Why the ending of Life is Strange is unsatisfying

I also posted this in the Steam message boards, let's see what kind of conversation we get here.

This is my analysis of why the ending if Life is Strange feels unsatisfying to some. It?s going to be long but I wanted to get all my thoughts out.

Many people found the ending of Life is Strange somewhat unsatisfying, myself included. I think a lot of people are not pinpointing exactly why. Most people cite the binary ending choice, saying that our choices throughout the game should have decided one of many endings. But that?s never been a problem before, it certainly didn?t stop people from enjoying The Walking Dead. I think the problems with Episode 5: Polarized are much deeper than that.

The biggest reason why Polarized feels unsatisfying is due to the tornado. It is the first thing we see in the game, and certainly establishes itself as the biggest threat to the characters. ANybody who has studied storytelling may understand the concept of a time clock. Basically, a time clock gives the characters a deadline for the story - the action hero must stop the nuke from going off in 24 hours, thus the audience is invested in this story and the tension is increased because of the time clock. The tornado sets up a very strong time clock from the first scene - we understand that on Friday, the town could be destroyed by a tornado, and throughout all of the other events in the game we remember this tornado and it sticks in our minds.

The buildup of strange weather and other apocalyptic signs helps to cement this feeling of doom that is surely coming to the town - and to our characters as they fall into the plot of Jefferson. The buildup keeps us assured of an immense destructive force coming to the town, and we know and feel that this story will end with pain and suffering. The end of episode 4 puts the main characters into the peak of the story?s narrative tension - the lowest point of their story, when it appears that they have no way out, and since we are assured of destruction in the next episode, the urgency and desparation for these characters reaches a maximum.

And then we get to Episode 5. The episode starts strong, picking up from where we left off: Max at the lowest point in the story, with no way out, and only a hope of saving Chloe. You can make your own decision about Jefferson?s motivation - personally I feel that weakening the connection to the Prescott family makes the Jefferson twist feel a little less important. But the problem with that scene is the fact that at the resolution of the Jefferson plot, the tension is lifted and all appears to be well - a very weird place to go considering we were assured of the town?s destruction. I don?t wish to sound sarcastic or snarky, but what comes next is basically ?oops, we forgot about the tornado!? This chain of events and they way it heavily minimizes the threat and persistent tension of the tornado that we have felt all along is a big part of the problem, I feel - the importance of the tornado, the first thing we have seen in the entire game, has been downgraded to ?problem #2? and only presented to us after all seems well and we have a moment of security with no tension. The jarring return from that to the Dark Room again only serves to muddy up the plot and take the focus away, once again, from the tornado which is supposed to be the primary focus here.

By the time we actually see the destruction of the tornado, it feels neutered. It is obviously moving very slowly and the citizens are able to escape on foot, or hole up in a restaurant for hours. We are able to drive into town and walk through the wreckage easily. But most importantly, I feel, is the pacing of this scene - The tornado does not appear to be intense or hard-hitting, but slow and looming. The idea of harsh, furious destruction we have thought of for the entire game is gone, replaced by the concept of the town slowly passing into nothingness over the course of hours. This concept works well to create narrative drama in other kinds of stories, but in Life is Strange it only feels like the game has lost its focus. Not only that, but for the rest of the game we are once again taken away from the tornado to a nightmare sequence which, although well-designed and emotionally potent, distracts the plot even further. I like it as a method of remembering the events of the game and our history with Chloe before the end. But the more the game minimizes our interaction with the tornado, the more we feel as if all of the game?s tension has been dispersed without enough payoff.

One more thing about Episode 5 before we get to the ending. Throughout the entire game, we have interacted with a huge cast of character and their storylines, and we see very few of them again in this episode. Very few of these character?s stories actually get a resolution, and we lose track of most of them in the end. The character interactions were strongest when we were exploring the bright and vibrant world of Arcadia bay, but the only real chances to explore and converse with characters in Episode 5 are the art gallery, where there are no characters we know, and the street/diner, where we see only a few characters and ultimately we don?t receive proper resolutions to their stories. Because of the minimized interaction with characters, and also because we lose track of Chloe for a lot of time during this episode, we feel less connected to the people in his story ever so slightly.

Now let?s talk about the final scene. As I said before, many people attribute all of the game?s problems to this scene, but I think it?s actually a very strong scene. But because of everything I?ve described, and the up and down pacing and tension of Polarized, as well as the confusion of traveling through so many alternate realities that we need to think about which events happened in this timeline and which ones didn?t, this scene is weakened by the fact that the outcomes simply aren?t as devastating. Because of the minimized threat of the tornado, and the fact that we have been isolated from all of the characters we?ve met, we feel less connected to the main drama points of the story, and the choice at the end holds much less weight. I suspected from very early on that the choice would be between the death of Chloe or the destruction of the tornado. But as it is presented in the game, these choices simply don?t hold much weight. The death of Chloe ending requires us to go back in time and undo everything - we never grew close to Chloe again, we never saved (or lost) Kate, we never brought Jefferson to justice, and we never grew closer to our friends at Blackwell. It leaves a gaping hole to see all of our work undone, knowing that none of it mattered, and that life must go on as normal. I had imagined an ending where Chloe died in Max?s arms, remembering all that had happened, and time would move forward after everything that had happened. Our story would not have been for nothing.

