Bringing back Steph Gingrich for Life is Strange: True Colors may seem an obvious decision for Deck Nine Games, the studio behind her first appearance in Life is Strange prequel Before the Storm. Steph was an original creation of the team which now steers the franchise’s future, and was beloved by fans back in her first appearance. She begged for more screen time, and fans asked for it too. Finally, and perhaps most crucially, being absent in the original Life is Strange meant she was narratively able to return, unaffected by the apocalyptic events at the end of that original game.
But in bringing Steph back, True Colors by necessity had to keep her slightly at arm’s length. The main game is not her story, and it is clearly pitched as a fresh entry point for newcomers who never visited Arcadia Bay. It has a weighty, emotional tale of its own to tell, and as I wrote in Eurogamer’s Life is Strange True Colors review, the game stays laser focused on exploring that, and particularly its core brother-sister relationship. So much so, that its two sidekicks/love interests, one of whom is Steph, both end up feeling a little under-served.
Wavelengths, True Colors’ new prequel DLC, thankfully solves much of that for Steph. This is a character study on her life in Haven Springs over the year leading up to the events of the main game, covering what she has been up to since Arcadia Bay, how she finds herself washed up in another small town, and how she is handling the events of the past. It links the Steph we see bits of in True Colors to the character she was in Before the Storm, and importantly fills in some of her emotional backstory, enough that her return feels more than just convenient fan service.
Wavelengths begins soon after Steph arrives in Haven Springs, where she takes on the open position of local radio DJ and record store owner. The expansion takes place entirely within the shop and its back room, and while other characters cameo in voice-over form via memories or phone/video calls, Steph is the sole on-screen presence throughout the story. We hear more of her time in a now-defunct punk band, and get just enough of an explanation for why she and her former girlfriend broke up. In true Life is Strange fashion, trawling through Steph’s phone turns up a frequently sad, sometimes devastating strata of old text messages and blocked numbers – a bunch of mostly broken connections from her recent past. But there’s (often dark) humour too, as Steph tries to make connections via a dating app, and navigates an array of candidates on there.