RttP: Life is Strange - This Action Will Have Consequences (Open Spoilers)

[Uzzy]

Off to the campus we go, to grab Nathan's phone and figure out what exactly the creep's been doing at the Vortex Club parties. Along the way, Chloe gets way into the dreamy Mr Mark Jefferson, and who can blame her really? Kate helps us with the room number, and we break into Nathan's room.

Nathan's room is disturbing, to put it mildly. But what we find while looking for his phone is worse.

Spoiler: Trigger Warning: Disturbing Imagery

On our way out with the goods is the perfectly dramatic time for Nathan himself to show up, so of course he does. But we have our own hero to save us, it's time for Warren to GO APE.

Nathan's armed, but that's nothing to Warren, who goes to town on him. Apparently we can intervene to stop him beating Nathan down too badly. Weird option that one. I guess maybe they wanted to let people rewind to watch Nathan get beat down again?

Outside, we take stock after leaving Nathan a bloody mess in the dorm. Chloe proves deeply perceptive about Warren, she must be psychic!

 

[Damn Silly]

God, that entire alternate timeline. Just heart-wrenching.

I love this game, obviously with this avatar lol. Any good lets players you would recommend? I've played it so much, I'd rather see someone else's reactions. Can't even talk my friends into playing it ;____;

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Admittedly, these are all coloured by me liking their work before I saw them all play Life Is Strange but Jesse + Dodger's, Eurogamer's and LoadingReadyRun's (slightly more analytical as part of a stream show called Talking Simulator) are all great watches in my opinion.

 

[Uzzy]

Off to see Frank Bowers. We need his client list, so we can decipher the book we stole from him yesterday, and compare that to the info on Nathan's phone and David's files. It's all getting very Nancy Drew here. Even with the money we stole from the handicapped fund, we might not be able to get him on side, but with calm heads and cool questioning, we should get what we need.

Goddamnit.

Good thing I have COMPLETE MASTERY OVER TIME AND SPACE, so lets rewind and try that again shall we? Sure, we got the information, but it'd be nice to not make Chloe a murderer. Thankfully, knowing what might and already has happened gives us quite the advantage in negotiations. We tell Chloe to cool it, and stick talking to Frank about Rachel, knowing that he has a connection with her, and pull on the heartstrings we know he has. This time things go much better, and we get the list without adding to this episode's bodycount.

 

[Uzzy]

With all the clues from David, Nathan and Frank finally gathered together, we can find out exactly where Nathan took Kate that night. One CSI investigation later, and we get an address, an old barn owned by... Prescott. Investigating the barn, we're able to find a hidden underground bunker leading to somewhere.

The Dark Room.

There are binders here, binders full of sickening photos of drugged women. Kate wasn't the first and won't be the last. Nathan's planning on taking Victoria here tonight.

But it's the photos in Rachel's folder that spur us into action, sending us rushing back to the junkyard.

We find the location those photos were taken, digging furiously with bare hands in the spot we played together in not two days ago, denying what's in front of us until the last, when we find the final resting place of Rachel Amber.

I really hoped she'd be alive.

 

[Fanto]

The scene where they go to the junkyard in Ep 4 and find Rachel is so heartbreaking, the acting was really good there, and the music during that part always gets me too. ;(

This thread really is amazing Uzzy, I really appreciate all the work you're putting into this!

 

[Uzzy]

The scene where they go to the junkyard in Ep 4 and find Rachel is so heartbreaking, the acting was really good there, and the music during that part always gets me too. ;(

This thread really is amazing Uzzy, I really appreciate all the work you're putting into this!

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Thank you kindly! It's a special game so the work is a delight really. The acting from Ashly Burch especially is heartbreaking, though Hannah Telle is just as good really.

 

[Aomame]

Episode 4 is far and away my favorite in Life is Strange. It's such a rollercoaster. I love the sense of relief you get when you finally break out of the alternate reality and see Chloe alive -- it makes seeing her get shot at the end of Episode 4 so painful.

