Poorly scheduled Life Is Strange talk thread: I hate Warren. (Off-Topic)
by Funkmon 
, Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 07:53 (3318 days ago)
I know only like 3 of us have bothered holding off talking about it until this week, but still. It was scheduled, on the day of Halo 5's release. Nice job, self. As a result, I expect, at most two replies to this.
To me, the most important thing in episode 5 was killing Warren. I needed him to die. I absolutely hate that guy. Here is a series of clips of me hating him (and one of me loving him, skip to 2:10) during the second half of episode 5, where I was recording myself. You probably shouldn't watch it, as while making the clips, I started to hate myself.
Luckily, the final choice allowed me to kill him, and also to kill Arcadia Bay, by saving Chloë, which, IMO, was the point. I've seen clips of the funeral scene, the one that happens when you allow Chloe to be killed, and it's longer and seems to have been the one favoured by the developers. However it doesn't seem to be the one favoured by the story.
Max dreams there's a storm. She goes to the bathroom. Chloe dies. NOW Max gets rewind powers. It's clear to me that Max gets a premonition because the universe has decided she needs to save Chloe. Note that she didn't change anything to require the storm to be there. It was already happening before she even used her power, despite the crap they keep talking in this episode. Max is always stressed out because she thinks she caused the storm, Warren, the imbecile, confirms this for her, and indeed Chloe and the game also seem to do this. So when Chloe dies, the storm is fine? Yeah, okay. That makes sense and is internally consistent.
![[image]](http://i.imgur.com/l16B2ePl.jpg)
There are some other problems I have with the story of this game not making any sense to me. For example, what's up with the deer that shows up during important story moments? Who even is that? Is that Rachel Amber? What does it mean? Speaking of Rachel Amber, why did we even need her? The stuff about the dark room and Nathan we could have gotten through Kate and stuff. The story didn't need the Rachel Amber plotline, so when nothing happened at all with it in this episode, I was surprised. That said, it did work well for what it did. I just assumed more would come of it .
And I also assumed more would happen in episode 5 itself. Episode 5 had about 10 minutes of actual story. Get saved, go talk to Warren for far too long, go to the lighthouse, kill Chloe. By the way, the lighthouse is the only safe place? REALLY? Right at the beginning of the episode we see it crash onto the ground, and in the dream it crushes Max. Why would Max think it's safe? Surely you'd want to be in a basement, or, IDK. IN EUGENE. SOME OTHER CITY. I guarantee it would be faster than walking up a fucking MOUNTAIN to get to an EXPOSED AREA on a CLIFF in a WIND STORM. And then Chloe goes back on what she said earlier? Lame.
![[image]](https://i.imgur.com/6nnGk0Nl.jpg)
Anyway, episode 5 was mostly just dumb puzzles and people repeating choices you made in the other episodes. "Thanks for saving me." the trucker says. That's the fucking payoff? I stole the handicapped fund money, so I get some line in the nightmare about it? It doesn't even change dialogue, it just changes lines people say. It's like NOTHING matters.
And frankly, it doesn't. The end scenes are in 30 FPS. They're videos. Those will always be those. The end choice will always be the end choice. I could have gone through the entire game making every anti-Chloe decision I could, siding with David, answering Kate's call, saying no to stealing, and she'd still tell me she'd be with me forever.
Now, nobody could reasonably expect a bunch of endings...but you could expect them to not be unchanging videos. Maybe different people there. Some kind of small pay off. An example of a game that did it right is the Telltale Borderlands game. I ain't got no screenshots since I played it on Xbox. There were different characters at the end that were available to you, and they had their own stories and lines depending on who you chose. That would be nice, even though the main outcome is the same.
![[image]](http://i.imgur.com/skFeSjYl.jpg)
I really wanted hot dog man to come into play.
As far as I can tell, there are two main types of these choose your own adventure games. Telltale does a thing where they give you the illusion of choice, so you think you're making choices, but it doesn't change much, if anything. Life Is Strange gives you tons of choices, and they are real choices, like helping Alyssa or not, with a change in story, but they just don't matter at all. The two games are different in plenty of other ways, like LIS being less a conversation simulator and more of a game, but that's the primary thing I see that's different.
