If you're wondering how deep your Life is Strange knowledge has to be in order to appreciate this, I'd say it'd work eminently well as a standalone. Even though Wavelengths builds on both True Colours and the previous LiS stories, as someone who's only played through TC, and about half of the first LiS, I didn't need any more context for it to become one of my favourite things I've played this year. I loved the way it folds the relative monotony and constraints of its setting and structure into the storytelling. Crucially, it's not one of those things where the developers tries to excuse their choices by mocking and lampshading them, it's more like they actively use their limitations to heighten the immersion, to put the player into the headspace of the character they're playing as.

Like I said, I'm really not familiar enough with the previous games to know exactly how Wavelengths would play to tried and true LiS-heads, but I will say that the parts of this that hit me the hardest emotionally, were the ones that seemed to draw the most on that mostly-unknown-to-me history. Which is a pretty impressive feat on Deck Nine's part.

Oh, and a quick practical note: this is a pretty meaty game for a piece of DLC, so be aware that you're heading into a 3+ hour session if you want to play through it in one sitting.

Reviewed on Aug 24, 2023


Comments