I also thought that Nathan's room and the dark room were done so, so well. It's not a horror game on the level of something like Resident Evil, but boy I was spooked seeing all those photos and eventually discovering where Rachel was buried. The photos of Rachel in the dark room are haunting.

Also, in Episode 2, when Max sees the deer in the junkyard, it settles over where Rachel is buried. It really changes the junkyard scenes to think of her dead and buried down there the whole time.

The decision whether to euthanize Chloe fucking broke me, man. My favorite touch is that they give you a third "I don't know" option before making the final call. It was the hardest choice I've ever had to make in a video game.

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I really appreciated that they put that third option in there. I believed for a minute they'd let me cop out like that. It made the eventual choice that much more difficult.

The scene where they go to the junkyard in Ep 4 and find Rachel is so heartbreaking, the acting was really good there, and the music during that part always gets me too. ;(

This thread really is amazing Uzzy, I really appreciate all the work you're putting into this!

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I also love this song. Life is Strange does licensed music better than any other game out there I think. It's so sad and urgent. Perfect for the scene.

 

[Uzzy]

We make to the 'End of the World Party', and Chloe's got one thing on her mind. Not even a double moon distracts her for a moment. The world may be ending, but as long as she ends Nathan first she'll be happy. Walking into the party, we're met by Warren, who's sad and drunk and wanting to get away from the ultraviolence for just a moment. He asks us for a photo in his pitiable state. Chloe's so pissed off she eventually storms off, leaving us to talk to him, reassuring him that the world isn't ending.

So now we're looking for two people. Nathan, who's trying to drug Victoria, and Chloe, who's wanting to put a bullet in the creep the moment she sees him. I love the party scene, everyone's wasted, the music is great, and the heart to heart you have with Victoria is actually really touching. Both Max and Victoria admit they're probably destined to not be friends, but perhaps they can at least not be enemies. Victoria admits to her faults, her worries. It's one of the things I love about Life is Strange, the characters start out as archetypes but you slowly get to see the depths there. I get the option to warn her about what Nathan has planned, and of course I take it. Even if she doesn't believe me, it'd be monstrous to not warn her about what could happen. Thankfully, it sounds like she believes me enough to stay away from Warren, and go to someone else for protection. At least that's her safe. We reunite with Chloe, who's not had any luck finding Nathan either. Better check the dorms too! On the way out, Mark Jefferson announces the winner of the Everyday Heroes contest, and of course it's Victoria. Chloe has other things on the mind.

Once outside, we get a text from Nathan himself. Fuck.

 

[Uzzy]

Driving like the furies back to the junkyard, we quickly get back to where Rachel's buried, Chloe stomping around and relying on Max's rewind to save her. But once we get there, she's.... still there? What the hell?

There's footsteps behind. We try to rewind and nothing happens.

Now it's Chloe's turn to protect us.

Except.

Oh no...

 

[Uzzy]

Episode 4 is far and away my favorite in Life is Strange. It's such a rollercoaster. I love the sense of relief you get when you finally break out of the alternate reality and see Chloe alive -- it makes seeing her get shot at the end of Episode 4 so painful.

I also thought that Nathan's room and the dark room were done so, so well. It's not a horror game on the level of something like Resident Evil, but boy I was spooked seeing all those photos and eventually discovering where Rachel was buried. The photos of Rachel in the dark room are haunting.

Also, in Episode 2, when Max sees the deer in the junkyard, it settles over where Rachel is buried. It really changes the junkyard scenes to think of her dead and buried down there the whole time.

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Rollercoaster is the right word, full of wonderful highs (seeing Chloe again, seeing Kate again), and gut wrenching lows. I think it's the longest episode of the series, or at least felt it.

Anyway, final day of Life is Strange, and the Storm's here.

