March Community Playthrough - Life is Strange

[Fleach]

The final episode is, for lack of a better word, interesting. It feels like the story just wanted to get to the conclusion because everything else was done. We uncovered the mystery of the town and we formed our thoughts on the rewind power so there wasn't much else to do.

I agree that the stealth bit was corny and pretty ineffective because you could rewind the people looking for you, but the scene where Max remembers Chloe was a great way to prepare players for the final decision. Gotta save some thoughts for the recording.

[Pam]

Alright, month's over. Here come my spoiler-filled ending thoughts.

First, the end of chapter 4 was kind of jarring. I was not expecting to spend a lot of time in this game tied to a chair in a bunker. Took a bit of a disturbing turn...

Though I really didn't like that stealth dream sequence, I did really enjoy running through the different memories of Chloe. Those kind of scenes are very effective. They did something similar in Fallout 4 and it was one of the few story parts of the game that worked for me.

In the end, I sacrificed Chloe to save the town. It did seem kind of counter to what I had been doing the entire game, but at the same time... how many times did I have to save her? A dozen? Maybe she just wasn't meant to be around anymore. I kept thinking that even if I chose to let everyone in the town die, there was a good chance that Chloe would end up in danger yet again. And what if Max's powers go away? Then EVERYONE is dead for no reason.

I'm interested to know what everyone else did.

[singlebanana]

Ha ha!  Pam, I know you were dying to get all of that out.

First, I want to thank everyone who played this month. This was probably the best discussion we had on our threads for a game and I think that the narrative of Life is Strange is so thought-provoking, that it lends itself well to discussion.  Great month all and I hope we see some of you around in May for Y's. Our game announcement for May is coming out on the 10th of this month, so keep your eyes on the front page. 

Pam, I too chose to sacrifice Chloe.  I didn't find this decision hard, since her life was put in danger so many times throughout the game and I just considered that to make things right, she had to die.  This was her fate and there was nothing I could do to stop it. If I saved her now, she would just end up getting into another situation where she would die later.  I took the utilitarian approach with this decision and I think Immanuel Kant would have been proud (just a little something for you philosophy majors with degrees as worthless as mine in English).

The most difficult decision for me in the game was not the one at the end, but instead, the decision to end Chloe's life in the future past.  I was shocked to see how many people had chosen to help her end her life when the end of chapter statistics rolled out.  I don't know, but this was probably the point where I got caught up in the game the most. I played it like Chloe being someone I loved, like that was my wife in that situation.  I wouldn't have a problem with her wishes if she were in a similar situation and wanted to die, but I couldn't be the one to directly assist in the process.  That was a really strong moment in the game, and probably one of my favorites.

HOLY CRAP!  There was so much of Catcher in the Rye imbedded into this story and I cannot wait to talk about this in length during the podcast. There were some subtle allusions to the book throughout, but there were some themes and theories from the book that really came out in that last chapter.  Whew! Heavy.

[BuriedOnMars]

Finally!  We speak the ending!

Well first, I though Mr. Jefferson being the real killer was very lame.  The lowest point in the game for me was when he began explaining his evil plan to Max like a Bond villain. Lower than bottle collecting.  Cheap and lazy writing I'd expect from a daytime soap.  I could go on.

With that said, I enjoyed the ending a lot.  The inevitability of an coming storm that even the power to reverse time can't stop.   I thought it was a great metaphor for life.  Max has an amazing ability to reverse time and uses it to save Chole for a while, but there is a repercussion for her action.  And once she fully grasps what that repercussion is, it decision time.  I picked saving the town for the same reasons singlebanana did.  

Overall, there are some bumps in the road but I think the journey was well worth it. I liked how Max evolved and her coming-of-age character arc was nicely done, IMHO.  It's a very polarizing game.  After finishing the game I check out a lot of articles and blogs on the ending. Seems like there are many interpretations of it.  I read one where the author thought it was terrible and its message of “You should do nothing if you want to stop global warming” was wrong.  Where do you get that from?

Anyway, looking forward to the discussion on the podcast.

[singlebanana]

Thanks for the thoughts and for playing along with us BuriedOnMars. It's great having some of you Cartridge Club members over here on the site and enjoying games with us.

[Fleach]

BuriedOnMars, Banana, Pam, you're all monsters!

[BuriedOnMars]

Thanks banana.  I'd play Y's with you guys but I'm doing this 1 console challenge thing and they're not on the Xbone.  Next year I should be available for more games.

