“The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit” is a free teaser episode of Dontnod’s “Life is Strange 2,” the sequel to the 2015 narrative based adventure game.

The game puts players into the shoes of Chris, an imaginative, superhero-obsessed ten-year-old living in Beaver Creek, Oregon with his widowed alcoholic father.

The introduction to the game sounds like a bad idea on paper.;players can choose to just sit in Chris’ room and play with his toys rather than venturing into the world of the game. However, Chris’ imagination takes hold, creating a little superhero universe that is equal parts adorable and tragic.

When Chris plays with his action figures he becomes Captain Spirit, the controller of the universe. His nemesis is Mantroid, the embodiment of evil, but his cronies are portrayed as sympathetic. One set of dialogue provides a moral dilemma: one of Captain Spirit’s friends is attacked by a turncoat who was badly injured in the collateral damage from a previous heroic mission.

Chris may be young, but he has a self-loathing attitude. His imaginary nemesis having valid reasons for hating Captain Spirit is an inward reflection. The name “Mantroid” is a combination of the names of street corner where his mother died in a car crash.

After playing, the player is forced to clean up the house, ridding the kitchen of beer cans and cigarette butts while his father watches a basketball game on television. While cleaning, evidence about Chris’ life is dropped.

The house is littered with old pictures of his dad, a former college basketball player, and awards from his mother, a talented cartoonist, columnist and artist. His dad is heartbroken, his mother’s things untouched since her death.

Chris blames himself for his mother’s death, which comes to a head later after he wakes up his father. Drunk and angry, his father lashes out, threatening to hit an already bruised Chris, and telling him his mother’s death is his fault.

“The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit’s” story is heavy and difficult to stomach, but technologically has improved greatly over “Life is Strange” and “Before the Storm.” Characters movement feels fluid, and despite the restrictive nature of a narrative based adventure game, enough objects are able to be interacted with that players will not be bored of the game before its over. The voice acting is top notch, and character facial expressions help move the story along where words cannot.

“The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit” is available on Steam, the Playstation Store, and the XBox Marketplace.