*Author’s note: This ‘Retrospective’ series is going to be a lot of me rambling. I’m going to be looking back at some games I’ve played on this console generation, sharing some memories and talk about how the games made me feel.*
I’ll start this out by saying I LOVE LIFE IS STRANGE. I guess I’m yelling it. But yes, I’ll stand on my roof and yell it out for my clueless neighbors to hear, that’s how much I love it. I’d been a fan of DONTNOD since Remember Me, a game I still tell people to play if they still have a PS3 (or Steam).
There are games too, which I love, that I’ll revisit probably once a year. (Journey, What Remains of Edith Finch, the Uncharted series for example.) Life is Strange is not one of them, however. I recently started playing Max and Chloe’s adventure again on my Twitch channel and that got me to thinking – I haven’t opened it since probably 2017. THAT’S THREE YEARS!
Why? I think it’s because DONTNOD did such a good job with choices. And characters.
It’s almost Breakfast Club-esque. And that’s why I think it appealed to me so much, a child of John Hughes movies. You’re made to think Max is the ‘Brain,’ Chloe the ‘Criminal’ (or the ‘Basket Case’), Rachel and Victoria the ‘Princess,’ Nathan the ‘Athlete’ (but you can make the argument for ‘Basket Case’ again) at the beginning of the game. Like The Breakfast Club, DONTNOD manages to subvert all those stereotypes by the end of the series.
(Deck Nine’s Life is Strange: Before the Storm, does a fantastic job of turning Rachel Amber into her own character (rather than just hearing what others think of her), and giving us more insight to how Chloe became the way she is when we meet her in Life is Strange. It’s damn near perfect, in my opinion. But that’s another post for another day.)
What got me thinking about all of this was the end of Episode 2: Out of Time. Kate Marsh is my second-favorite game character (that you don’t end up playing as). It’s clear that she was roofied at a Vortex Party; you’ve spent enough time getting to know her that the actions in the video are not how she spends a normal Saturday night.
But, high schoolers are ruthless. As Out of Time begins, Kate’s barely hanging on. Everyone goes on about the choice at the end of Polarized (the final episode), but during my conversation with Kate at the beginning of Out of Time, I doubted everything. I rewound. Talked to her again. Rewound. I was NOT going to let her die.
And at the end of the episode? Well, here’s the clip from my Twitch stream. (You can hear my fan in the background when I talk – Sorry!)
Chaos Theory and Dark Room are really where the series shines in my opinion. The late-night antics at Blackwell? Gold. Chloe’s reaction when she finds out about Rachel and Frank? So genuine I almost forgot I was playing a video game. And Max using her powers to inadvertently create an alternate reality? It was such a great take on the dangers of messing with time.
The mystery of Rachel’s disappearance hits its climax in Dark Room and continues in Polarized, and again it’s where the series is at its best. I remember spending the previous episodes with still a glimmer of hope that Rachel would be alive; like Chloe, and to see her story conclude the way it did…
It just goes to show that sometimes, no matter the choices YOU make, life still doesn’t go your way.
DONTNOD has David, Chloe’s stepfather, subverting his stereotype (hard-nosed Army man who shows no emotions) in the last two episodes, and you learn that he does care for Chloe very much. Even though she’s not the greatest to him, but he’s understanding as to why. In Polarized, he can commit murder, but I couldn’t let him have that on his conscience.
All roads in Life is Strange lead back to the lighthouse where we first saw Max in Chrysalis, and it’s there where the next ultimate decision is made. For all the changing that Max was able to do, like getting Jefferson and Nathan both arrested, it was all for nothing in the end as the epic storm still made its way to Arcadia Bay.
Me? I thought about it a bit, but in the end I clicked that button to save the best friend that never really stopped being my best friend.