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Community Playthrough #47 - Life is Strange

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...and finally! My choices:

Refused Chloe’s request
Stopped Warren from beating up Nathan
No one got hurt (on confronting Frank)
Victoria believed my warning

...which are exactly the same as you guys I think!

Obviously I love all of this game, but I think episodes 3 and 4 are especially brilliant. The game just leaves you reeling from it all, the twists and turns are big enough to justify the time mechanic without simply reverting to a chaos theory style ‘you changed one thing and now there’s been a nuclear apocalypse’.

Many people have said before (including me) that a game doesn’t have to be AAA quality in the looks or animations departments etc. to be great. But I think this game honestly benefits from being AAA budget stuff, the amount of detail, the teenagers around the place doing vaguely teenager-y things, the dancing at the party, the licensed music… I’m not saying the game would be no good without them, but I do honestly think it would be not as good.

     

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Yes, I do love be an AAA game. However, plot and characters still mean a lot and some of the indies have plot and characters in spades.

Usually, the games with lower production values cost less money also.

This game cost more than your typical Indy and I didn’t mind paying the extra cost one bit. The game is beautiful and it plays like a dream.

I hope we see many more AAA adventure games like this one, to me they are easily worth the extra cost.

I recall there once was a time when only AAA games with big price tags were the norm - $79.95 and up. Those days are thankfully over.

You should have spisode 4 finished by tomorrow - July 11th.

Lastly, let’s shoot for finishing the 5th and final episode of this game by July 25th. We can discuss the end of the game after that. This gives people still working on previous episodes time to catch up.

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Intense Degree - 09 July 2018 05:23 AM

She chooses to put it back I think because William dying was not her fault and although she has now found she can prevent it, that causes serious physical harm to Chloe. To leave things as they have become, she has to choose to physically hurt her friend to try and stop her hurting in another way. Max can’t live with so (apparently) directly causing pain and therefore things must go back.

Interesting observation.


Spoilers for episode 5!  (I keep it vague, but personally I don’t like hearing anything about future events that I haven’t seen yet, so I’m putting it in spoilers anyway)
This has very interesting implications for things going forward.  I’ve had almost these exact same thoughts on another choice that comes later.  I’m curious about what you’re going to choose then, since you’re already thinking along these lines.  It’s possible that you’re already laying the groundwork for why you’re going to make that choice though. Smile 

     
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Mikekelly - 09 July 2018 09:33 PM

Yes, I do love be an AAA game. However, plot and characters still mean a lot and some of the indies have plot and characters in spades.

Oh I definitely agree, it’s those things that really make a game and pretty graphics would never cut it alone, but in this case I honestly think the AAA stuff enhances what is there in a very material way.

Detective Mosely - 10 July 2018 04:16 AM

Interesting observation… <spoilers for episode 5>...

Oooh, I think I see where you’re going there?! It’s interesting because we (as the player) don’t get the choice of which reality we choose for Chloe, that is down to Max. So for all my talk of ‘my Max’, here is one point at least where Max herself (or dontnod) is (are) showing her true colours.

I won’t say anything about ep. 5 at the moment except that I think some of the choices there do come down to ‘least harm’ rather than ‘most good’.

     

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I’ve now finished the game!

Episode 5 was my least favourite & if the 1st episode had consisted of so much similar frustrating (to me) ‘game-play’ I probably wouldn’t have continued with the game.
As it is I initially abandoned it after repeated attempts failing to get through the gallery in Max’s nightmare, which I found extremely tedious! & watched the remainder of the game on You Tube.
But, I did have another go & managed eventually to get through & complete the game myself!

My thought about this last chapter was that it was quite exciting to start with & was interesting enough up until the nightmare sequence.

I did find the part in the ‘dark room’ when David arrived a little frustrating & I didn’t do much to save people en route to the diner as wandering around the environment gave me motion sickness. I did though try to save the fisherman after I electrocuted him but had forgotten that Max would remain where she was after rewinding time. (Poor man!)

For me the game took a dive with the nightmare sequence not just because of the incredibly frustrating stealth sequence but also because it was overly prolonged & very repetitive, therefore tedious, & seemed unnecessarily padded-out along with the long walk to the lighthouse past the scenes with Chloe
although by then I was relieved not to be creeping around! I did appreciate the scene in the diner where Max was questioning her motives 
For me the game picked up again towards the end when Max had to make a choice. This may have been even more difficult than choosing to meet Chloe’s request in episode 4 except that Chloe herself knew what the right choice was & at that point displayed a totally selfless side to her. As touching as the exchange between the two girls was & as painful as I felt it was for Max I chose that she sacrifice Chloe. It would have felt like a very selfish choice on Max’s part to save her at the expense of the many people in Arcadia who would otherwise die & it’s not as if Max actually kills her.