Fleach, as any good Trekie knows: The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few... or the one.

[JRock the GameRocker]

I completed it last week and have FAILED to come over here to say I ended up enjoying it a lot more than when I initially started. I started a little late in the month so I avoided reading too far ahead in the forums and thus I didn't keep up with posting my thoughts as I went along. Now I got a lot of reading to do!

[Fleach]

Fleach, as any good Trekie knows: The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few... or the one.

You're right. It's really a question of what you value most: your need for friendship and belonging, or the greater good and righting your wrongs.

I completed it last week and have FAILED to come over here to say I ended up enjoying it a lot more than when I initially started. I started a little late in the month so I avoided reading too far ahead in the forums and thus I didn't keep up with posting my thoughts as I went along. Now I got a lot of reading to do!

Awesome to see that you're done. Can't wait to hear your thoughts.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Ha ha!  Pam, I know you were dying to get all of that out.

First, I want to thank everyone who played this month. This was probably the best discussion we had on our threads for a game and I think that the narrative of Life is Strange is so thought-provoking, that it lends itself well to discussion.  Great month all and I hope we see some of you around in May for Y's. Our game announcement for May is coming out on the 10th of this month, so keep your eyes on the front page. 

Pam, I too chose to sacrifice Chloe.  I didn't find this decision hard, since her life was put in danger so many times throughout the game and I just considered that to make things right, she had to die.  This was her fate and there was nothing I could do to stop it. If I saved her now, she would just end up getting into another situation where she would die later.  I took the utilitarian approach with this decision and I think Immanuel Kant would have been proud (just a little something for you philosophy majors with degrees as worthless as mine in English).

The most difficult decision for me in the game was not the one at the end, but instead, the decision to end Chloe's life in the future past.  I was shocked to see how many people had chosen to help her end her life when the end of chapter statistics rolled out.  I don't know, but this was probably the point where I got caught up in the game the most. I played it like Chloe being someone I loved, like that was my wife in that situation.  I wouldn't have a problem with her wishes if she were in a similar situation and wanted to die, but I couldn't be the one to directly assist in the process.  That was a really strong moment in the game, and probably one of my favorites.

HOLY CRAP!  There was so much of Catcher in the Rye imbedded into this story and I cannot wait to talk about this in length during the podcast. There were some subtle allusions to the book throughout, but there were some themes and theories from the book that really came out in that last chapter.  Whew! Heavy.

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only person that saw allusions to literary classics in this, for as little as I played it.
Since we're spoiler free now, I wanted to post up this story about the lead writer for Life is Strange, and how it originally evolved from the mechanics for Remember Me, another DONTNOD title:
https://www.reddit.com/r/...no_talks_life_is_strange/

[Crabmaster2000]

I think I'm done playing now. Last time i played I got to the part where you rewind time to when Warren took your picture at the party. I sat down to put some time in on Saturday and finish it off and after I put the disc in I saw Mega Man Legacy Collection calling to me. I am so dis-interested in the story at this point that I ended up playing a couple hours of challenges on Mega Man instead. The first two chapters had me hooked and since the 3rd one I just lost interest badly each chapter afterwards. Im not even sure I want to YouTube the ending at this point :/

[singlebanana]

There are definitely some parts that drag Crabby, but I still think that it's a game worth finishing.

[Fleach]

I can understand being tempted by something like the Mega Man Collection, but what didn't work for you with Life is Strange?

[Crabmaster2000]

I can understand being tempted by something like the Mega Man Collection, but what didn't work for you with Life is Strange?

I liked how decision based the game was during the first two chapters. Really felt like I got this play as I felt Max would behave. From chapter 3 on I felt like I was just watching a cartoon with the occasional quick time event. I don't think I would have had much of an issue with that if it was that way from the start. I had a good feeling for Max and how she would react to certain situations and then they just pulled that feature away from me completely and had me do what they wanted me to do, which wasn't always in line with what I would have done.

It really made me feel helpless and unimportant as the player, which had me go from optimistic to uninterested. It also became pretty clear that nearly all early decisions had pretty much no impact on the game itself.

[Fleach]

This is where Life is Strange is different from Telltale Games' story-driven games. Your choices don't have a huge impact on game events because Max is always struggling with making decisions. This game is in fact quite linear and the only big choice moments comes at the end where you decide how your interpretation of Max would act. Maybe it better to look at this game similarly to Alan Wake but with dialogue options.

But I totally understand where you're coming from. You make a very valid argument.