So, episode 5, in my opinion, sucked. It seemed like DONTNOD simply got a checklist of decisions we made in other games, and rehashed them for 2 hours. The vast majority of this episode was replaying, or talking about, stuff we did in the past, and not even through the amusing time travel thing. Just showing it to us again. One thing the nightmare sequence did, though, is give me nostalgia.
Weird, for a game only a few months old. It made me think "man, that time walking along the railroad tracks was a good time." or that "jamming out with weed, shaka brah, was a good time." I felt nostalgia playing those scenes originally, remembering being in high school myself having those moments, but now, I feel it for the game.
Barring the hilariously bad dialogue in the nightmare sequence, which I think was a high point, I don't want to remember episode 5. When think back on LIS, I will think about episodes 1-4. In fact, my headcanon ends in the pool party. Chloe's fine, Arcadia Bay's fine, Warren's family and pets killed themselves in front of him and blamed him in the suicide notes, and Max is fine. Episode 5 was not like the first part of the game, so I hope to not think about it in the future.
Anyway, that's it. I hope someone who wasn't planning on playing the game but reads this does pick it up. The best part of the game isn't knowing how it all turns out, but the little things. It's worth it. Except this episode, which sucked.
But at least Warren died.
![[image]](http://i.imgur.com/jGUNmL8l.jpg)
First off, that video was hilarious. Although, I will say, I don't think Warren made up the term E6. It was used previously in the episode in (in a news broadcast?). So in whatever universe they're in, that's apparently a thing.
That doesn't mean I don't also hate Warren. But as I said last week, he just creeps me out. I don't know if it was intentional or just a side effect of his line delivery or what, but he is one creepy dude.
I have three really big issues:
1. Episode 5 wasn't that fun to play. The Dark Room sequence was interesting, but even for LiS, the gameplay sucked. Seriously, the trial and error of getting David to not die from Jefferson . . . I hated it.
(On a sidenote, that was one problem I had with the game in general. The puzzle solving was dumb. I can clearly SEE THE SOLUTION to the puzzle, don't make me fuck it up first, so that I have to rewind to "fix" it. I can clearly see the fucking chair I have to move in order to reach that thing without breaking shit, just let me do that.)
The only really interesting part for me was the nightmare scene, just because it started off decently interesting. The walking down memory lane scene was stupid, though. Wow, thanks for recapping your entire game for me, I couldn't have remembered that. It was like they were trying to shove nostalgia down my throat.
2. Similar to number one, Episode 5 basically abandoned everything that made Episodes 1-4 good. It was all the small talk and relaxing moments, the moments that really make you feel a part of the world. Exploring the dorms and talking to people. Max playing her guitar. Chloe dancing on the bed. Etc, etc. Episode 5 had precisely none of that.
3. The final decision sucked. I don't even really mind that all your little choices didn't matter, but the actual choice was stupid. Pretty much from the moment you saved Chloe at the beginning of episode one, folks (myself included) said, "Oh, so in the end we have to come all the way back and let Chloe die to fix shit."
Way to go with the obvious and really stupid ending, DONTNOD. You did the one thing that could have made me hate the ending. Seriously, five year olds everywhere saw that coming. It's not clever or original, it doesn't present some grand message.
It's very obvious that killing Chloe is the correct decision. They definitely push you that direction.
You know what? Fuck 'em. I saved Chloe. THAT'S WHAT THE ENTIRE GAME HAS BEEN ABOUT. Screw Arcadia Bay and everyone in it. I tore that picture up and let the tornado take it, along with the whole town.
But even that ending sucks in a very breaking suspension of disbelief way. So, the tornado is gone, and the two of them just casually drive through the wreckage out of town. Really?! You're not even going to check to see if your mother is dead?! You're not going to help anyone?!
So, that's it. There were a few moments early on in the episode that tugged my heartstrings, but most of the episode sucked, and I hated it.
Overall, Life is Strange was a great experience, one I would recommend to everyone. The first four episodes were outstanding. It just ended in a disappointing way, but honestly, what doesn't these days?
On a side note, in the scene where you're trying to get to the diner for the photograph, did anyone else not save a single person? I just figured screw it, I'm probably going to jump into yet another goddamn timeline, so why bother? And Alyssa, you piece of garbage. If you can't climb out of the damn window on your own, you're an absolute waste of space. And also, you deserved to get splashed by that puddle. It's clearly there, and you can clearly see the truck coming! Are you braindead?! I regret helping you at all!
