higher since it's debut episode of how tomaturely tackle difficult issues in a video game. A medium ofentertainment that is still in its infancy compared to the likes ofTV, film and literature. Over the last four months we have seen theexploits of protagonist Max Caufield and her quiet coastal townAradia Bay grow steadily but surely darker and into territory mostvideo games dare to never even think of, let alone treat with suchboldness or care as Life is Strange. The fourth and penultimateepisode in this series from developer Dontnod Entertainment continuesthis trend and proves to all developers that such issues can behandled in video games and only goes on to show how worthy thisseries is of Game of the Year status as well as one of the mostimportant episodic games in recent history surpassing even legendaryadventure game developer Telltale Games.
Dark Room picks up immediately after the shocking twist at the end ofChaos Theory. Max has managed to alter history itself by rewindingtime back to her childhood and saving Chloe's dad from being killedin a car crash. The resulting alternate timeline has placed Chloe ina wheelchair and completely dependant on her parents due to beingparalysed from the neck down. Alongside this, Max is coming evercloser to solving the mystery of what happened to Rachel Amber andhow Nathan Prescott and the recently deceased Kate Marsh areconnected to her disappearance.
Dark Room plays it fast and loose with your emotions over its threehour run time. Asking you to not only to solve the mystery of RachelAmber in an L.A Noire style evidence hunt, piecing together all theevidence to find who is responsible for her disappearance. But italso confronts you with some of the hardest moral choices in anadventure game to date. I cried at a particular moral choice near thebeginning of the episode before I had even chosen what I was going todo, you know that when something makes you have that kind of reactionbefore you have even decided that you have some an amazing story, amasterfully written script and a truly human cast of characters.
Dark Room lives up to it's title being the darkest and mostdisturbing episode of Life Is Strange to date. Usually being a seriesthat looks on the lighter side of the bad situations these charactersare in, this episode deals with issues such as euthanasia (assistedsuicide), drug addiction and mental health. Some of the scenes inthis episode are deeply upsetting and disturbing to view and by thetime the credits are rolling you'll not only be speechless but you'llalso be scared to know what's going to happen come the season finale.
The episode consists largely of collecting evidence to sort throughto find the culprit for Rachel Ambers disappearance. The big puzzleof the episode is essentially analysing various pieces of data andpiecing them together to make sense in what can only be described asCSI: Arcadia Bay. There is a smaller puzzle later on in the episodewhich can be a little bit of a brain bender, forcing you to get thepuzzle wrong before you actually have the opportunity to get it righteven if you can see the solution from the start. The episodes puzzlesare well designed and fun to solve, though the later puzzle I spokeof can test a players patience.
Of course expect a ton of conversation and several weighty moralchoices to make, good thing you have the power to rewind time right!
In terms of performance, Dark Room runs smoothly on current genconsoles with very few frame rate drops and fewer loading screensthan previous episodes. Not to mention it has some gorgeous momentsas expected from a game with such a unique art style. The voiceacting is great as expected and the soundtrack is on top form thisepisode with a large variety in different tracks this time and notsticking to the usual acoustic guitar ambiance we have grown used toover the series.
Dark Room propels Life is Strange from being an above averageadventure game into a groundbreaking new benchmark for the genre instorytelling. It ties up almost every loose end leaving room for apulse-pounding finale that will be unbelievably difficult to waitfor. It's sudden change of tone from a relatively happy yet maturegame into something akin to a horror film is a surprising yetextremely welcome shift that has come at the exact right moment inthe series.
So begins the waiting game, but one thing is for sure. Life isStrange is without a doubt one of the most intelligent, well writtenand sensitive games in recent memory and will undoubtedly be a strongcontender in this years Game of the Year awards ceremonies.
Lifeis Strange
Episode4: Dark Room – 10/10
+DetectiveStyle Gameplay
+SomeOf The Hardest Moral Choices In Gaming
+BrilliantSoundtrack
+DarkerTone
+PerfectFinale Set Up
