At the end of my preview for episode 2, I mentioned a pace of progress that was still quite slow and very calm. After finishing Chaos Theory, episode 3 of Life is Strange, this remark does not really hold, the game takes a very unexpected turn and everything seems to accelerate! Or at least, that's the feeling we have, as this episode is so rich in events. Small all horizon.
Max roupille.
The episode begins shortly after the big final event of Out of Time. We resume the adventure in his room where we can read, from the computer, what people think of Max's recent actions. We will quickly walk around the room and then we will wander around the academy. Big change of atmosphere however since we walk there this time at night! We must join Chloe who asks us, once is not custom, to "bring our ass" (I quote). We will therefore join her to experience many adventures in Blackwell, in search of clues about the infamous Rachel. As always, we can (it is also highly recommended to fully appreciate the universe) chat with everyone and observe a lot of elements of the decor (sometimes with pretty pictures to the key).
Some night passages are quite intense, especially the one where it will be necessary to avoid the patrolling guards in a place which reserves certain surprises. I wouldn't dwell too much on the second part of the episode, on pain of spoiler, which I absolutely do not want, but know that everything accelerates from here and you will go from one emotion to another in no time, and that the latter will increase, until a final that will not leave any player indifferent. The spanish studio is doing a real tour de force here. In 3 episodes, they managed to reach the level of the productions of Telltale Games (The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us). Bravo.
Apart from the story, it should be noted that the game largely uses the sets already used in the previous episodes (only one new location in Chaos Theory) but manages to avoid the effect of "déjà vu" thanks to the night that changes the view we have of Blackwell academy quite a bit. The artistic direction is still as polished, the shots as well chosen as ever ... and the few technical defects are also resisting. In particular the lip synchronization, still inexistent, it is not a drama in itself since the dubbing are very successful, but it will certainly make cringe some teeth.
Regarding the gameplay, nothing new to report. I would even tend to say that we "get tired" of Max's power. I did use the power a few times, of course, but I didn't really feel the need to know every choice anymore, as I had previously. However, the evolution of Max's power, visible at the end of this episode, manages to renew interest, although it will be necessary to wait to see episode 4 to see how Dontnod will exploit it. I mentioned the much faster pace of the episode in the first lines of this article, a pace that will unfortunately be a little broken because of the few phases of investigations where we will have to go hunting for objects. These moments, not really exciting, seem to be there to artificially extend the life of an episode a bit shorter than the previous ones. This is not prohibitive but I really hope that the developers will make these phases more fun for the future.
Once again, Max gets lost in thought.
Chaos Theory is a frankly remarkable episode, which will haunt the minds of the fans during the 2 long months which separate us from the 4th episode. Dontnod, like his heroine Max, seems to gain confidence and talent with each episode, to our delight. Be careful though, the team seems to know what they are doing, but the direction taken is very daring, and we are never safe from a small slip that could cause big damage.