The conclusion was obviously very sad but it seemed a pity that Max no longer had the photos of Chloe & herself as memories as they all seemed to disappear.

Despite some of my misgivings about the gameplay in places & in this 5th episode in particular I thought the story overall was excellent!  Thumbs Up   

My ‘choices’? (some of them weren’t deliberate!):
I sacrificed Chloe 
David didn’t get a scar
David didn’t kill Jefferson
Saved the trucker
Didn’t Save Evan
Didn’t save Alyssa
Didn’t save the fisherman
Didn’t change Joyce’s mind about David
Didn’t tell the truth about Rachel to Frank
Hugged Warren

Incidentally there is a convincing but fake 3rd ending on You Tube where Chloe & Arcadia are both saved. The person who created it also added some info, again fake, right at the very end about what some of the characters go on to do - this seemed like a nice touch to maybe have included in the real game although I think the ending already satisfies! Maybe though we’ll find out more in LiS 2? 

     
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Yes, episode 5 was my least favorite too, however some of the endings are pretty good. I also had quite of difficulty was some of the gameplay elelments.

Overall, a great game that has the advantage of making choices that do indeed give you different endings.

I am playing Before the Storm now and it is also fun, but so far I would have to say the game is best played by raving fans of the first.

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I’m off on holiday on Saturday so have slightly rushed chapter 5 to get things in.

Having said that, I still have far too much to say, not least because I have some pretty mixed feelings about this episode. OK, let’s do this:

Episode 5



I don’t understand why the nice calm acoustic guitar still plays underneath the storm. We can see now the huge tornado bearing down on arcadia bay. Lightning forks, the wind howls, the lighthouse still throws out its beam.

We slowly come to as Max in the Dark room. Was it really Mr Jefferson we saw leaning over us?

It’s a slightly funny feeling, this feels very much like ‘end game’. The villain has been unmasked and here we are in a confrontation with him, but we’re only at the beginning of the episode. Hmmm, how’s that going to work?

Despite whatever our intentions were in warning or not warning Victoria at the Vortex club party we find her here with us, drugged and helpless. Photos nearby appear to show that Mr Jefferson seems to have had his dirty way with us already – whatever that entailed. Max can’t remember.

This is the first time in the game when Max is trapped to the extent that she can’t even move around. The fact that we have a sort of over the shoulder or almost first person perspective of Max really helps with feeling that we’re tied to a chair. In so many traditional AG’s when we’re trapped, we are watching our third person character be trapped and can see all around them, much more than they can. Here it feels more vital and constraining somehow and it’s a lot better for it in my opinion.

Anyway, a photo beckons and we’re going to find out, for better or worse, exactly what Jefferson is all about.

Then we get ‘past-ception’, the past within the past. We’re really on rails for this section, and with a simple text message together with handing over a photo, Max seems to have sorted everything out! Have we got the ‘good ending’ already?!

     

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A New Reality?

Waking up on a plane, Max has won the competition, Chloe is alive and Mr Jefferson has been arrested. Who knew time travel is that simple!

But wait… a closer inspection of the newspaper in the aeroplane shows not only the result of the Madson v Jefferson incident, but another article about two moons being seen in the sky. Hmmm, why are the weird natural phenomena still occurring? It can’t be coincidence surely… Looking out of the window Max tells us we’re in between realities. Uh… in between which realities? A nosebleed and some more weird picture metamorphosing later and we’re at the gallery, back with shy Max. - Perhaps that’s unfair, old Max wouldn’t even have made it onto the plane, let alone into the gallery.

It’s not too long before Max’s nose is starting to bleed and we’re getting tornado visions.

So what is happening? Is Max’s power simply not strong enough to maintain this reality? Or is there yet another problem we haven’t solved?

We’re back in the classroom and after all we have done ‘Chloe comes first’. Our photo is destroyed. But then we’re back in the darkroom? MY HEAD ASPLODE.

This time the diary is destroyed along with its photos and there seems to be no way out for Max. However, David comes to the rescue and after some almost David Cage style trial and error (although thankfully not QTEs) we have him subdued.

Confession time: I didn’t tell him Chloe is dead. My natural instinct is to tell him, even if I am going to try and have Max fix it, but this is the one occasion in the game where I consciously make a choice based on what I know will be a better outcome in the game, rather than what I feel, or what I feel Max might feel. I know, I’m a total sell out! Wink

Then we’re phoning Warren to get another photo and driving back into town. A voicemail flashes up and it’s an apparently repentant Nathan with a warning for Max, knowing that Jefferson is coming for both of them.

We get as near to the diner as we can and are confronted by near devastation. Buildings and vehicles everywhere, fires burning, rain pounding, and still we haven’t got to the worst of it!

