Life is Strange Episode 4: Dark Room Review

The only way you can avoid spoilers, this far into the game, is if you close your eyes and pretend to read this review. I will lead off with non-spoilers, but I can’t say too much with an absolute guarantee of zero spoilers.

Life Is Strange follows Max Caulfield as she explores life in her hometown of Arcadia Bay. Most of the action takes place at Blackwell Academy, the prestigious… school? college? I’m still unsure... place where she studies. She wants to be a photographer and uses an instant camera for her photos.

And she still shakes them. Dark Room fixed many of the problems I have had with previous issues, but having this knowledgeable photog shaking her instant photos like a cretin, or someone trying to drink a carton of Jimmy’s Iced Coffee, still bugs me.

STOP! SHAKING! IT!

Previous episodes were only about two hours long, which annoyed me -- but this one just about doubles that. I played an hour and 45 minutes, then came back to it and told my wife “I’ll be done in fifteen minutes.” It took me two hours longer than that, so it’s a good thing I didn’t need to go anywhere! That means the full Life is Strange is set to be over 12 hours long.

The writing was much better this time, much less generic and painful to hear. It’s probably because the characters acted more adult than in past episodes. One mistake I noticed, was Max saying it was a shame that someone was shot, when in fact they had been stabbed, though that may be a glitch in the game choosing the appropriate line.

I WILL END YOU!

Lip flaps are another issue I’ve brought up. They have been fixed, for the most part as there are some issues such as this one… The camera is something I haven’t noticed had any problems until this episode, too. It usually floats around slowly, but in one scene near the beginning it is visibly shaking. The cameraman seems to have been really desperate for a wee…

The puzzles in past episodes have been quite easy, apart from the bottle one in Episode 2. Thankfully there are a few tough puzzles in Dark Room. One is a rather long, multi-layered puzzle which made me feel like Batman just as much as a few of the investigations in Batman: Arkham Knight did. They really stepped up the game in their, you know, game.

Spoilers follow!

Some of the evidence for the evidence board. What board? Spoilers!

There is no way to talk about the story without spoiling it -- I know I’ve said this, and my warnings will finally stop.

At the end of Episode 3: Chaos Theory, Max finds out that changing big events in the past will have a butterfly effect, and any changes will come with a consequence. One of the very first decisions you have to make will be a very big emotional trigger for anyone who has known someone who could not look after themselves. Like the self-harm trigger from Episode 2, do be warned before you play.

With that out of the way, she resumes searching for Rachel Amber with a board of clues. But first, a visit to the boys dorms, to find out what Nathan Prescott is hiding. It’s not as tense as I would have liked, but you finally learn more about the nutter and grab his phone. With that added to your board, you have to find the clues, work out which are relevant and which are fluff. That was certainly the most fun puzzle, but not the only fun one. As I mentioned, this is definitely the best episode, for many reasons.

One of those reasons is male-on-male noodle slapping

As you continue, you find out more about the recent past, encounter the consequences of your decisions, and find out some dark secrets, ending with a banging pool party. It’s the most thrilling episode, and the length of it is testimony to how much information they are throwing at you. And it never felt padded, I was never bored. And when what I thought was the final reveal turned out to lead in to half an hour more story, I was thrilled.

This is worse than you think it is...

At the end of every episode is a twist, and I’ve read that the ending ‘twist’ of Chaos Theory was a big shock to some. To me, it was obvious to anyone who has even heard of the concept of time travel. However, the ending to Dark Room more than made up for it. I knew they would be twisting it that way, as that ending was much too obvious by this point, but the way it was twisted made my mouth drop open. I’m totally ramped for Episode 5.