There's a couple of things that bring me great joy in the gaming world. For one thing, I love short game experiences. Y'know, games that don't suck up weeks or months of my time. I say this as someone who's about 100 hours into Slay The Spire right now. So to paraphrase Pete Davidson, sometimes you just really need a short-ass game. And another thing I love is the stealth sequel, or whatever terminology you want to lose. I love spiritual successors or loose shared universes.
I bring all this up because of The Awesome Adventures Of Captain Spirit, which is a brisk two-hour experience that is ostensibly just Life Is Strange 1.5. For the record, this one has nothing to do with the first game, but I guess it's sort of a weird quasi-prequel to Life Is Strange 2. Unlike the modern adventure games we're used to playing - Life Is Strange included, this one doesn't have episodes. Instead, the whole game is basically just one short episode. But you do get a lot of good stuff out of it. The main character is Chris, a ten year old (I think) who has lost his mother to a car accident. Actually, wait - could this car accident be the same one that involved Max's dad in the first game? I hadn't even considered that until just now. But I'm not sure. Anyway, Chris' mom had been an artist turned kindergarten teacher who raised him on comic books. As such, Chris uses comic books and superheroes as a coping mechanism. He fantasizes about being Captain Spirit, a character he invented and it's both relatable and sweet. Meanwhile, Chris' dad is falling apart. Through the game's story you learn that his dad was also a teacher who lost his job thanks to alcoholism. A lot of little details are touched upon and learned throughout. The game starts with dad making breakfast on his third beer, so there's that. There's also some bruises on Chris' arm that the dad is concerned about people asking about. So... there's also that. It's an uncomfortable story to say the least. But it also seems nuanced. Like, there are old pictures and stories about when the mom was still alive and it seems like the family (dad included) were loving and great. There's also moments where the dad is really trying to hold it together and be a good dad and connect with Chris. I think that even though the dad is clearly the villain here, the developers have chosen to point out that he's not inherently evil, but rather suffering and that alcohol has turned him to the dark side. In that sense it fits the supervillain archetype. Which is to say, he's got his origin story. As a side note, there are times when the Life Is Strange series reminds me of the Unbreakable trilogy. They're rooted in a total realism, but one where comic books make sense. Heroes and villains are created in this world. They have their weaknesses and powers. The story of Captain Spirit is basically just a snowy Saturday morning in December. Chris' dad wants to watch a basketball game before they go out to buy a Christmas tree. Chris hopes his dad stays sober long enough to do so. Your tasks are mix of grounded and fantastic. You'll do chores and make your superhero costume and create fantastic villains like a snowman and talk to your toys and dig through photos of your dead mom... it's all a weird blur of really real feelings, all filtered through the eyes of a ten year old who's trying to escape it all, or at least make sense of it all. You're also trying to keep your dad from going off the deep end. Some of the puzzles are a little too opaque however. Can anyone really unlock dad's phone without resorting to Google? I couldn't! But overall, Captain Spirit has a wonderful charm to it. The feeling of being a child on a Saturday with an imagination capable of turning mundane tasks into an MCU epic is great. But on the other hand, there are some truly soul-crushing themes just below the surface here. Imagine coping with your mom's death and your dad isn't really there for you? Or is hurting you? Or blames you for her death? It's quite heavy stuff. The ending is mostly satisfying. I don't want to spoil things exactly, but even when the dad is trying to be there for Chris, he's really not. And ultimately, Chris needs to be rescued, doesn't he? At any rate it's a single-sitting adventure game with some cool imagery and some very sad topics to explore. It's also free, so there's really no reason not to check it out unless you think that the tone will be too much to handle. Although I will say that as sad as the undertones are, there's a lot of innocent fantastic fun to help you through it. I'll probably never play this one again, but I'm glad I did play it once.
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