First off, that video was hilarious. Although, I will say, I don't think Warren made up the term E6. It was used previously in the episode in (in a news broadcast?). So in whatever universe they're in, that's apparently a thing.
Well it's dumb.
That doesn't mean I don't also hate Warren. But as I said last week, he just creeps me out. I don't know if it was intentional or just a side effect of his line delivery or what, but he is one creepy dude.
It's pretty clear that Max thinks so too considering that creepy locker.
I have three really big issues:
1. Episode 5 wasn't that fun to play. The Dark Room sequence was interesting, but even for LiS, the gameplay sucked. Seriously, the trial and error of getting David to not die from Jefferson . . . I hated it.
Yep.
(On a sidenote, that was one problem I had with the game in general. The puzzle solving was dumb. I can clearly SEE THE SOLUTION to the puzzle, don't make me fuck it up first, so that I have to rewind to "fix" it. I can clearly see the fucking chair I have to move in order to reach that thing without breaking shit, just let me do that.)
I was fine with the puzzle solving in the game. I'm bad at them, and had trouble doing some of them, so SHUT UP. I didn't like the nightmare scene's puzzles, though. I had a lot of trouble getting through the maze, and was totally done with it mentally halfway through the first time I played it.
The only really interesting part for me was the nightmare scene, just because it started off decently interesting. The walking down memory lane scene was stupid, though. Wow, thanks for recapping your entire game for me, I couldn't have remembered that. It was like they were trying to shove nostalgia down my throat.
I was all right with it, because, to me, the game was clearly over. There weren't no more story. I was ready for a nostalgia trip since the rest of that shit sucked so bad. But, I'm a sucker for it. For example, the ending scene of Breaking Dawn part 2 makes me cry every time. I cried in the theater. I cried watching with my friend Rachel. I cry watching it alone. I cry when the song comes on the radio.
I cried just now. Not a joke.
They forced nostalgia down your throat, maybe, but it totally fucking worked on me.
2. Similar to number one, Episode 5 basically abandoned everything that made Episodes 1-4 good. It was all the small talk and relaxing moments, the moments that really make you feel a part of the world. Exploring the dorms and talking to people. Max playing her guitar. Chloe dancing on the bed. Etc, etc. Episode 5 had precisely none of that.
Yep.
3. The final decision sucked. I don't even really mind that all your little choices didn't matter, but the actual choice was stupid. Pretty much from the moment you saved Chloe at the beginning of episode one, folks (myself included) said, "Oh, so in the end we have to come all the way back and let Chloe die to fix shit."
I literally never thought of that until you brought it up. I didn't think of the Warren thing. I might be oblivious, but I was super sucked into the game. Only when it happened did I think "are you fucking kidding me with this bullshit?"
Going back and killing Chloe is such a waste of fucking time. WHY DO YOU EVEN HAVE THE POWER? JUST LET HER DIE IN THE FIRST PLACE, NO TIME TRAVEL, NO STORY.
Way to go with the obvious and really stupid ending, DONTNOD. You did the one thing that could have made me hate the ending. Seriously, five year olds everywhere saw that coming. It's not clever or original, it doesn't present some grand message.
It's very obvious that killing Chloe is the correct decision. They definitely push you that direction.
You know what? Fuck 'em. I saved Chloe. THAT'S WHAT THE ENTIRE GAME HAS BEEN ABOUT. Screw Arcadia Bay and everyone in it. I tore that picture up and let the tornado take it, along with the whole town.
Yup.
But even that ending sucks in a very breaking suspension of disbelief way. So, the tornado is gone, and the two of them just casually drive through the wreckage out of town. Really?! You're not even going to check to see if your mother is dead?! You're not going to help anyone?!
I initially questioned this as well, but it seems to me that it must have been a day or two days after. The town seemed relatively clean, bodies were covered up, no obvious police presence in the shots we saw. It might have been as simple as a drive through town on the way to Chloe driving Max back to her parents' house in Seattle or something.
On a side note, in the scene where you're trying to get to the diner for the photograph, did anyone else not save a single person? I just figured screw it, I'm probably going to jump into yet another goddamn timeline, so why bother? And Alyssa, you piece of garbage. If you can't climb out of the damn window on your own, you're an absolute waste of space. And also, you deserved to get splashed by that puddle. It's clearly there, and you can clearly see the truck coming! Are you braindead?! I regret helping you at all!
