Life is Strange: Episode 4 - Dark Room Reviews
But there is one more episode left and the town of Arcadia Bay has yet to be saved. There is still time for Max's story to be subsumed by melodrama, for the game to simply spend the emotional currency it has worked hard to gather on a cliffhanger for the sake of having a cliffhanger. Come October shall we look back and wonder where this potential went? Perhaps we shall ask ourselves what could have been done differently. Or, perhaps, Life is Strange will navigate these concerns, becoming the game we hoped it would be.
After the shocking conclusion of Chaos Theory, Life is Strange Dark Room ups the ante once more and continues on it path of out of the blue surprises. Taking a darker and at times almost gruesome turn, episode 4 offers not only the longest story of the four but the best in the series so far. Character development reaches a new emotional level of depth and the gameplay has developed further again to gain a sense of challenge.
From the gate it was clear that Life is Strange was a title to keep an eye on. It's now evolved into an experience over a million players are constantly on the edge of their seats to continue, and is poised to become one they'll likely never forget. Even a seemingly shorter, more linear episode like this one shines in all the right places; it's a visual novel with a choose-your-own-adventure twist in which choices matter, and consequences are finally catching up like the dark cyclone ever hurdling toward Arcadia Bay.
The wait for the next episode is going to be quite painful.
Now we wait for several more weeks before learning all of the truth behind the horrific things happening at Blackwell and Arcadia Bay, and hopefully how and why Max was given this power. Even though DONTNOD made something a bit predictable, they have left plenty of roads open to continue their usual unpredictability. I can honestly say at this point, I have no idea what will happen next. So many unanswered questions, and I have my expectations high that all will be revealed without any disappointment.
Life Is Strange: Episode 4 - Dark Room is a great penultimate episode for this bestselling series, following up on a lot of questions we had from previous episodes, while giving us a bunch of new questions as well.
Dark Room is the strongest episode of Life is Strange. It leaves you wanting to see what happens to Max Caulfield and the rest of Arcadia Bay whilst also delivering a truly entertaining slice of gaming.
Character inconsistencies and story dead-ends mar an otherwise superb narrative series that is starting to really pay off.