With the release of episode five, Life is Strange has finally come to an end. I noticed a lot of people have been disappointed or unsatisfied with the endings and has even compared it to the disappointment of the Mass Effect 3 endings. I feel unfulfilled with how the endings played out, I feel like something’s missing, but at the same time I am satisfied with the endings presented to me and I don’t feel as betrayed as I had been with Mass Effect 3. Both games are choice-based and we play through a single character that call the shots to make the story progress however there are differences between Commander Shepard and Max Caulfield that makes it unfair to say that the endings in Life is Strange makes it like our choices didn’t matter like in Mass Effect 3.
In the first episode of Life is Strange, the player is immediately greeted with the storm, the storm that changes the course of everything. I watched the Butterfly Effect before and a lot of other time-travelling movies and shows so initially, I believed that Max Caulfield was the storm that came to Arcadia Bay, but after the last episode I don’t think it was Max anymore, the player is. By playing the game I get to interfere with Max’s life, but only a part of a slice of Max’s life. Before entering the bathroom, I get to make a couple of choices for Max but those choices were already in her head, I just had to choose which one. I get to make Max walk around for a bit but she was the one who wanted to wash her face in the bathroom, not me. When Max got her powers, that’s when I started to have a bit more control over Max. Max believes she has the power but no it’s just me, the player, playing god and making decisions for her. However, there was one instance where Max herself refused to make a choice. I didn’t make her refuse, she decided she did not want to herself and that was during a conversation with Mr. Jefferson in her dream sequence.
“There’s no way I’m saying that… No way.”
Even if Max refused to say any of the choices in the conversation wheel, I still had to choose. In the first episode, before entering the bathroom, the game can’t progress if I don’t do what Max wanted me to do, which is to enter the bathroom to wash her face. But after getting her powers, the game won’t progress if I didn’t make a choice. “There must be some way to do this or to do that,” that’s how Max usually comments before I act for her. She was not as sure as she was when she wanted to wash her face in the first episode, I had to decide for her or else the story won’t progress. In the other choices she had to make after getting her powers, I can choose whatever I want to without her refusing because in those times she believes she’s the one in control. But in that conversation with Mr. Jefferson, she refused to say any of the choices as if she could see the conversation wheel herself. She has also been referencing the puzzles in her dream as if it was the game I’m playing instead of her referencing the puzzles as events moments she lived through. (“Oh no… Bottles. This might be Hell.” “I’ll be so grateful if this is the last digicode…”) I did mess up time a lot that perhaps in her dream sequence, the game that I’m playing was merging with the life Max believes she is living.
In Mass Effect, it took me hours (as it often always happen) to get the right appearance for Isobella Shepard. I made her play a paragon and have set a certain personality and attitude for her to act out throughout my playthrough. Even her love interest was chosen by me (first Kaidan then Garrus jsyk…well I didn’t know Garrus would be an option eventually. xD). Max Caulfield however already has a set appearance, personality, and attitude that I have to work with and she has even decided where her heart really lies, with Chloe (look, I ship Warren and Max, you can ship Max with anyone you want but if you can’t see her deep connection with Chloe, no matter how you choose to interpret it, are we even playing the same game?). I decide Max’s choices for her and choose actions for her but that’s about it. Isobella Shepard’s life would not have existed had I not played the game; anyone could have taken over her role. Max Caulfield, however, cannot be replaced and even if I didn’t play the game her life would still go on except Chloe would be dead before Max even got to catch up with her and she would probably have lived a shorter life since Mr. Jefferson could have killed her eventually. But whether I play Life is Strange or not, Max’s life would go on.
In Mass Effect things happen because of Commander Shepard, the world revolves around her and I have complete control over her; technically, I am Isobella Shepard. Throughout the Mass Effect series, I was led to believe that the choices I make mattered but then came the final decision in Mass Effect 3. Sure the first two games had some impact with my playthrough in the third one, but all those choices I made in the third game before I reached the final decision? Dumped. Wasted. They didn’t matter, now pick a colour, blue, red, or green? At least in Life is Strange the final decision you have to make was already set the moment you played the game whether you realised it or not so I don’t believe that the endings made it seem like my choices didn’t matter.
A video game where you can’t control anything wouldn’t really be much of a video game at all so you have to control something and that chosen one was Max. Because I played the game, I played god and changed the course of Max’s life which caused the storm. Because I played the game Max got to have the time of her life and catch up with her best friend Chloe. Rachel, Kate, and all the other girls that fell victim in the hands of Mr. Jefferson got the justice they deserved. All the things that I let Max go through would definitely scar her for life. But with every action, there’s a reaction so I’m just going to have to convince myself that the end justifies the means.
What’s interesting about the final choices is that they say “Sacrifice” instead of “Save” and an ongoing theme in the game is heroism and the “Everyday Heroes” contest has been a big deal throughout all this as well. Those choices reminded me of a conversation that Wynne had with the Hero of Ferelden from Dragon Age: Origins
Warden: Are you saying I might hurt Alistair?
Wynne: Not intentionally, no. But there is great potential for tragedy here, for one or both of you… You have responsibilities which supersede your personal desires.
Warden: I’m a human being with emotions, not just a Grey Warden.
Wynne: Love is ultimately selfish. it demands that one be devoted to a single person, who may fully occupy one’s mind and heart, to the exclusion of all else. A Grey Warden cannot afford to be selfish. You may be forced to make a choice between saving your love and saving everyone else, and then what would you do?
Warden: I don’t want to have to make that choice.
Wynne: Nothing is certain, not in these times. You cannot take anything for granted. I want you to be aware of this.
The final decision would be the player’s final act as god. I don’t think there’s a right ending but I get to choose whether I’d be selfless or selfish and selfish doesn’t necessarily mean it should be something negative. Chloe’s death is a fixed point in time, she’s died more than once throughout the entire game and if you change a fixed point there will be dire consequences. Some people sacrificed Chloe because they didn’t care much for her and some also sacrificed Arcadia Bay because they cared for Chloe. Who the player cares for to help them come to a decision doesn’t matter because Max cares for both and any choice would have been “right”. Chloe meant a lot to Max and she has already proven that the entire game. She may have helped a lot of other people but Chloe has always been her top priority. Even if the player makes the choices, Max’s goals are set. On the other hand she still cared for everyone she’s helped and she would save all those lives in Arcadia Bay if she could.
To recap, I think that the storm is caused by the player, Max’s power, not Max herself so I don’t think the endings made our choices not matter. The moment the game started the final decision has been set because had we not interfered with Max’s life she would not have her “powers”. We have already made a choice just by playing the game and the rest of our choices mattered even until the final choice. If you sacrifice Chloe in the end, Mr. Jefferson gets arrested anyway, Nathan gets the help he badly needed and there is no storm. If you sacrifice Arcadia Bay, you save Chloe, the one person Max wanted to be with and has been desperately trying to save throughout the game. The players’ choices actually matter, very much unlike Mass Effect 3. I was only unsatisfied with the endings because I wanted to have both or at least an ending that even I don’t know what exactly. So I can’t really be disappointed or mad at the endings when I don’t even know what I actually want. Both decisions left me feeling like something was missing but life actually does make you feel that way sometimes and you can’t really explain why but things just are what they are. Life isn’t about wish fulfillment and I am generally satisfied with how the game ended up.
A/N: This would have been longer but I accidentally clicked back and lost all my progress. So much for my first post. TT^TT
Made Up Of Pixels 