Ark of the Lost Angels

Max and Chloe, Life is Strange _{(Credit: Square Enix)}

The Life is Strange series is now ten years old.

The Life is Strange series is now officially ten years old. A few of the earliest posts on this website were for a college course where I played the original game for a course entitled “Video Games as Literature.” As part of that course, we played the original Life is Strange. Being a fan of Titanfall 2 with its infamous time travel mission “Effect and Cause” going into this, the idea of playing with time in a more relatable setting than a science-fiction military engagement intrigued me, doubly so with the puzzle aspects, and who among us doesn’t like a good mystery. When originally assigned this game for class, I didn’t anticipate it would end up being one of my favorite series of all time.

I think the first thing to hit me when I played the game was how well it captured the feeling of an American high school. This was especially impressive because the original series developers, Dontnod Entertainment, are French. Their information was gathered by research and witnessing secondhand. While this created some awkward inconsistencies (such as Blackwell Academy’s weird two-year arts program for seniors) the vibe of a typical fall in an American high school was created immaculately.

That is to say the game isn’t stylized. I think that its depiction of high school isn’t as much accurate to reality as it is accurate to the cultural idea we have thanks to countless movies, television shows, books, comics, and so on. A lot of its charm comes from its commitment to executing on the vision. A game built off the “mystery in a small town” which has been around about as long as fiction itself has to do something special to make it so memorable and enduring, and Life is Strange accomplished that through its charm.

The writing is filled with awkward attempts at writing teenagers and teenage slang, but that’s what makes it feel so real. Many of the characters are familiar archetypes, but I think that adds to the game’s atmosphere rather than taking away from it. Protagonist Max Caulfield’s journey from shy wallflower into someone who has an immense impact on the world around her is so familiar because it is so relatable. Likewise, her childhood best friend and partner in time, Chloe Price, being a teenager/young adult in a difficult place in life and grappling with grief that’s difficult to deal with.

The game also sucks the players in with an amazing art direction and soundtrack. The first time the player gets to control Max is as she leaves her photography class to Syd Matters’ “To All of You” on her headphones while the player walks Max through the school halls filled with all sorts of characters who will show up throughout the game, and allowing the player to observe these characters and other items around the school to hear Max’s thoughts on the world around them. In terms of establishing the mood, relating players to the protagonist, and foreshadowing how integral the music will be to this franchise’s identity as a whole, the first ten minutes of the game knocks it out of the park. It’s artful in its simplicity, and the intro to Life is Strange ranks up there with the best introductions in all of fiction.

A Run Through of the Plot

The spoilers are going to start here, so if you plan on playing the game, bookmark this article and come back to it when you’re done.  

The first game begins with Max making her way up to the lighthouse overlooking her hometown of Arcadia Bay, Oregon, while a massive storm rages over the water moving towards the town. She then wakes up in her photography class, taught by acclaimed photographer Mark Jefferson. After Jefferson’s class, Max heads down the halls of Blackwell Academy to the bathroom to splash some water on her face to try and process the troubling dream when a figure from her past shows up.

Chloe Price was Max’s childhood best friend. The pair grew up in Arcadia Bay together, but lost touch when Max moved away with her parents to Seattle shortly after Chloe’s father died in a car accident. Now, Chloe, sporting blue hair, is in a confrontation with Nathan Prescott, the heir to the rich and influential Prescott family. Nathan pulls a gun, it goes off killing Chloe. Max cries out, stretches her hand, and wakes back up in her photography class.

Max has now discovered that she has the ability to rewind time. After pulling the fire alarm before Chloe and Nathan can meet in the bathroom, Max finds herself confronted by Nathan in the parking lot, but Chloe pulls up in her (t)rusty old truck to save Max. The two share a heartfelt, but charged reunion, as Chloe explains to Max that she’s searching for her missing friend. In the wake of Max’s absence, Chloe struck up a friendship with Rachel Amber, an enigmatic woman who has a connection to just about everyone in town. Six months prior, Rachel disappeared.

