Xbox Series X|S & Steam Review Keys Provided By Deck Nine
Last month, I got the chance to play Deck Nine and Square Enix’s latest entry to the Life is Strange series, Life is Strange: True Colors. I fell in love with Alex Chen, her story, and all of the supporting cast of characters along her journey.
The person who stuck out most to me from the cast though was Alex’s potential love interest, Steph Gingrich. She’s a punk-rocker, gamer, and down-to-earth person who really connected with me from the very first time I met her.
Fast-forward about a month later when Deck Nine released the prequel DLC chapter titled, Life is Strange: Wavelengths, which centers around Steph herself. Upon playing the new chapter, I can say that it definitely gives players a better look at Steph and her life as well as some new gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, it also has a pretty upsetting bug that may upend players’ experience altogether.
Story
Players who’re familiar with the first LiS game will remember Steph from that as it’s her first appearance. Wavelengths takes place between the first and third games and shows how Steph’s story from her first appearance affects how we meet her in True Colors.
It’s a pretty cool story as we get to see how she became who she is in Haven Springs as well as how she began her relationships with all of the other community members and record store.
The chapter can be finished in about 2 hours but manages to cover enough ground that you don’t see time passing by too quickly. I will say that some story beats are going to be more impactful if you’ve actually played the first title.
I felt a little left out of the loop as I never played the first nor second LiS titles. I kind of wish that Deck Nine had included a bit of a refresher in the beginning just to bring new or returning players up to speed of the final events of the original game.
Gameplay
The entirety of Wavelengths takes place in the record shop that we became familiar with in True Colors. Over the course of the chapter, you’ll do most of the things you did in True Colors: interact with items to trigger exposition, do scavenger-hunt types of tasks, and answer text messages, just to name a few.
The new mechanics though are pretty unique and made Wavelengths really feel like it was doing something fresh. The majority of the game has you playing as Steph in the recording booth playing music tracks, doing commercials, and providing psychic-like readings are what make up the disc-jockey lifestyle that Steph has picked up. You can even pass time by interacting with her desk ornaments as well.
Aside from that, you’ll also be able to build Steph’s dating profile and communicate with potential love interests. It’s great to see all of the different kinds of representation there are throughout her dating app and the conversations that ensue. Some will even impact aspects in the store a bit too.
The rest of the game has you control Steph and complete tasks around the record store as it gets more and more put together into the shop we know and love. Just like Steph, it evolves over time.
Audio and Visuals
As with TC, Wavelengths offers beautiful visuals and a gorgeous audio scape. Over the course of the chapter, we get to see all four seasons make their way across the record store through decorations and music. It’s a very moody and atmospheric chapter that digs into the indie vibes 100% of the time.
What It Could Have Done Better
The game’s trailer made the role-playing scene seem more fun than it actually is. I expected it to be similar to the live-action role-playing segment from TC but felt really disappointed with what is in the final game. The radio DJ aspects are really cool to interact with but I wish that the non-DJ gameplay was a bit more interesting. It’s all pretty standard in that aspect.
The worst thing about Wavelengths though is the fact that the game requires you to finish TC before you can play. The reason that this is a bad thing though is that across all platforms the game has a bug where your saved-game file can become corrupted.
Losing your complete TC file means you can’t play Wavelengths until you finish the other again. And that’s not to say the save file won’t just become corrupt yet again either. I think changing the requirements for Wavelengths would be beneficial as this prequel really doesn’t spoil anything from the main game anyway.
Verdict
Wavelengths offers more of the same, which in this case is a great thing. We get more of Steph, the record store, and the world-building and game mechanics that TC did so well. The store and its music bring Steph to life even more than before, making me hope that the next game allows us to play as her once more.
Although it’s an excellent bridge for long-time fans that connects the first to the third game, new fans like myself may feel a bit disconnected at times because of it. The game’s save file bug is an upsetting one that could’ve been easily avoided in the first place.
All in all, if you liked TC, you’re going to love Wavelengths just as well. It’s not expensive to unlock and definitely worth your time to complete.
