The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is a standalone narrative experience set in the Life is Strange universe that will launch on PS4, Xbox One and PC on the 26th June, and it’s completely free to download – you don’t even have to own any of the previous Life is Strange games to unlock access. It was developed by Dontnod at the same time as Life is Strange 2, and will serve as the first introduction of the Life is Strange 2 universe. I was shown a short demo of the game earlier this week by the game’s co-directors, Michel Koch and Raoul Barbet. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting, but I already can’t wait to play.
Dontnod was keen to impress it would be properly revealing Life is Strange 2 “soon,” but until then, Captain Spirit takes place in the same timeline, in the same setting and the same universe of Life is Strange 2, and players “will be able to discover a lot of clues and hints in this game as to what the story and setting of Life is Strange 2 will be.” There are even some choices in Captain Spirit that will carry over and have consequences in Life is Strange 2. According to Dontnod, “it’s a perfect entry point to the games we’ve been creating, but for fans of the games there will of course be nods to LiS1.”
I asked the team why they decided to make an additional game set in the Life is Strange universe. Koch replied, “Because Life is Strange is not a single set of characters or a single town. It’s not just Max and Chloe. For three years now, we’ve created lots of new characters working on Life is Strange 2, and Captain Spirit is one of them. When we started working on Life is Strange 2, started talking about settings and characters, it was quite a huge story. We saw potential in a lot of characters, to find a bit more about their backstory and their side stories.”
Source: Eurogamer 25 minutes with Life is Strange 2's brilliantly unexpected free prequel