The story of Life is Strange is nearly at an end, and with episode 4 comes the biggest emotional roller coaster so far. There’s a good deal of feels here, and some foreshadowed plot twists finally coming to pass.
Episode 4 drops us right into the alternate present created in the previous episode. One major change in history has unraveled the complex structure of time and created a new world. In this new world, tragedy and happiness are mixed in equally and you are left to decide the fates of the character’s closest to you. Despite what you choose to do, this first scene ranges from heartwarming to completely heartbreaking and is filled with tough choices. The realization for main character Max Caulfield by the end of this chapter is that these powers of rewind may be more dangerous than helpful as previously thought. We also lose some of the sting of the scene, as we immediately traverse back to set it right.
After this early heartfelt scene, you’re lead directly back into the mystery aspect of what is going on in Blackwell Academy. Though a slow paced episode, clues as to the reality of the situation are regularly found as you progress. There is also a lack of the redundant quests here. Almost every action directly supports the main story line, rather than feel like filler to keep you in the game longer. Though the pacing is quite slow, this fact alone makes the episode feel more full and important than some of the previous episodes.
Meanwhile, outside of this mystery of missing persons, and drugs, outlying factors continue to change around you. The vision Max had of destruction at the very beginning of the series, seems ever prevalent, as signs of it are emerging more frequently. Beached whales, dying birds and strange weather patterns are constantly focused on by the characters. This with clues of other bigger events going on around the town are regularly mentioned in the same sentence with the game’s primary nemesis the Prescott family. Whether these strange occurrences have something to do with them, or are entirely related to Max’s powers of rewind have yet to be revealed.
When it comes to Max’s powers themselves, expect to be a little disappointed, as this episode of Life is Strange reverts greatly in their use. Only one puzzle in the episode requires their use, and only really one scene in particular about mid way through the episode urges to use them otherwise. Though this step back in the frequency of their use does tie together somewhat with the overall story, it seems a bit of a waste that we aren’t give more choice as whether or not to use these powers now knowing that there may be some consequence from them. I feel leaving more choices like this in the hands of the player would have better reflected the game’s intent that these powers are as dangerous as they are helpful. We also don’t get anything new from the powers when we do get to use them. The same basic puzzle mechanic exists, and the same, go-back-and-change-your-last-choice mechanism is also unchanged. It is just a shame that these powers are not being developed with each episode as well as the story is, and seems like a major missed opportunity.
One new game play mechanic that is added to this episode, is a short scene where you must puzzle together all the clues you’ve found so far. Though it only takes a few minutes to figure out the fairly simple puzzles, it does at least give you something different to do and adds another small opportunity to use your powers when you screw up.
As the story unfolds we get our first really major plot twist near the end. Those of you were paying close attention during early episodes however, would have likely seen the foreshadowing of this particular plot point already. That aside, the twist still works well, and is otherwise executed well. The end scene still has enough shock value, even if you saw some of it coming already to be a very good cliffhanger entry into the final episode.
Though most of the grounded portion of the mysteries of Blackwell Academy have been revealed at this point, there’s still a significant amount going on that hasn’t been made clear. Whether the strange going on’s around the city of Arcadia are due to Max’s powers, or something else that may have inadvertently caused Max’s powers in the first place is still in play. There is still a major mystery to be solved here, and potentially some major reworking of history as well to resolve it all.
I do hope however that the writers are able to find a unique way to end the story, and not go the fairly overdone route that most time travel stories such as this tend to go with the heroes going back in time to stop themselves from ever existing, or affecting the time stream. We’ve seen this a great deal already and unfortunately it does feel as though this game my end on a similar note which in my mind would be quite disappointing. The characters in this story are well written enough that they deserve a better end than this.
In the end, episode 4 gives us a ton to think about, and makes you feel a variety of emotions throughout. This range of emotions throughout Life Is Strange Episode 4 creates one of the better episodes yet in the series, and we can only hope the conclusion takes on a similar ride.
As always, thank for reading, and be sure to like and comment below. What decisions did you make in this episode? What was your experience like?
You can catch up on the previous episode here.
MicBeMac Games 