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5 best moments in Life is Strange
With the final episode out today, we celebrate the series most memorable moments so far.
With over one million downloads fron the PlayStation store, Life is Strange has been one of 2015's biggest sleeper hits. The interactive graphic adventure centres on the time altering capabilities of Max Caulfield alongside her punk spirited best friend Chloe Price. Together they must get to the bottom of sinister goings on at Arcadia Bay’s Blackwell Academy before the world ends.
As the final episode is released, we count down the top five moments of a story that's proving to be as life-affirming as it is dark. Warning: contains spoilers
1. Just Chillin' (Episode 1)
Life is Strange Episode 1
© Square Enix
One of the most engrossing aspects of Life is Strange is how accurately it transports the player, whatever their age, into the life and mindset of high school life. A world caught between superficial popularity and the adolescent search for self-identity and lasting friendship.
Central to this is the relationship between Max and Chloe, former best friends suddenly thrown back together after years apart. Following an emotional clearing-of-the-air moment, Chloe allows Max up to her room – now an extension of her rebellious, tortured personality.
It is here that Chloe decides to give the friendship another chance, playfully demanding Max “shake that bony white ass” and dance around the room with her to Sparklehorse’s Piano Fire, a song running the gamut of emotions from melancholy to hope.
It is the first of many touching moments demonstrating how well the game translates the subtlety of the relationship.
4. Raving (Episode 4)
Life is Strange Episode 4
© Square Enix
Life is Strange is one of the few games, Heavy Rain and The Sims aside, that encourages the player to act with emotive responsibility in strikingly real-world situations. The infamous Vortex Party is one of these, really capturing the knife edge atmosphere of hazy, out of control student parties - full of drink, drugs and claustrophobic body heat.
The brooding trap and dubstep beats that reverb around as you look to carry out your mission add a level of urgency, reflecting the popular underground sounds that dominate today’s frat parties. Stay focused and keep your wits about you.
3. Butterfly effect (Episode 3)
Life is Strange Episode 3
© Square Enix
Anyone who has seen Donnie Darko or The Butterfly Effect will immediately notice conceptual similarities with Life is Strange, but nothing can prepare you for the photo-hopping revelation Max discovers when looking at an old photo of her and Chloe. Suddenly, she’s transported to the moment the picture was taken. Snapped by Chloe’s father, William, on the day of his fatal car accident; you now have the chance to play god and alter his fate, all the while witnessing the personalities and interactions of Chloe and Max in their childhood.
It’s a mind bending moment that thrusts the game to deeper depths, but pales into insignificance when we are forced to explore the present day alternative reality…
2. All actions have consequences, even disability (Episode 4)
Life is Strange Episode 4
© Square Enix
The series in no stranger to twists, yet nothing can compare to the shock at finding the price for William’s life falls upon Chloe in the alternate reality, paralysed in her own car accident. A harsh lesson that the bigger the change, the greater the butterfly effect.
But it’s more than this fact alone. As a wheelchair user myself, I was amazed at how well the writers and developers approached disability and the trials and tribulations it brings. Playing as Max, you help Chloe to some water (at her request), and listen to her discuss the loss of dignity she feels. Friends have left her, Blackwell Academy refuse her on the grounds of having no wheelchair access, and her parents are struggling to pay the medical bills. Never before, has a medium so accurately involved its audience in what it’s really like to live with disability.
And then there’s the final sucker punch. After a night watching Blade Runner together, it becomes clear Chloe doesn’t have long left to live. As her closest friend, she begs you to help release the burden on her family by assisting her to die.
It’s a tough, emotive, decision given the awareness of the other reality, and a fine example of the game’s mature character.
1. Guardian angel (Episode 2)
Life is Strange Episode 2
© Square Enix
The first true indication of the game’s dark themes proves its most affecting to date. Max is given the chance to stop an unfairly shamed Kate Marsh (drugged at a party, with the subsequent antics filmed and posted online), from jumping off a rooftop. The loss of time altering powers at the crucial moment means you only have one chance to save Kate by choosing the correct responses. Paying genuine attention to her earlier in the game can make the difference here in showing you really care.
I managed to save her by responding as I would in real-life, using knowledge I had picked up about her family and upbringing. However, a moment’s lack of judgement can lead to very different, grave consequences.
Scenarios such as this could easily come off as cold and calculated, but the excellent writing makes it fit the game, and make the experience all the more impactful.
Life is Strange: Episode 5 is out now