Chloe and Max team up to find out what happened to Rachel using Max’s abilities and reconnect as friends (with the possibility of much more depending on the player choices), while meeting the interesting cast of characters populating Arcadia Bay. Along the way, Max comes to believe that by using her powers will cause the storm which ends up destroying the town, leading to a dramatic reveal that Mark Jefferson sexually abuses girls by drugging them and photographing them in a bunker paid for by Nathan Prescott using his family’s money, seeking to capture the moment these women lose their innocence. Rachel’s disappearance was due to Nathan overdosing her when trying to follow his mentor, Jefferson’s footsteps. Max is faced with a choice at the lighthouse: to let the storm destroy the town to save Chloe, or to sacrifice Chloe to save Arcadia Bay.

That final decision is determined by the player’s choice and leads to two different endings.

This Action Will Have Consequences

The nature of choice being such an important part of the game dovetails with the time travel mechanic quite nicely. Choice based games were no stranger to me, as Mass Effect is another of my favorite series. What I think that makes Life is Strange so special is that these are choices which hypothetically might befall someone in real life…to an extent. Maybe the amateur teen detective angle is a little out of reach for most people, but not in the same way as the galaxy-spanning, life-or-death, existential conflict of Mass Effect.

While discussing Bioshock Infinite, game director Ken Levine said that part of the team’s decisions behind the decisions players were faced with were not about the impact of those decisions on the narrative (because none of which impacted the narrative) but about the thought process behind making those decisions. Even for a game like Life is Strange, where most of those decisions to have minor impacts on the narrative and the last one has a very major impact, the same idea applies. Without characters being put into situations which give the player a pause in order to make those decisions, they have less of an impact.

In my first playthrough, there were certain choices that I made or situations that spiraled out of my control and I forgot about Max’s rewind ability. The core mechanic of the game dropped from my memory because I was so focused on the events that I would leave areas in shock, and then remember, “Oh crap! I can rewind time!” once it was too late. That kind of emotional response to a game puts you into the mindset of the characters reacting to that situation. The story captured me in such a way that I forgot the biggest gameplay and narrative hook of the whole game. It helped the verisimilitude greatly. I was forced to live with my decisions, much like reality. It’s the same sense that we all have to live with in our real lives, when we make a call we thought was the right one and it turns out we were mistaken or we could have handled it better. On the final decision to determine the ending, I sat and deliberated over it for about five minutes before picking my choice.

If the choices in the game did not have pros and cons, and went out of their way to express the gray of real decisions, I don’t think that Life is Strange would have been such an impactful experience. Much like life in general, it’s not always about a right or wrong decision, it’s about staying true to the decision made and learning to live with the consequences. As Alisha Karabinus said in an article for NYMG, “there’s no winning. There’s no losing. Everything simply is, based on the stories we’ve each built.” Especially when you have the opportunity to go back and pick different options before committing to a decision, it still teaches you to be deliberate when making a decision.

Max and Chloe

When I originally played the game, I ended up coming home after the class we discussed the first three episodes and played from about eleven that evening until around three in the morning to finish the game. Not only was I so enraptured by Max’s journey, her dynamic with Chloe, and this wonderful world that the developers created, but I was dying to uncover the mystery at the heart of the story and I needed to see how Max’s story would end.

I also think Max’s relatability helped make Life is Strange so moving and iconic. Max starts off the game shy, insecure, guilt-ridden, and struggling to find meaning. Very universal experiences, especially in high school. I’m a photographer myself, so Max’s love of photography, and the use of photographic symbolism and photography as a device (and an interesting collectible) added another layer to her character. While it was a calling Max was pursuing, she was still battling with the creative block in addition to photography representing how she observed and interacted with the world.

Music is core to the genetic makeup of the game. The music choices set the mood for many crucial pieces, especially the ending of each chapter. Stylistically, they fit and flowed with the world of Arcadia Bay. Having the music be so prevalent in terms of Max’s characterization and the flavor of the world was not only another relatable aspect of the game but also made the world feel so much more alive and real while maintaining its cinematic charm. It draws players into Max’s head through the choice of music as the game is being told from her perspective and helping to play out Max’s emotions with the players.