On route to the diner we have a few opportunities to help people, one even involving a sort of puzzle! Bearing in mind we’re trying to change things again with Warren’s photo you could say why not just leave these guys to get killed and rewind will sort them out? My Max isn’t having any of that, if there are people there to be helped she is ready for it.

Into the diner, a hug for Warren (get back in that friendzone Warren!) Then we’re back through the picture to the Vortex club party. More chat with Chloe… more changes… seriously I am actually having trouble trying to work out what has and hasn’t happened now in this game. Reality may well be falling apart, but I don’t know because I’m not even sure what it is!

     

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Unwelcome stealth and a boring broken reality

We’re back on the beach with an emotional Chloe… no we’re in the classroom with Mr Jefferson… what are we seeing? Max’s subconscious? Her replies to Jefferson in the classroom are sick, is this a part of Max, or is this Jefferson’s influence?

Now we have Kate crying in the corridor. Are these Max’s own doubts realised visually? Then costume changes and a sort of which door puzzle, followed by the school corridor in reverse? There is a rather wonderful photo related puzzle here that is very easy to miss!

After that we get a thoroughly unwelcome stealth sequence. Does it represent Max hiding from something, inner thoughts, feelings or fears? Who cares, dontnod are getting off the rails now, this is not good. We are creeping around for no reason other than padding and to give poor chrissie more motion sickness. Wink This really is trying too hard to do something ‘weird but cool’ which only gets as far as ‘dull’ for me.

And then we’re hunting for bottles again. Pan  Pan  Pan 
I don’t care if you do a little half humorous nod ‘oh no not this again’ dontnod, just don’t do the boring filler twice, or preferably not even once.

It’s pretty clear that dontnod are going for a surreal, David Lynch type feel. In fact there are nods to Twin Peaks throughout the game. However, for me it misses here by a long way. Despite some surface similarities I don’t think this game is like Twin Peaks, or if it is, then only a very pale imitation.

We’re in a snowglobe and then back in the darkroom while Max is ‘tormented’ by constantly being told that she let everyone down and Daddy doesn’t love her any more. And me? I’m getting bored. Where has the game gone, where is the story I love? If reality is messed up then do it quickly dontnod, don’t make me sit through ages of this banal nonsense.

Then, from nowhere, a little oasis of gameplay! We’re in a bathroom and there’s a puzzle. One I quite like actually and I’m back in the game. But not for long…

[spoiler]We walk (run for me) through a blow by blow account of what’s happened so far. I get the feeling that this could have been effective and meaningful, but I’m already so bored by dontnod’s failed attempt at surrealism and emotional weight that I’m out of the game and I don’t really care.[/spoiler]

     

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Endgame

Then, we really are back in the game at the lighthouse. Just like in all the tacky and poorly written games/books/shows/films ever that last bit was ‘all just a dream…’

But then we get to make the final choice… somehow, standing there beside the lighthouse on the top of the cliff with Max and Chloe, the rubbish bits are forgotten and I’m back with the story. And of course, there is only one answer.

For my Max anyway.

[spoiler]And then dontnod are straight back on form. It’s another achingly well done scene in the bathroom as Chloe is killed. Max wears a doe necklace with her black dress for the funeral, the music builds as funeral goers approach and reaches an apex when we see Chloe’s coffin. As rites are performed a blue butterfly flutters down and lands on the coffin… Yes, that’s how you do it dontnod, you’ve remembered![/spoiler]

So was all this about Chloe?! I’ve had such a great time experiencing life with Max, but ultimately was she just a part of the last week of Chloe Price? (That does sound slightly like Twin Peaks I’ll grant, but in reverse).

The mind boggles how dontnod can be so accomplished in pretty much every area of the game for 95% of it and then put that ridiculous stealth/surreal part slap bang in the middle of this episode. This is still one of my favourite games of all time (as I suspect has been apparent) but it is a shame that episode 5 falls short of the quality of the others.

[spoiler]I think, to some extent, dontnod cooked their own goose by having the ‘big reveal’ and showdown at the end of episode 4/beginning of episode 5. It’s amazing from an episode 4 cliffhanger perspective but leaves a question. What do you do with episode 5? Unfortunately, the good stuff left is stuffed with filler that just does not hit any of its marks (so unlike the rest of the game). [/spoiler]

I still love you dontnod, but next time just have a 1hr final episode rather than extend it out unnecessarily.

     

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chrissie - 14 July 2018 02:29 PM

For me the game took a dive with the nightmare sequence not just because of the incredibly frustrating stealth sequence but also because it was overly prolonged & very repetitive, therefore tedious, & seemed unnecessarily padded-out along with the long walk to the lighthouse past the scenes with Chloe
although by then I was relieved not to be creeping around! I did appreciate the scene in the diner where Max was questioning her motives 
For me the game picked up again towards the end when Max had to make a choice.

