Preparing for the upcoming adventure in the next chapter of the Life is Strange franchise, a demonstration of what to expect in the mix of unknowns for Life Is Strange 2 reaches new heights as we learn about the story-line and more about the main characters first-hand through the single episode of the Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit that revolves around one young boy who supposedly brings a whole new meaning of what a new “superhero” with somewhat different “superpowers” sees as he takes on both enemies found in his foreign fantasy world and domestically in the real world.
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane…It’s Captain Spirit
Meeting the kid behind the superhero mantra, Captain Spirit is made up in the mind of 10-year old Chris Eriksen along with the imaginary characters both friends and foes known to the young superhero…not to mention the funny battles and confrontations Captain Spirit gets to witness and be a part of to get more than one moment away from reality to being the ordinary elementary kid from Oregon. From being a superhero at one moment, a civilian life is always a part of every superhero including a young kid’s life including the realities of Chris’s life both happy and sad moments from the past all the way to the present time…every superhero’s history can be “kryptonite” when tragedy strikes home.
Other than living as an ordinary kid, Captain Spirit brings fantasy to life out of Chris’s drawings as well as fiction out of comic books and the trips to comic con events that interests Chris to building Captain Spirit’s identity…maybe Chris initially decided to be a superhero just like his other interest which is watching the Hawt Dawg Man TV show to reading the Hawt Dawg Man comic books (Hawt Dawg Man was Max and Chloe’s favorite comic character mentioned back in Life Is Strange 1).
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit Gameplay
In learning about Chris Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, the single episode and game puts everyone in his shoes to go on a treasure hunt to uncover the real backstory of who Chris Eriksen was to finding out more of who his parents are and what they represent in Chris’s life as the dots are connected throughout the single episode to the end.
From taking photos to tagging walls on buildings in previous Life is Strange games, the Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit introduces an optional task map which could be feature in Life is Strange 2
Taking control of Chris only allows you as the player to walk inside the Eriksen home and outside on perimeter of the home to do a variety of tasks that are listed on Chris’s map that he calls “his awesome things to do” which reveals in the form of picture clues and an excerpt from Chris on how he explains the picture that reveals how to complete a certain thing on his list…it’s only elementary only until you get to one clue on the list that is hard to figure out how to solve to complete.
Besides going around the house completing tasks, there is still the original way of going around Captain Spirit’s home and interacting just like in the previous Life is Strange games with the exception that the UI is different in the sense that the game allows Chris to use his supposed superpower’s as Captain Spirit in interacting to certain objects a special way when made available as an option in the interaction…who says every superhero is equal right, every superhero is different with their own special abilities with Captain Spirit being unique on his own with his own alter ego and imagination.
What We Expect for Life Is Strange 2…
Playing through the Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit demo to prepare for the new chapter in Life is Strange 2, there is no question that there are some new changes likely coming for the upcoming Life is Strange game with the first likable change being that Chris maybe will have a superpower that could be used to move objects which would be used in both real life and his supposed alternate superhero world where it would help in both situations in this case to reach objects or maybe use that superpower against his enemies/villains…maybe Chris can use that superpower of his to bring his new artwork to life in a way.
For me on this first point, I have to go back to the first Life is Strange game to think about how Max Caulfield using her superpower to make the right decisions by going through alternate realities
Hunting for his arch-nemesis, Captain Spirit visits an unknown planet to look for a confrontation with Mantroid
and reversing time in order to avoid the biggest consequences which seems like will be the aim in this case for Chris and his kinetic superpower except you will not get a mulligan, do over, or another chance to make it right…in other words, I believe LIS 2 will pose the first major challenge to force the player to make the right decision the first time with Chris’s superpower to facing the consequences for using it the wrong way or not using it all when needed.
The second likely change we might see coming to Life is Strange 2 is Chris’s “alternate timeline” in the form of his superhero imagination which makes me think that anytime he may face off against someone in the real world, then he may visualize them as one of his superhero villain’s and use his imagination to battle them. This seems obvious as another clue of what to expect for LIS 2 from the Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit that leads to a storyline transition much like what we’ve seen from both previous LIS games similarly with Chloe’s dreams in Before the Storm, the alternate realities in all episodes of the original Life is Strange as well as an individual example like with Max’s nightmare in the final episode of the first game that makes me think the similar transitioning in the previous games is coming back for LIS 2.
Charles Eriksen, the father of Chris/Captain Spirit talking with his son while his son has breakfast at the kitchen table.
Outside of the new features that we could see in Life is Strange 2, the single episode from the Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit did give us a preview of some things that were present in the previous LIS titles that look to be coming back with little to no changes such as the interaction system with only a change in the text font from the demo. The other previous feature that was in the previous LIS games that more than likely will return to LIS 2 is the collectible map even-though the collectible map in the Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit only featured Chris’s tasks to do which to me thinking about it further on what we could see in Life is Strange 2 brings over that optional/opportunity in a different direction from what we’ve seen in the past 2 games where we’ve had to do one or more interaction to make the opportunity available…possibly with Chris’s optional opportunity task list, I see the DONTNOD and Square Enix developers make the optional opportunities in this case the “task opportunities” equally challenging from the previous LIS games with making each player use their brain more to complete the task from the picture clue given.
There is no review score I would give the Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit since it was only a demonstration to Life is Strange 2 to understand what is changing from the past 2 Life is Strange games to the present and future of Life is Strange. As far as the possibilities I mentioned for Life is Strange 2, we won’t know if our assumptions are right until we play the first episode on September 27th in a few short months from now. All I can say as a final point is I hope the Life is Strange series continues to rock on despite new characters, new voices, and this story as well as future LIS stories continues to shock and amaze us as the previous stories have done.