Parts of the game are universal, which means there is so much common ground for people to connect on. However, the nature of choice in the game made discussions so much livelier because not everyone who played had the same exact experience. The game gave players the ability to shape Max by how they chose to have her interact with the world. I tried to play Max in a way that was helpful to everyone, and in my first run through of the game, that didn’t always play out in my favor. Some characters suffered worse fates than they could have because of my actions. The community discussing how they played and how it impacted the story made Life is Strange go beyond a linear experience. The ending choice remains a contentious issue to this day. However, that’s part of what has given this game the legs it has and kept it alive for a decade now.  Without these spirited, passionate debates, the game would have been fondly remembered as another title from a bygone era. Without characters so lovable and wonderfully human, people’s feelings on those choices wouldn’t have mattered as much.

I played through the game twice, to try and rectify some problems with my first run through, namely saving some characters but also to see how some of the other choices played out. I found that my ideal way to experience the story sits somewhere in the middle of my two playthroughs. It gave me the chance to appreciate everything about the game with greater depth than I would have before. The idea of expectation versus reality was a theme of the game I hadn’t picked up too much on my first time around, but knowing where characters could end up or what their true role in the story was made me see the foreshadowing or the red herrings when I went back the second time.

And of course no discussion about Life is Strange would be complete without recognizing what an incredible pair Chloe and Max are. The game’s emotional impact through its relatability shines through once more. I’ve reconnected with old friends after a long time of not really talking, and trying to rekindle things will bring some bitterness and sorrow, but also the elation of being back together. Things will be awkward one moment and just like old times the next. Chloe and Max played this out masterfully. I learned who Chloe is now, and who she was in the past. The conversations about their past lives shed so much light on how Chloe sees the world and what she faced, and how those things affected who she is. Not only that, but comparing how they speak about the same past events at the beginning of the game versus at the end provide a succinct but effective way to chart their growth over the course of the story.

Chloe is the flip side of Max’s coin. Where Max had comfort, Chloe had struggle. Where Max searched for purpose, Chloe had purpose foist upon her. Chloe’s rebel attitude masks depression and desperation. It is the result of someone with issues she never confronted trying to be the best she can but completely lost in life. But despite her outward selfishness, Chloe’s goal reveals much about her true character. She is a person driven by emotion, past logic and reason in many cases. Chloe became self-destructive in the wake of her father’s death and Max’s abandonment. This let someone like Rachel Amber, the seemingly perfect girl with a dark undercurrent move in.

Chloe’s main motivation is to find her missing friend. It proves she cares about others, and at the heart of it all is a desire to protect and preserve because of her father’s pointless death in a car accident. The problem is, Chloe doesn’t know how to care about most people in a healthy way because of her abandonment issues and the troubled relationship with her mother and stepfather in the wake of her father’s death.

Max has a tool Chloe can use in her rewind ability, which only exacerbates Chloe’s reckless behavior. Without having to worry about consequences, Chloe thinks that Max is her ticket to finding Rachel, because Max will always fix anything bad that happens. Multiple instances of this occur throughout the story. Chloe cares so deeply for Max, but she cannot react to it in a way that makes it obvious being so emotionally maladjusted. As Chloe repairs her friendship with Max and the two of them uncover the mystery hanging over Arcarida Bay, Chloe begins to understand where she had been going wrong, both in her own life and as an advisor and confident to Max.

Her development reaches its peak when she asks Max to sacrifice her to save the town of Arcadia Bay. She recognizes the depths of her selfishness, and lets it go, thinking clearly for the first time and completing her growth from the selfish user who is just a deeply hurt individual at the start of the game to the good friend and honest soul she truly was deep down. Not only that, but Chloe finally understands the lessons that Max had been trying to get across about the rewind ability from the beginning. But because only Max had the ability, only she remembered seeing Chloe get hurt or killed over and over again throughout their quest. Max had to live with that collective trauma while Chloe never understood it. At the same time, Max only was able to use her abilities to help uncover Rachel’s fate because Chloe encouraged Max to be more confident and stand within herself.