​

"Evacuation, once again this is not a test. This is not a test. An E6 Tornado warning has been issued for Arcadia Bay and surrounding counties. The emergency broadcast system is now in effect."

I did some reading as I don't know actually know much about them (I'm a Brit, the worst weather we get is rain) and Tornado's at the E6 (or EF6 as they'd actually be called given the Enhanced Fujita scale), should only exist on the theoretical level. Theoretical because once winds go over 200mph, it doesn't really matter. On the original Fujita Scale, it's described as an 'Inconceivable Tornado', with winds hitting 319-379 mph (or 513-609 km/h.) Arcadia Bay's getting wiped off the face of the Earth when/if that hits land.

 

[Uzzy]

I enjoyed this video character study of bae, Chloe Price.

 

[Uzzy]

Chloe Price's dead, killed by Mark Jefferson. Rachel Amber's dead, killed by Nathan Prescott. Victoria Chase, warned by us to stay away from Nathan, fled to Mark Jefferson, who drugged her and took her to the Dark Room. Along with us.

There's a photo that Mark Jefferson took of us on the table in front of us. It's sickening to look at, but maybe we can jump back into that time and do something? When we get there, we're so drugged that we can do nothing more than hear Mark's sick rants. It's genuinely creepy to listen to him go on and on about the 'purity' of the image, but in amongst his monologuing he reveals a few things. Unsurprisingly, the Dark Room was under surveillance, and he sent us the text from Nathan's phone drawing us to the junkyard. But as we struggle, he gets angry enough to drag the trolley over to prepare another dose, letting us kick out to stain his photo album, meaning more of the 'session' is available to us. I feel sick.

Before jumping again, we reassure Victoria as best as we can, telling her to be strong and fight against Mark. I'm not sure how much it helps. In this photo, we're far more awake and able to have a conversation with him, as much as we don't want to. He's obsessed with capturing the moment innocence turns to corruption, and kidnapping and drugging Blackwell Students is the way to do it. Nathan tried to do the same, living up to Mark's ways, but fucked up and made Rachel OD. He tells us he plans to put all this on Nathan, who's amateur ways are compromising his vision. He's so vile in this scene.

But as he's walking away, we notice our journal's down here in the Dark Room with us. We're able to persuade Mark to toss us it, revealing another photo, and one jump later...

 

[Uzzy]

Right back to the start.This leaping through time is getting too much for this girl, but it gives us the opportunity to use our knowledge to fix everything. We text David, giving him enough to crack the case, and spend the rest of the time doing the important stuff. Blowing the fuck out of Mark Jefferson (and raising the Hella Count to 14 in the process), comforting Kate and giving her a hug, and telling Victoria that she can be so much better. We hand in our photo for the 'Everyday Heroes' contest, and see what happens.

We see the Dark Room raided by the police, and Rachel's body found. We see Nathan and Mark being led away in handcuffs. Chloe's alive, and we're going to San Francisco for the 'Everyday Heroes' reception. Did we solve it? Did we fix the timeline?

Wandering around the Zeitgeist Gallery is a real joy. Seeing Max treat as a real artist, overcoming her insecurities and getting recognition for her artistic skill is quite moving, and even the conversation with Principal Wells is delightful. You get the sense that he's glad to see someone succeed and the weight off his shoulders now that the Prescott's are being investigated. Maybe we've finally done it?

No.

We get a call from Chloe. The Storm is here in this timeline, and the line goes dead just as it makes landfall. We have to go back, and thankfully we've got the photo to do it with right here in the gallery. Just one little change, and we can ensure we don't end up in San Francisco, allowing us to save Chloe if nothing else. The breakdown of reality can wait for now.

The timelines remodel themselves once more, and we end up back in...

 

[Uzzy]

Back here again? I am seriously fucked off with this, having to listen to this fucking creep monologuing about his 'vision' and 'purity' again. Goddamn he's such a creep.

