Abuse in The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is a game billed as a quaint return to our childhood, it’s trailer packed with whimsical imagery. For me, it was a return to my youth, but a vastly different one than most.
This charming title does a wonderful job of misdirecting players at distinct points throughout the story, always hinting at supernatural powers or magic behind the scenes. In signature Life is Strange fashion, it walks a tightrope between the mundane and the magical. Its misdirection failed me however, I saw all too many familiar things.
This installment in the Life is Strange universe begins in much the same way as its predecessors. We are treated to scenic views of the games’ rural setting, followed by intimate shots of Chris’ room. We’re allowed to linger for just a moment, folksy music serving as the backdrop for a pleasant romp around the room. Chris has decorated his space with hastily drawn pictures of superheroes and villains, his toys strewn about, free for players to interact with. The scene being set for players is one of peace, serenity, and innocence. Chris’ father, Charles, calls him over for breakfast, but the toys are much too enticing, a room full of clickables to interact with is much too distracting. His father calls Chris for breakfast again. I notice a gaming console, a playbox as it’s called in the game, and chuckle. His father calls Chris for breakfast again. His tone is not the same as the first time he called, and as Chris emerges from his room, there is noticeable discoloration on his arm. In fact, once I saw it, it was all I could notice.
Charles’ tone changes back almost too quickly, reverting to that of a carefree, joking father, a role we’ve seen in Life is Strange: Before the Storm. His funny banter and quick whit are meant to distract the player, and yet the subtleties are still noticeable. The empty beer cans littering the kitchen, the sparse house that hasn’t been properly cleaned in months. Chris makes his way to the kitchen table, but almost as quickly as his tone changed before, he continues to chastise his son, claiming he has “other things to do” aside from feeding his child. And as if it was never said, Charles reverts to self-deprecating jokes about his scrambled eggs. In this somewhat strained interaction, the bruises on Chris’ arm becomes the topic of conversation. It’s never explicitly stated, but it’s implied that Charles is at fault, even though he takes no responsibility for it, referring to it merely as Chris “getting hurt”.
After Breakfast, Charles makes his way to the living room, alcohol in hand, to watch a basketball game. The player is free to explore the humble home and complete a few tasks drawn on a list that Chris keeps with him. It’s here where the game itself opens up quite a bit. Players can choose whether or not they want to clean up around the house, explore the snow-covered backyard, or assemble Chris’ super suit from mundane household items, a suit you’ll need to venture into the dreaded boiler room to confront the hot “water eater” when the pilot light has gone out.
As you comb through the home that carries all the realistic “lived in” detail we’ve come to expect from a Life is Strange title, you begin to piece together a tragic story. Charles Ericksen was once a prolific college basketball player with a bright future. He met and fell in love with Audra, a Blackwell Academy alum, and lover of art and cinema. As you dig deeper, you realize that she has since passed, the victim of a fatal car crash. It’s obvious that both father and son miss her deeply, as you regularly come across her belongings. Charles even fields a few questions about his late spouse, which invite sweet moments of reminiscence.
Piecing together the broken remnants of the family’s past, you can see that Charles Eriksen is a single father dealing with the harsh realities of life after losing a spouse. But one must also be careful not to romanticize him as the tragic widower. When perusing through Charles’ room, we find a letter from a girlfriend in his not so distant past. One of the reasons she cites for leaving him is verbal abuse something we see in action as well. While digging through Charles’ desk you also find a letter from Chris’ grandparents, offering to take him off Charles’ hands as he deals with the recent loss of his wife, as well as some financial troubles. This letter is obviously ignored, hinting towards Charles’ inability to put Chris before himself.
As someone who has experienced a vastly similar toxic relationship, I believe that for some it is easy to see Charles as a tragic figure, worthy of the lions share of our pity because at times he can be funny, charming even. But that is one of the scariest parts about abusers, they can be just as witty and charming as anyone else, smiling before snarling. He laughs with his son, even plays with him, indulging in pretend games filled with superheroes and villains, but in an instant, he can also mistreat his son, as evidenced by the bruises on his arm. Abuse doesn’t always look the same, at times there are gradients to it. A pattern emerges in the interactions between our main characters, one of take and give. Charles will insult his son or berate him in a manner that is unfitting to his sons’ behavior, only to quickly revert to jokes. Subtle language plays a large role in this sense, as Charles frames their actual familial issues in fantastic language, relating himself and his son to a superhero duo at times. And while at first blush this seems like a method to make Chris more easily understand the more adult issues affecting his life, it seems almost manipulative as time goes on, especially when the emotional abuse crescendos to a heartbreaking scene near the end.
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit elicited visceral reactions from me as the player. Not only did I cringe as I pieced together the situation, but it also brought me back to my own childhood. I was suddenly a kid again. I noticed that as the less pleasant sides of Charles emerged, my gameplay suddenly changed. I responded with dialogue choices that I thought would be least confrontational, I made an extra effort to do things as menial as turning off lights as I bustled around the house completing chores, careful to get Chris into as little trouble as I possibly could. While Chris mills about the house, you can hear his father screaming drunken obscenities at the television, I found myself hoping that no misdirected anger would befall Chris. What began on minutes ago as fun and lighthearted, now felt like walking on eggshells.
Earlier that morning Charles had promised Chris that he would take him shopping for a Christmas tree, “the biggest pine tree on the lot”. As you subtly remind Charles of his promise, asking him just when this trip will take place, he is dismissive, and the more you prod, he becomes angrier. As I stood in the living room watching Charles day drinking, I thought only one thing, as I had seen this all before. “He isn’t taking you tree shopping Chris, he’s getting too drunk to take you.”
As the game goes on, it becomes apparent that The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is not meant to be wholesome or child-like as a simple gimmick, or a new theme to set it apart from its predecessors. These games of pretend, signify something much deeper, a coping mechanism. In moments where life becomes too heavy, Chris distracts himself with fantasy. For without it, he would just be a boy, caring for a father who cannot take care of himself, cleaning up musty beer cans and washing dishes with cold water. He wouldn’t be a hero battling a terrifying monster in the form of the “water eater’ he would just be some kid performing chores his father is either too drunk or depressed to do himself. It would all be too much.
And so mechanics such as allowing players to interact with Chris’ toys, to indulge his pretend superpowers at distinct moments, become so much more. Life is Strange always billed itself as a game where choices matter, but we were only given the reigns when making life-changing decisions. These smaller, more granular choices allow us to change the way we interact with the in-game world, delivering a much deeper emotional experience. Even dialogue turned from something almost arbitrary to a matter of protecting our protagonist, a careful chess match, a minefield.
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit improves upon the games that came before it from a graphical perspective as well as a narrative one. DONTNOD’s method of storytelling and world-building through exploration and interaction has greatly improved as well, delivering enjoyable moment to moment gameplay, mitigating the pacing issues of games past. For those with similar childhoods, this game can be difficult at moments, but it is ultimately an experience definitely worth having. While the narrative can be emotionally trying, the final twist at the end offers a ray of hope and while it may not be a complete resolution to Chris’ problems, it opens him up to a whole new world of possibilities. And as a young boy washing dishes in the sink with cold water and cleaning up old beer bottles, that’s all I remember wishing for.
Video Version here.