Beyond its Origins

Life is Strange: Before the Storm is a prequel made by Deck Nine which takes place from Chloe’s perspective and was released in 2017. It fleshes out Chloe’s character and builds a connection with Rachel that explains Chloe’s drive to find out what happened to her in the original game and helps fill in the missing connections between who Max remembers Chloe as, and who Chloe has become by the time the original game starts. It also shed light on Rachel Amber by making her a main character in the game, essentially becoming this game’s Chloe to Chloe’s Max. While there are some inconsistencies with the original game, Before the Storm gave Chloe a spotlight which gave more depth to the less likable characteristics of hers from the original game.

Dontnot would release Life is Strange 2 across 2018 and 2019 before leaving the franchise in Deck Nine’s hands (all of the games were published by Square Enix who own the IP) afterwards. Life is Strange 2 followed two Mexican American brothers, Sean and Daniel Diaz as they go on the run when their father intervenes in a neighborhood scuffle and ends up being shot dead by the police. The playable character, Sean, tries to get him and his brother to their father’s hometown of Puerto Lobos in Mexico. Meanwhile, they have to deal with the emergence of Daniel’s telekinetic powers as Sean tries to guide his brother and keep them both alive. The second main installment in the franchise played out in a road trip setting, which meant that there was no central location the way Arcadia Bay was in the original game and Before the Storm, and the lack of a consistent recurring cast meant that 2 lived and died on the narrative and the relationship between the two brothers. While it was incredible impactful on its own, 2 lacked the cultural staying power the original had.

Deck Nine followed it up with True Colors in 2021, which returned the series to its “mystery in a small town” roots and dove deeper into many of the themes which made the original game so beloved: a queer main character looking for identity, a mystery in a seemingly idyllic small town, and a greater focus on music. Protagonist Alex Chen was a musician, and one of the main supporting characters was Steph Gingrich, who originally appeared in Before the Storm as a side character. True Colors was shorter in length than the other entries in the series but made up for it with heart.

In 2024, Deck Nine gave what many fans had been begging for: a direct follow-up to the original game with Life is Strange: Double Exposure. Max Caulfield returns, now as a visiting professor of photography at Caledon University who has to unravel a new mystery: when her best friend on campus is killed, Max discovers a new ability to jump between timelines. Max jumps between her original timeline and one where her friend was not killed, using information to push her investigation forward in both timelines.

Double Exposure’s reception was less than stellar. A somewhat confusing narrative which seemed to undercut much of the series’ initial ideas about using these powers to explore very human issues. Max’s powers in the original game were supposed to be an avenue to explore her own inner conflicts, not the end goal themselves. The way Chloe was handled as well (being either deceased, or her and Max having parted ways offscreen) was roundly criticized as well. The idea of these two characters withstanding the turmoil of the original game’s narrative and building a life amidst the rubble was part of the reason why the community flocked to them so hard. The comic series is often seen as a better sequel than the most recent game itself.

The franchise is finally receiving an adaptation on Amazon Prime Video, though it remains to be seen whether it will hit the pitfalls its sequels fell into, or if this adaptation will find problems all its own. It’s difficult to nail what made the original Life is Strange so enduring. Different levels of love have been shown to its heart, simplicity, spirit, atmosphere, music, and characters. It felt like a fresh idea which, while not perfect, had its own charm which more than made up for its deficiencies. Each sequel has diluted the magic formula just a little bit, although there is the argument to be made that nothing can come together quite like the original Life is Strange did. Perhaps the original game was just lightning in a bottle, kept alive by a community who shows the game the same kind of love which the original creators imbued it with. There’s a significant part of the fanbase which sees Max and Chloe as excellent queer representation because of how stellar the writing for them as characters and people were. Plus the acting of Hannah Telle as Max and Ashly Burch as Chloe brought a new level of life to these characters in the original.

Life is Strange is a special franchise, and despite sometimes falling a little short of its original entry in the ten years since it released, still has plenty of great things to offer.