He burnt my journal as I didn't hand in a photo, so now Chloe's dead and there's no photo left to jump back into. He's going to kill us down here and probably get away with the Storm washing away his tracks, leaving Nathan framed for it all. Just as he's about to do it, there's a noise at the door and in steps

David Freaking Madsen gets his big damn hero moment. With his brawn and our rewind power, we're able to take Jefferson down. Finally some good news in this hellhole. I really like the conversation we have with David Madsen here, he actually opens up about his own struggles and how much Joyce and even Chloe mean to him. It's a touching display of depth from a character that's been one of the more antagonising ones throughout the week.

He asks us where Chloe is, and it's a tough choice whether or not to tell him the truth. But telling him is only going to hurt him, and we're still hoping to find a way to save Chloe somehow, so we lie for now, telling him that she went off to get high.

But we need a photograph to get back to. Ours are all burnt and ruined, there's nothing left that we have. But last night Warren took a photo of us! Outside, we're able to get in contact with him, and find out he's at the Two Whales Diner, trapped by the Storm with Joyce and some others.

Taking Jefferson's car, we make our way to the diner, receiving a message from Nathan along the way. He's scared, sobbing as Jefferson's coming to get him now, apologising for what happened to Kate and Rachel. He's fucked up, but had he not fallen under the corrupt influence of Jefferson he might have gotten the help he needed. He even drops us a warning. Too late.

 

[Uzzy]

Main Street is like something out of hell. The Storm's doing this much damage and it hasn't even touched land yet. We fight our way through the carnage, saving people as we go, the Trucker, Evan, Alyssa, the Fisherman. Others are already dead, bodies strewn across the wreckage of Arcadia Bay.

Warren's at the Two Whales Diner, we just need the photo to get out of here and save Chloe....

Godfuckingdamnitall.

Thankfully, we're able to stop the explosion through our time powers, but right now it's feeling like the whole universe is bearing down on me. Once inside, we have a heart to heart with Joyce, apologising for how we treat David. We talk to Frank and tell him the bad news about Rachel, all of it. We finally tell Warren what we wanted to tell him Monday, about our time powers, and even if it sounds insane, he believes us. Because he's Warren, and he's a friend. We give him a hug to before leaping back to last night.

Chloe's back!

This scene is heartbreaking. Chloe doesn't care that we've seen her die, she's going to rush off and take Nathan and Jefferson down even in the face of death. It's only when we tell her everything that happened, with Jefferson, with William, with the alternate timelines, with her asking us to euthanise her, that she listens to us, out of everything we've gone through. We're finally able to get her to back down and let David handle it. After we give him the info, he gets the police to raid the Dark Room, taking down the creep.

But the Storm's still coming. The Hella Count hits 15 as we make our way to the Lighthouse once more.

At which point we black out and...

 

[Uzzy]

And it's about this time that reality takes a hard crash. We're back in class, listening to another one of Jefferson's lectures as birds smash and die against the window. The bell strikes and everyone's gone and all of the subjects in Jefferson's pictures are replaced by Max.

On our way out, we get stopped by Jefferson, only this time he invites us to stay in the Dark Room with him forever. The responses are, well.

We're even getting text messages here. What the fuck is going on?

The nightmare continues as we head through the halls of the dorm. .nageb srewop ruo erehw ot kcab ,og ot ecalp eno ylno s'erehT .esrever ni gniog strats gnihtyreve neht dnA

We emerge into a maze, patrolled by all of the men of Blackwell Academy, all out to get us. We have to hide from them using the photos Jefferson took as cover. Even Warren's after us, and what we find in his locker just creeps me out. Perhaps worse of all, we're forced into another hunt for bottles. This really is hell, I need a timeout.

 

[Reedirect]

It's nice but fanservicey and doesn't really tell us anything we don't know (Chloe hates the place, shock horror). Good production values though, and it's the closest we're getting to a proper LiS art book! Don't regret picking it up for £20.

There's a gallery of some of the pages here. Taken from Reddit, might upload my own when I get time!