If we choose to save Chloe, we are not rewarded. There is no more meaningful dialogue, there is no evidence as to the conclusion of most characters? stories, and all we see is Max and Chloe make their exit. The only form of catharsis we receive at all is the reappearance of the image of the deer. I find it vaguely reminiscent of the I Am Legend alternate ending - a better end to the story, but too minimalist to hold any weight. And because we have been separated from the characters in the story and the destruction of the storm has been weakened, we don?t feel as sad to see the town destroyed. It also helps to make the tornado seem even more insignificant - all of that buildup, that looming devastation of the storm, and in the end it?s just over now. Nothing more too it. It took some lives but had otherwise no impact - hardly the End of the World foreshadowed by the apocalyptic signs and the party. Ultimately, both endings are simply not as impactful in their execution as they could have been.

Ultimately, the message of the story changes. The message we see in the first four episodes is that your choices have a greater effect on the outcome of events than you think. The ability to travel through time and see what the outcomes of your other choices would be gives Max a new viewpoint that none of have: the ability to answer the question of ?What if I had done this instead?? and to see directly the affect her choices have, and helps her to understand the beauty and the terror of this power. It is thought provoking because it teaches each of us to think about the choices we make - we can?t see the outcome like Max can, but we can think deeper about our choices and the effect that they will have. But the 5th episode, particularly as we hear from Nightmare max and from Chloe at the end, regards the morality of Max?s power - was it right for her to engineer her social interactions to gain more friends? Was it right for her to save Chloe and thus endanger other people with the tornado? So the ending choice becomes based on morality rather than based on a catharsis to what the game has been telling us all along.

If the game had given us an explanation for the time travel powers, and a reason why she has them and was able to use the to save Chloe, and an explanation for the tornado and why it is connected to everything, it would have greatly changed the ending of the story - we could see all of the loose ends tied off and view the whole meaning of the story as one. But I don?t think that was in the in the intention f the writers, and that?s okay. Everything we?ve described earlier still hurts the story.

How would I have ended the story? I can?t know for sure, but I do know that I would never have left Arcadia bay. That means no art gallery alternate reality - it only diffuses the tension so much. It also means no nightmare sequence - taking us out of the story simply doesn?t work for maximum impact here. There could have been a more efficient, impactful way to remind us of the times we have spend with Chloe this week that does not remove us from the story. I would have hoped to see Jefferson and the Dark Room play into the tornado ending somehow - I mean the Dark Room is a functioning bunker. That seems like a missed opportunity to me. We should have had some more connection to the characters we have met in the story, perhaps some kind of impact from the party last night, and see how they react to the beginning of the storm and the tornado. We could have seen the end or progression of more of these character?s stories, and it would have magnified the impact of the tornado. Even if we need to see a disaster movie style sequence, even if we need to see characters die that Max can?t save, these things would have made the tornado seem more devastating as it was meant to be. Of course we would need to travel through alternate realities to save Chloe, but if we had spent much more time with her in episode 5 it would have greatly affected the final choice. (I?d like to make a comparison to Frodo and Sam?s relationship in Lord of the Rings. Like Max and Chloe, they are very close, spend most of the story together, are separated and endangered over the course of the story, and are together alone for the story?s conclusion. But in Lord of the Rings, think about how much time Frodo and Sam spend on screen together in Mordor at the end, compared to how much less time Max and Chloe are on screen together during the tornado.)

Lastly, the final ending cutscenes could have been executed better, more rewardingly, and with potential for a few more splits to the ending. It would have been very easy to give the player the option to take the bullet for Chloe, for example.

In summary (meaning for those of you who didn?t want to read this whole thing, and I don?t blame you), the final episode takes all of the strongest parts of the game - the impending doom of the tornado, the character interactions, the time spent with Chloe, the Dark Room/Jefferson storyline - and reduces their significance by distracting the story with excessive time travel scenes and uneven pacing. As a result, the ending and final choice loses some of its potency because the game has lost steam.

One final note. Regardless of all these criticisms, Life is Strange is one of the most incredible storytelling experiences I have ever had the pleasure to take part in, and one of the most immersive and technically masterful video games I have ever played. I am only writing this essay about the ending because I love the game so much. I am grateful to Dontnod for the efforts of every member of their team and to Square Enix for taking a chance on an otherwise failed studio to publish this game without any creative control. I will cherish my experience with this work of art for years to come.