This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
And this is the conclusion of this story. The whole episode had a very syncopated rhythm, maybe not the same as "Dark Room", but still high. Starting from the time spent with psychopath professor Jefferson in his macabre photo set, then to stop him, rewinding the time until the first day, thanks to a simple selfie photo. Yet it was not enough to calm the coming storm, which was about to destroy Arcadia Bay. Max goes a lot back and forth in time in this episode – maybe a little too much – but everything has a purpose. The part of Maxine's nightmare is very disturbing, where everything becomes strange, twisted, sick, meaningless. There is even a stealth gameplay section. It seemed clear to me that everything was nothing less than an inner Maxine's conflict, though for a moment I thought that – because of all the rewindings – the variables, changes, "realities", all occurred at the same time, in the same reality. Not to mention the initial Episode 1 section, reworked with creepy reverse actions, sounds and music. A real nightmare, I admit Dontnod managed to make me feel restless, worried, definitely "not ok". Very nice run across the "road of memories", however, that allows Max to relive the most important moments witch Chloe that occurred during the game.
I must say that part of the plot twist linked to the motivation for which the storm would broke out was predictable, at least for me, or for those who know sci-fi and saw movies like Donnie Darko. So it was not difficult to realize that Chloe being alive, was the origin which – with an exaggerated butterfly effect – would have unleashed the strange events and tornado that would have destroyed Arcadia Bay. I had guessed that, probably, Max would have to go back in time until the moment where it all began. It is called "polarized", that situation or system that presents two points with identical principles, but different values, such as the north pole or the south pole, or two different opinions. And it is exactly the same principle that applies to the last choice, the only choice that really matters in Life is Strange, between two options. Everything is reduced to that polarization, directing the story towards its end. As things were supposed to be, actually. Letting Chloe die was the only right thing to do to really put things right once and for all. To let her live was not in the "plans" from the beginning, so "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay" was wrong. Damn, I even did a coin toss – yes I really did – to see what would happen. And yet "Sacrifice Chloe" was the answer. Just when I liked her: she knew that it was right that way, that things had to be put in order again. For the first time, only at the end of the story, I saw the Chloe I like: mature, grown up, selfless. And this made things only more difficult. The next scene... well, was terribly intense. The price to pay to restore the order of things. It has been the most incredible week in their life, and only one of them will be able to bring these memories... for the other one it will be – and indeed it is – as if nothing has ever happened. Nothing has ever happened, actually, at that point. She will die in that bathroom, with a gunshot in his belly, without knowing everything that has happened... that her best friend, who hasn't seen for years, is there, a few meters away while dying and she cannot save her. Chloe and all their memories, will live only in Maxine's memory, which will find her place in the "universe". Since time passes... "memories", this is all that remains. Maxine understood that there's never been a real choice, not even with her ability to rewind time: the first choice she made, using her power, is what triggered the wrath of the universe and therefore, anyway, Chloe would have to die. But Chloe was right: the important thing is that those moments have been "real", she gained what she really wanted. "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened" I guess. Maybe, in the end, she is the real "Everyday Heroe". And it's sad how, in different occasions during the whole story arc, is clear how Chloe was repeatedly and unavoidably fated to die; this did nothing but to prove the truth, of which Chloe and Maxine were not yet aware. I considered also that by doing sacrificing her, all my game run has been theoretically useless, being that none of the events that I created playing, in the end, happened – and this is good for some "wrong" choices. In the end everything is as it should be.
In a world divided between those who say that "life is great" or that "life sucks", maybe saying that "life is strange" is the right balance, it's simply the neutral truth, the way it is. Such is life. And nothing else matters in the end.
I think I understood now, what this game is; understood that the setting and the teen-themes were only a pretext, a background, to tell something much bigger. Well, it's been a nice journey in friendship, in memories, in mysteries. In time.… Expand