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Cool, thanks for the write-up! The contents don't really appeal to me based on the images, but I might pick it up when it's on sale or something.

 

[Uzzy]

Not again. We're made to watch William die, watch us ensure he dies.

Then we're in the Dark Room again, forced to watch Chloe flirt with Jefferson, Warren (HELLA COUNT: 16), Nathan and even Victoria? At least have some standards girl.

Chloe's now hating on us directly. We then jump again.

Smash Party at the Two Whales Diner, cause everyone's here, begging Max not to kill them. Including ourselves. Or alternative timeline Max. Or God. Or reality itself come down to tell Max to stop fucking up, who knows. This nightmare is fucked up. That's when Chloe, our Chloe, jumps in to stand up for us.

 

[Uzzy]

We make the slow climb to the lighthouse, memories of the week flittering past as we go.

Some good, some bad, all hurt.

Finally, we make it to the lighthouse and back to reality. The Storm is about to hit Arcadia Bay, and we know that it's going to destroy it, kill almost everyone there. Chloe knows what we have to do.

The photo of the butterfly we took on Monday, in the bathroom, just before Nathan shot and killed her for the first time. She's kept it all this time. She knows what it means, she knows it means letting her die to save the town, and it's a price she's willing to pay, not just for Joyce, but David and even everyone else in the town.

How I can make a decision like that? But I'm the only one who can.

 

[Fanto]

BAE > BAY

But also yeah, I still love how trippy things get during episode 5. Just trying to keep all of the different timelines straight by the time it gets to the nightmare stuff was nuts. The art gallery was a really good chill moment during all of that though, I really like that scene.

 

[Uzzy]

​

She asks the impossible. I do what she asks.

I couldn't choose. I've played this game before and managed to choose, but now, same as then, I just stared at the screen crying for a good while. It took an age to do it.

You know, choosing this ending means that, canonically, the last time Chloe sees Max is the ending of the Farewell DLC in Before the Storm.

There's something in my heart.

 

[Uzzy]

BAE > BAY

But also yeah, I still love how trippy things get during episode 5. Just trying to keep all of the different timelines straight by the time it gets to the nightmare stuff was nuts. The art gallery was a really good chill moment during all of that though, I really like that scene.

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Episode 5 certainly goes places. Reality breaking down and the nightmare sequence was very effective. I don't really need what happened or what caused it explained, it's all about the emotional connection and torment, and it certainly does that.

Well, that was Storm Week. I need to lie down for a while. In the immortal words of Vinnie Jones 'It's been emotional.'

 

[Fanto]

She asks the impossible. I do what she asks.

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Well, that was Storm Week. I need to lie down for a while.

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Once again, amazing thread man! I had wanted to do something for this week but I'm just way too busy now these days, so I really appreciate all the time and effort you put into playing through and taking all these screenshots and putting together the posts every day. It was really fun to follow along and relive all those moments! :)

 

[Damn Silly]

I know plenty of people didn't, but man, I loved how...weird everything got in episode 5.

And that call from Nathan is beautifully done too. It obviously doesn't absolve what he did (nothing could), but the performance -- accompanied by the perfect choice of music -- had me sympathising that if only a few things were different, he wouldn't have ended up where he ended up. He almost certainly would've still been an arsehole, but the manipulation turned him into something else entirely.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

FInished up my playthrough last night. As always, didn't even hesitate to not sacrifice Chloe. The fact that they frame the final choice as "Sacrifice Chloe" or "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay" is such a fallacious way to frame things. After the massive, relentless guilt trip the game puts you and Max through during the "dream" sequence, sacrificing Chloe to appease the powers that be (men) is absurd.

 

[Uzzy]

FInished up my playthrough last night. As always, didn't even hesitate to not sacrifice Chloe. The fact that they frame the final choice as "Sacrifice Chloe" or "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay" is such a fallacious way to frame things. After the massive, relentless guilt trip the game puts you and Max through during the "dream" sequence, sacrificing Chloe to appease the powers that be (men) is absurd.

