Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Dontnod
Platform: PC, PS4, XB1

Captain Spirit happens to be the prequel to recently announced Life is Strange sequel coming in September just last E3. After Life is Strange Season 1, I didn't try to anticipate Dontnod coming back to the series. With the spin-off/prequel story: Before The Storm developed by another studio as if the mantle was passed to someone else. Though I didn't place any hope and expectations on this after the disappointing ending of the previous game, I might have to admit after finishing playing for the first time, my impressions began to change.

Let's talk about the preceded events before the upcoming Life is Strange 2.

Story

This game takes place in a suburban town somewhere during winter, the star of the show is a 9 year old kid named Chris Erikson who resides with his father and both are coping with the loss of his mother.

Aside the fact that the kid is Max as a male incarnate, I like him. He's got that innocent charm, he's highly invested in his imaginary world with wits and all. But playing his character, doing even the smallest of mundane tasks develop his character to a certain degree much akin to well like Vampyr.

Then once the fun is over, you finally get to the rough part of the story, the dad. Yeah this is a Life is Strange game and they did not take the PG route. It's good to see the mature aspect is still present here. Though this is more of a demo, it showed more itself as a concept for things to come when LIS 2 releases, the ending could be sour for some people but I thought it was straightforward enough, I was wondering when it was going to be revealed and I wasn't disappointed (Unlike Vampyr -_-)

Gameplay

Basically your character moves around the house with WASD, to interact with an object just aim at it from the center of the camera, scroll with the option chosen from mouse wheel and just click the action. Also he can run by holding shift. Once he wears his superhero cape, your given the option to use additional prompts like holding E before clicking the action for different sort of interaction.

Ok so straight up this is walking simulator/interactive drama. We're in David Cage's world now. As much as the French developers love to shove on people's faces about how artistic and divine interactive games can be, it really depends on the execution. Unlike David Cage's game however, this one is less convoluted and more to the point. You see character action and the reaction to the choice you've made. It's mostly in the essence of character drama, giving you also a lot to do which can be a bit of a tedium for some people, well that would mean they don't like walking simulators in general then.

Graphics/Technical

Oh god, I want to say this out first and foremost; the visuals are gorgeous. The art design much like a CGI rendition of some 90's cartoon looks brilliant and just pops. Am also surprised there is quite a good attention to detail here, so that's where they've put most of their resources in.....ok I'll stop talking about Vampyr now. Whomever are the artists doing the water drawings, kudos to you guys.

Life is Strange I guess used Unreal Engine 3 which explains its lack of veneer around the levels early on. This game has fixed and improved that to a great degree. I also love the color palette featured here, makes sense because UE4 being a giant step up.

Performance wise the game runs decent, I've had no problem when it was played in my PC with a GTX 960. I guess also considering they want the game to rich any audiences as possible even ones with weaker systems, it was based on deliberate design and effort. Good job Dontnod.

Sound Design/Music

Life is Strange Before The Storm music was composed by Daughter, which I actually appreciated because I got a chance to experience the game with great sensational indie musicians. Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is no stranger to that of course but it's more upbeat and serene even with just two licensed music added for the episode compared to earlier games.

The sound design is straight-forward, you're playing a suburban drama game and you will be bound to hear things going on the environment like washing machines, heater, TV and so on. Enough to be intuitive responsive for the players.

Summation

Besides the fact that the devs in interviews are saying the inspiration for this came from Sailor Moon, I honestly felt like it very honed to its standards no matter what. Especially when you make a game with this kind of quality behind, I'll definitely play anything Dontnod makes at this point.

This game might not be GOTY but it's bursting with charm, I loved almost every minute of it. Well except for how it ended when the game finally flipped the table on the nice, comfortable story. That's more of a bias than a constructive criticism from me.

I loved this episode and can't wait for episode 1 when it's out in September for LIS 2. Here's my rating

8.5/10