Life Is Strange - Chapter 2 (Spoilers)

Warning: This blog entry contains spoilers for episode 2 of Life is Strange.

So, I posted earlier that I’ve been playing “Life is Strange” and its prequel “Before the Storm” at the same time.  So, funny thing… I thought I owned them on different systems.  I was planning to alternate playing them based on whether it was easier to use the PC or the PS4 that day (my wife and I fight over the TV).  Well, I got to the end  of the first chapter of LiS and, whoops, Episode 2 is still showing unpurchased.  It turns out I own both games on the PS4, and it’s just the first chapter that’s free on Steam. 

Anyway, not wanting to buy it twice, I started over playing LiS on the PS4.  I’m no longer planning to alternate games; I’m going to finish LiS before I continue the prequel.  I don’t feel too bad about restarting, because I regretted a couple of choices I’d made.  Though the thing about LiS is, I rarely feel good about my choices, no matter which one I pick.  Even after I rewind time to view both outcomes of a conversation, I still have the nagging suspicion I’ve done the wrong thing.

But I think that’s the point.  The choices you make cause both good and bad things to happen, so there are no right answers… most of the time.  My new choices were a bit braver than the ones I’d made previously.  This time I stepped in while David was harassing Kate, instead of just taking a picture.  And this time I came out of the closet (so to speak) to take the blame when David found drugs in Chloe’s room. 

I finished Episode 2 last night.  Some thoughts:

I'm still having trouble warming up to Chloe.  I know she’s not over her father’s death, and her stepdad’s a jerk, and her friend Rachel is missing, and she has a lot of other problems in life… but she’s just so self-destructive it’s hard to sympathize.  Some of her problems might be easier to fix if she were to stop making bad decisions.  But maybe that’s what the prequel’s for – so you can walk a mile in her shoes.  Between accidentally shooting herself during target practice (Rewind!), and getting her feet stuck in the train tracks (Rewind lots!), I’m beginning to think Chloe was just born under a bad sign. 

The bottle collecting part was tedious.  I walked around that junkyard a dozen times before I found the final couple of bottles.  It felt like something out of... well... a video game.  So many elements of LiS transcend the medium, I guess I just hate it when it goes out of its way to remind me it’s still a video game.  It breaks the immersion. 

The ledge scene… ooooooh the ledge scene.  Look, I’m not new to tense moments in video games.  I’ve escaped the Mother Brain’s exploding base with just seconds to spare.  I’ve jumped from platform to platform while being chased by a mechanical dragon in Dr. Wiley’s castle, knowing one bad landing would send me to oblivion.  I’ve prayed for divine intervention to defeat Giygas.  I’ve watched helplessly while Kefka destroyed half the planet and Sephiroth murdered my girlfriend.  I’ve survived zombie dogs, giant spiders, and nearly becoming a Jill sandwich.  I’ve faced ninja assassins, giant space robots, and the Grim Reaper himself.  But never, in my entire video game playing history, have I experienced a moment that felt as tense as trying to talk a suicidal student down from a ledge. 

First off, your powers are temporarily offline.  It’s a great writing trick, actually – you give a character a powerful ability, then take it away, and they end up feeling weaker than if they’d never had the power in the first place.  And I’ve never felt more powerless than on that rooftop.  The training wheels are off, all you have is your own intuition and charisma to save her.  If you’re properly reassuring, she steps a little toward you.  If you say the wrong thing, she takes a step backwards towards the edge. 

I was doing well.  I’d made time for Kate earlier that day, even when it risked damaging my relationship with Chloe.  So when I told Kate I was her friend, she believed me.  But then I smurfed up.  I told her that I wouldn’t be the only one to miss her if she was gone.  She asked me who else would miss her, and I was presented with four possible answers: Her mother, her father, her sisters, or her brothers.  My blood went cold.  I could tell it was a life or death question. 

I thought back… had she mentioned them in earlier conversations?  Did I see a family picture in her room?  I… think so?  Maybe?  I briefly considered heading over to GameFAQs, but shook that thought away.  If Max can’t use her powers, then I shouldn’t either.  I spent some time mulling it over, straining the limits of my memory, then pretty much picked “Brothers” at random.   I chose… poorly.  “Brothers? I don’t even have brothers! See, you haven’t been listening to me either!”  And then she was gone.  I couldn’t rewind, all I could do was watch the scene unfold.  It was devastating.

Later, in the principal’s office, I had to implicate either Mark (the dreamy photography teacher), David (the douchebag security guard), or Nathan (the jerkass who shot Chloe in an alternate reality).  It’s another example where none of the outcomes really make you feel good about yourself.  I didn’t want to show my cards to Nathan or David just yet.  Both of them deserve punishment, but at this stage of the game they can do more harm to me and Chloe than we can do to them.  I *might* have picked one of them if they hadn't been in the room, but it still seems like a dangerous idea.

So I had to throw Mark under the bus, and I feel really guilty about it.  But all I said was the truth – that I’d seen Kate run off crying after talking to Mark earlier.  I hope this doesn’t affect my grade in photography class.

Like I said in the last blog, I know how the game ends, but I still have no idea how it gets there.  I’m finding the journey very enjoyable, if emotionally taxing.