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That's what I did first time playing. I much prefer the end choice in Before the Storm as that's a lot more relatable and realistic.

I've been in a funk over the ending for days now, I've gotta say. Such an emotional sucker punch. Getting one of Max's t-shirt's delivered tomorrow, gonna grab the next volume of the comic series when that drops next month.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

That's what I did first time playing. I much prefer the end choice in Before the Storm as that's a lot more relatable and realistic.

I've been in a funk over the ending for days now, I've gotta say. Such an emotional sucker punch. Getting one of Max's t-shirt's delivered tomorrow, gonna grab the next volume of the comic series when that drops next month.

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First time I played the game last year, I was sobbing when the choice came up. Not because I didn't know which choice to guide Max to but because she had to make such a choice. 😭

I've been collecting the comic issues, including special variants, and haven't read any of it yet. 😅 From what I've seen and heard, it seems to be a weaker execution of ideas better explored in fan fiction.

 

[alpha]

That's what I did first time playing. I much prefer the end choice in Before the Storm as that's a lot more relatable and realistic.

I've been in a funk over the ending for days now, I've gotta say. Such an emotional sucker punch. Getting one of Max's t-shirt's delivered tomorrow, gonna grab the next volume of the comic series when that drops next month.

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I was kind of surprised when I got to that choice.

You really thought I'd kill Kate, Joyce, Warren, and Pompidou on top of the other non-jerk students at Blackwell like Alyssa and Evan, let alone all the random, uninvolved regular people living in Arcadia Bay for Chloe, game? Really?

You thought wrong. I honored her sacrifice.

 

[Uzzy]

First time I played the game last year, I was sobbing when the choice came up. Not because I didn't know which choice to guide Max to but because she had to make such a choice. 😭

I've been collecting the comic issues, including special variants, and haven't read any of it yet. 😅 From what I've seen and heard, it seems to be a weaker execution of ideas better explored in fan fiction.

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So much the same. Last Friday when the choice came up, I was sobbing too, even having seen it before and knowing what ending I was going for. Couldn't look at the screen for a while.

Given the semi-canon status of the comics, it is basically fan fiction with high production values, with the covers especially looking incredible. It's nice to have more physical merch I suppose!

 

[Uzzy]

I was kind of surprised when I got to that choice.

You really thought I'd kill Kate, Joyce, Warren, and Pompidou on top of the other non-jerk students at Blackwell like Alyssa and Evan, let alone all the random, uninvolved regular people living in Arcadia Bay for Chloe, game? Really?

You thought wrong. I honored her sacrifice.

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I totally get that. And part of me loves a tragic ending to stories, even while acknowledging the harmful trope LiS flirts with in the Bay ending. Bae is the ending I want, but Bay is the more impactful ending to me. I still prefer the Before the Storm ending choice, simply because moral choices with mass body counts are hella bullshit. Basically fuck the trolley problem.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Bay the more impactful ending??? Compared to Max and Chloe finally getting the push they needed to finally leave Arcadia Bay for good and staying together? Max having to accept the cumulative consequences of her actions, intentional and unintentional? It's the only ending where, thematically, Max and Chloe are truly entering adulthood. Together. You can't look at the ending in literal terms or the devs make you a mark, falling for their faux trolley problem bullshit.

 

[Uzzy]

Bay the more impactful ending??? Compared to Max and Chloe finally getting the push they needed to finally leave Arcadia Bay for good and staying together? Max having to accept the cumulative consequences of her actions, intentional and unintentional? It's the only ending where, thematically, Max and Chloe are truly entering adulthood. Together. You can't look at the ending in literal terms or the devs make you a mark, falling for their faux trolley problem bullshit.

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Bae does all you say, but I'm just a sucker for the tragic endings, and Bay is more tragic.

I still chose Bae first.