(Beware of spoilers for anyone who has not played all 5 of the episodes. You have been warned!)
A gripping and satisfying conclusion to the popular gaming series known as Life Is Strange. From the very beginning, I was completely captivated by the story and the characters shown in the episodes. Poor Max Caulfield has seen the worst of what Arcadia Bay has to offer and has come out at the end with a satisfying conclusion to herself and for those she surrounds herself with.
So lets do a quick recap as to how we got from point A, episode 1, to point B, episode 5. The most obvious thing we notice at the beginning, even before Max gets her powers, is the fact that Rachel Amber has been missing for months and as we walk through the corridor after Jefferson's class, her poster is on the double doors for all of us to see and interact with. So we all know Rachel is missing. (Great, one thing down.) As time goes on we soon discover that Chloe and Rachel were really close while Max was away for 5 years and that Chloe is the one looking for her and is putting up the missing person posters. Once episode 1 ends, we all have many questions, one of which, 'Where is Rachel Amber and what is the significance?'. Episode 4 gives us part 1 of the answer to the question: Rachel Amber is dead.
Chloe and Max follow all the clues and information they collected in episodes 1, 2 and 3, and this leads them to the place where the Dark Room is hidden. They go down into the room and find Rachel's photos. They then head to the junkyard and discover Rachel's body. So we know that she is gone but then we get to the second part of the question: "What is the significance?" That's when episode 5 comes in...
Max gets captured by Jefferson and then has to sit there while he takes photos of her and say why he is doing this. Mr Jefferson is a passionate artist who has taken that step from passion to obsession. He talks about how the "impure" models who approach him, don't have that purity that young, unsuspecting girls do. He explains how he likes to capture the image at the height of their innocence and Jefferson believes that particular moment can only be captured when the person is fading in and out of consciousness.
Max soon notices that some photos of herself from a few moments before in the Dark Room are on a table in front of her. She uses her powers and travels backwards to that moment when Jefferson is taking his "best photos". This wasn't the place Max wanted to be and she ends up passing out completely and ending up where she started before. Max finally asks what happened to Rachel Amber. Jefferson explains that he took Nathan Prescott under his wing and became a father figure to him. Nathan wanted to be Mark so much that he started trying to do his own "Dark Room Sessions" by purchasing drugs from Frank, to then finding girls and drugging them, to then taking their photos. Mark explains that Nathan first tried his luck with Rachel Amber but then accidentally gave her an overdose, consequently killing her. Then again with Chloe but she got away, thus leading to the confrontation in the bathroom. (Phew, that's a lot of information but bear with me.)
So, for me, mind officially blown but there was still some questions left unanswered. Rachel Amber's disappearance was like a little side quest for Max when really that was Chloe's main quest. Max was really heading towards stopping the tornado. But, due to something Max did in the past, the tornado happens anyway. Max knows she has to bust Nathan and Mark somewhere back in time. So she finds the selfie that she took in Jefferson's class, all the way back in episode 1. She changes and few things but every time she thinks she has fixed it, the tornado happens.
After some crazy time jumps and a weird dream sequence, she decides to just weather out the storm with Chloe at the lighthouse. But Max watches as the tornado nears Acadia Bay and then says "I caused this! All of this! This is my storm!" Chloe tries to calm Max down but it doesn't work. Chloe then reveals the Butterfly Photo that Max took moments before she discovered that she could rewind time. Chloe then says "You could use that photo, to go back and fix everything. All you would have to do is let me..." Max, teary eyed, shouts "Fuck that! You're my number 1 priority and I won't trade you!" Chloe than says that she isn't being traded and that Max has just been avoiding their fate and that Max is the only one who can make this choice.
You are then given the series final choice: sacrifice Chloe or sacrifice Arcadia Bay? Me being the heart-wrenching person I was at the time of my first play through, I chose to sacrifice Arcadia Bay. (Bad Ending. For argument sake, compared to the other ending, this one is the bad one) Chloe and Max embrace as the tornado smashes into Acadia Bay and then once the storm settles, Max and Chloe drive off into the sunset.
So, in my opinion, this isn't the best ending although it is what I would have wanted to see Max and Chloe do because after everything you have witnessed them experience as best friends, it is the most heart breaking thing to force them to them separate forever. But when you look at the bigger picture, letting Chloe go is the right thing to do.
When you choose to let Chloe go, depending on your choices, Max and Chloe will have a teary goodbye or they will KISS and then have a teary goodbye. So that proves another question we all had which was whether Max was in love with Chloe and it completely depends on your choices and whether you did everything to benefit Chloe e.g. taking Chloe's side in the fight with David etc. But whatever you choose, you will have to endure this absolutely crushing goodbye between best friends.
Max then uses the Butterfly Photo to travel back and then just sit there while everything happens. Through the entire series, Max has told herself and has been told that she is 'Super Max' but the first heroic thing she set out to do is now becoming the most cowardly thing she had to do. She is forced to sit there and face reality and her true fate. When she finally hears the gunshot, she completely breaks down and just curls up in a corner. We then see the future change...
Due to shooting Chloe, Nathan is arrested immediately by David and then interrogated. This leads to Jefferson's arrest and all the bad things that happened before, didn't happen this time. Just like in episode 3 when Max changes the future and sees all the polaroids change to something else, we get to see that again but we see all the moments that Chloe and Max shared together, get burned away and changed to something else. With each change, you feel the crushing emotion of the change. After that is finished, we skip forward to the present time where Max is about to attend Chloe's funeral which just adds to all the emotion but you can't help but feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction because Chloe wanted Max to get justice for Rachel and all the other victims of Nathan and Mark Jefferson and she did, not only that, Max also stopped the tornado from killing loads of people in Arcadia Bay. The final scene is of Max looking at Chloe's coffin as a Blue Butterfly lands on the lid and rests, Max smiles to herself and then the credits roll...
Wow, this entire series has been so emotional but also so amazing. I tried to anticipate how the series would end but honestly, even will all the theories, I still couldn't of guessed how the final episode would play out. I think the creators have done a phenomenal job with keeping the story interesting, entertaining and mind blowing since day 1! I think a lot of players knew that Chloe would have to die but I think the developers may have done this on purpose because it means throughout the entire game they might build this false hope that they could possibly save Chloe and also stop the tornado but unfortunately, it's either one or the other.
Overall, I am really sad to see this series end and I hope we see more games like this in 2016 but I know that they will struggle to top this game due to its uniqueness and general high quality.
I've had a really good time playing and reviewing the episodes and I hope you enjoyed this final episode review for Life Is Strange.
Happy Gaming Everyone!
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