Absolutely, and put much more succinctly than I managed!  Laughing

     

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Intense Degree - 19 July 2018 10:41 AM

Despite whatever our intentions were in warning or not warning Victoria at the Vortex club party we find her here with us, drugged and helpless.

Actually, if you don’t warn Victoria, or she doesn’t believe you, she doesn’t end up there.  It’s because you made her concerned about Nathan that she goes to Jefferson for help.

     
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So I had pretty different feelings about episode 5 than you guys did.  Although I do agree that it’s definitely not as good as episodes 3 and 4, I preferred it to the majority of episode 2 at the very least.  Possibly the first as well, but it may not be fair to compare them from an emotional impact standpoint, since the first episode naturally had to introduce a lot of different plot points and all that.  But for sure there’s nothing as bad as the entire garbage dump section of episode 2 in this one.

I felt most of the scenes in the bunker and during the nightmare sequence were pretty well handled.  The latter is definitely going for a Twin Peaks-style version of what Max’s personal hell would be like, and that kind of surrealism is really hard to pull off (Twin Peaks itself failed at times when Lynch wasn’t at the helm).  For a video game it’s probably the best I’ve ever seen it done.

My problem is more with the other stuff.  The whole section with trying to save people during the storm really drags for me, at a time when the story really needs to be pressing forward.  The art gallery section also has this to a lesser extent.

[spoiler]Completely ignoring where Max’s powers came from, and boiling the entire series down to a binary, predictable, and cliched choice are also major weak points.

[spoiler]Personally I chose to save Chloe, in large part because I just find that to be the much more interesting place for the story to go.  Sacrificing someone you love or yourself to right the mess you’ve made in messing with time is basically the most cliched possible place you can go with a story involving time travel.

Also there was no guarantee that doing so would do anything at all to stop the storm.  She’d still messed with time immensely.  Hell, her only going back and changing only one thing was how she got to the art gallery timeline where the storm still came.

     
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I gotta say I personally never understood why the stealth sequence in episode 5 bothers people as much as it does. It’s definitely not good. But honestly, it’s easy enough that it’s basically inconsequential. Any time you get caught you can immediately rewind and continuing progressing. There’s nothing stopping you from cheesing it and basically rewinding your entire way through the level.

The bottle hunt is crap but you don’t have to do it. It’s just for an optional photograph. I guess if you’re a completionist that really sucks.

The real bummer of the 5th episode, imo, is that one ending is basically a 10 second cut-scene that gives no closure or perspective to the events of the game.

It’s a flaw that’s easy to ignore in my case because I never chose that ending but for people who did it’s a very lackluster conclusion.

     
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Detective Mosely - 19 July 2018 07:50 PM


Personally I chose to save Chloe, in large part because I just find that to be the much more interesting place for the story to go.  Sacrificing someone you love or yourself to right the mess you’ve made in messing with time is basically the most cliched possible place you can go with a story involving time travel.

Also there was no guarantee that doing so would do anything at all to stop the storm.  She’d still messed with time immensely.  Hell, her only going back and changing only one thing was how she got to the art gallery timeline where the storm still came.

We get to understand that Max using her ability is causing the storm so it seems logical that if she goes back & doesn’t change anything everything ‘resets’?. The only flaw I can see is that Max should have rewound back to the beginning in the classroom rather than in the bathroom ....or maybe a few minor things were inconsequential & it was just major stuff like preventing someone’s death that mattered?

Intense Degree - 19 July 2018 10:57 AM


And then we’re hunting for bottles again. Pan  Pan  Pan 
I don’t care if you do a little half humorous nod ‘oh no not this again’ dontnod, just don’t do the boring filler twice, or preferably not even once.

Luckily, I managed to miss doing that!

PlanetX - 21 July 2018 10:00 AM

I gotta say I personally never understood why the stealth sequence in episode 5 bothers people as much as it does. It’s definitely not good. But honestly, it’s easy enough that it’s basically inconsequential. Any time you get caught you can immediately rewind and continuing progressing. There’s nothing stopping you from cheesing it and basically rewinding your entire way through the level.

Once you’ve got through the gallery part, yes, the following stealth sequences are more straightforward but still a pita for anyone like myself who just doesn’t like this kind of gameplay. 

The problem is getting though the gallery part because once you’ve got to the end of it you come across invisible barriers & unless you know what to do it is not obvious otherwise. It’s only after watching a couple of YT walkthroughs that I realised that you have to time a move in order to be behind Jefferson to see the path ahead lit up by his torch before you can go in that direction.

As for the rewinding - there’s a fine line I think between the feature being part of the story & being used merely as a substitute for reloading a game. 

The last episode aside, my thoughts on it much the same as Intense Degree’, I’ve very much enjoyed this playthrough & glad I finally played the game. Thanks for your comments guys - it was interesting reading! Thumbs Up

Thanks also to Mikekelly for setting up the playthrough thread.
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