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The story so far in Life is Strange
What happened to Max, Chloe and Arcadia Bay? With multiple sequels on the way, we run down the story so far with our quick recap.
Video games have given us some wonderful characters and stories. From the innocent charm of Mario to the complexity of Solid Snake, and from the gravity of the situation facing Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us to the existential questions of System Shock, this medium has given us some special moments and individuals.
Few stories, however, can claim to have triggered so much emotion and lasting reverence as that delivered by Life is Strange. The story of Max Caulfield, her selfish-but-sensitive friend Chloe, their missing friend Rachel and the town of Arcadia Bay is one of the most powerful to have been delivered by a game this century.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm, announced at E3 2017, acts as a prequel to the story of Chloe and Max and promises to shed more light on how events came to be the way they eventually ended up. In advance of Before the Storm’s release, we’ve a round-up of the story told by Life is Strange, focusing on the key characters and how their, and your, choices impacted the story.
**SPOILER ALERT**
Mr Jefferson is the main antagonist
Where is Rachel? Is she dead? These are the questions that drive Life is Strange’s primary plot forwards. Different suspects potentially involved in Rachel’s disappearance come and go, but it’s never clear until the end of the game who's responsible. Nathan Prescott, a student at the Blackwell Academy that all of the teen cast attend, is the so-obvious-it-can’t-be-him culprit highlighted at the start of the game, but he's revealed to be lacking enough of a sense of purpose to act alone in anything he does.
It turns out that Mr Jefferson, photography teacher to protagonist Max Caulfield, is the real villain after all. He has a thing for kidnapping gifted art students, imprisoning them and capturing their image on camera before eventually disposing of them.
In one of the most shocking moments of Life Is Strange, the end of episode four sees Mr Jefferson shoot Max’s best friend, Chloe, in the head, killing her. Whether or not you eventually chose to use Max’s ability to rewind time to save Chloe is the decisive choice Life is Strange asks you to make.
Separating good guys from bad is not easy
© Square Enix
David redeems himself
Throughout the majority of Life is Strange, David Madsen is used as a negative force, one that Chloe and Max can easily and quickly bond over by mutual disdain and allow their friendship to flourish and strengthen. David is aggressive towards not only Chloe, his step daughter, but almost everyone around him, including his wife, Joyce, and the students he's supposed to be keeping safe in his role as security guard at Blackwell Academy.
Ultimately, however, it’s David who saves Max from Mr Jefferson. He confides in her that he's made mistakes in the past and that he could have done more to help his family and the students.
He might have been presented as callous, inconsiderate and emotionally stunted, but David is eventually revealed as someone prepared to risk his own life for the safety and betterment of others. In all likelihood, his rough exterior is a result of the time he spent in the army as opposed to any genuine dislike of humanity.
The message seems to be that someone’s actions don't always represent who they want to be and, sometimes, who they are inside. Only when the situation is critical is the real person revealed, for better or worse.
Rather than acting on his own, Nathan was used as a pawn
From episode one onwards it’s Nathan Prescott who is the most obvious candidate to have been involved in the disappearance of Rachel. Nathan is violent, a drug dealer and, most likely, mentally unwell. Thanks to the wealth and status of his family, however, his actions go unpunished.
Nathan may well have had a hand in the disappearance of Rachel, but it's Mr Jefferson who's been controlling his actions. Mr Jefferson seized on Nathan’s mental instability and lack of relationship with his parents and took him under his wing, acting as a comforting father figure and using Nathan as an assistant in the capture of students. If you decide to sacrifice Chloe, then time rewinds and it’s Nathan that kills her. If you decide to sacrifice the town, then Nathan dies at the hands of Mr Jefferson.
Save the town from the storm or save Chloe?
© Square Enix
Chloe is dead, or isn’t
The biggest direct decision you have to make as Max comes, fittingly, at the end: do you save Chloe and destroy the town of Arcadia Bay, or save Arcadia Bay and kill Chloe? There's no right or wrong, it’s up to you to decide what you feel is right – or, at least, how you'd like this story to end.
Your (and Max’s) choice about who to save and who to sacrifice is a classic moral decision regarding whether you're loyal to your emotions (save Chloe) or loyal to objective logic (save the majority).
Simply put, you can’t have everything your way. No matter what you choose you'll be left with a bittersweet result, the message being that in real life there are sacrifices and gains for every major choice you make.
Many games ask this kind of question of us, but few manage to lead us to their final moment via such a heady mix of sentiment and feeling for the characters, events and relationships concerned. It’s these elements, more than the final decision, that makes Life is Strange so special.
Max is a superhero
Whether you choose to save Chloe or sacrifice her for the sake of Arcadia Bay, Max ends her Life is Strange journey as a superhero of humanity. By the end of the game you realise that her mission isn't just to find out what happened to Rachel or help guide Chloe through a difficult time, but to shine a greater light on the fact that it’s the things in life that are easiest to take for granted that are often the most important.
Before the end Max is given the opportunity to revisit certain individuals throughout Arcadia Bay, the most meaningful of these vignettes being the chance to repair the relationship between David and Joyce. Despite all of the chaos happening around her, there’s not a moment in Life is Strange in which you feel more powerful than holding the key to bringing these two back together.
You might be able to rewind time, but bringing two people together reveals itself a more meaningful ability.