I spent a long time rewinding just to watch her get smacked in the head with a football. The window thing was bullshit though. It was 6 feet to the truck bed. What a total piece of crap. And she talks like she's constantly eating. I hate her. If you save her, you get a payoff of her saving you, which is irrelevant SINCE YOU CAN REWIND TIME.
But yeah, the second time I played the episode I didn't save nobody. Fuck them. I would have let the Two Whales diner blow up if I could've.
I was fine with the puzzle solving in the game. I'm bad at them, and had trouble doing some of them, so SHUT UP. I didn't like the nightmare scene's puzzles, though. I had a lot of trouble getting through the maze, and was totally done with it mentally halfway through the first time I played it.
I've seen quite a few people on reddit saying they had trouble with the maze. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like folks forgot how the time rewind mechanic works. Time rewinds, but Max's position doesn't change. So you can literally just walk through the maze. If you get caught, just rewind until the flashlight is not facing you or coming towards you, and continue on. You can basically just walk straight through it without having to run around avoiding anyone.
I was all right with it, because, to me, the game was clearly over. There weren't no more story. I was ready for a nostalgia trip since the rest of that shit sucked so bad. But, I'm a sucker for it.
I wouldn't have minded (and probably enjoyed) if it was just a few scenes. Walking along the train tracks holding hands. Dancing on the bed. The swimming pool. Things like that.
For example, the ending scene of Breaking Dawn part 2 makes me cry every time. I cried in the theater. I cried watching with my friend Rachel. I cry watching it alone. I cry when the song comes on the radio.
I cried just now. Not a joke.
Heh, I'm actually the same way. The part in the final Harry Potter film when Harry is going to the forest to give himself to Voldemort and Hermione says, "I'll go with you . . ." I just lose it every single time. Her expression and the way she says it, almost in a sob . . . I seriously lose my shit just thinking about it.
I cried quite a few times through all of LiS, so I have no aversion to things like that. The nostalgia trip just didn't work for me for whatever reason.
2. Similar to number one, Episode 5 basically abandoned everything that made Episodes 1-4 good. It was all the small talk and relaxing moments, the moments that really make you feel a part of the world. Exploring the dorms and talking to people. Max playing her guitar. Chloe dancing on the bed. Etc, etc. Episode 5 had precisely none of that.
I literally never thought of that until you brought it up. I didn't think of the Warren thing. I might be oblivious, but I was super sucked into the game. Only when it happened did I think "are you fucking kidding me with this bullshit?"
The only reason I thought of it personally, is because it seems like an obvious direction to go (and one that's happen before in time travel stories). You have to go all the way back and not use time travel because it's bad and screws everything up. I really only thought it in a joking way, like there's no way this is how they'll end it because that's obviously terrible.
Going back and killing Chloe is such a waste of fucking time. WHY DO YOU EVEN HAVE THE POWER? JUST LET HER DIE IN THE FIRST PLACE, NO TIME TRAVEL, NO STORY.
Yep. I mean, that's the point, judging from Chloe's final speech, all the "It'll still have meaning" crap. But it's stupid.
I initially questioned this as well, but it seems to me that it must have been a day or two days after. The town seemed relatively clean, bodies were covered up, no obvious police presence in the shots we saw. It might have been as simple as a drive through town on the way to Chloe driving Max back to her parents' house in Seattle or something.
I guess that's probably true. I just assumed they had emerged from the lighthouse after the storm had passed and just drove off.
Pretty much agree . . .
by Ragashingo 
, Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 13:41 (3318 days ago) @ cheapLEY
2. Similar to number one, Episode 5 basically abandoned everything that made Episodes 1-4 good. It was all the small talk and relaxing moments, the moments that really make you feel a part of the world. Exploring the dorms and talking to people. Max playing her guitar. Chloe dancing on the bed. Etc, etc. Episode 5 had precisely none of that.
The art gallery was that. Including the ability to small talk and to sit and think.
Way to go with the obvious and really stupid ending, DONTNOD. You did the one thing that could have made me hate the ending. Seriously, five year olds everywhere saw that coming. It's not clever or original, it doesn't present some grand message.
I'm of the opinion that the journey preceding that moment (aka: the entire game) and the presentation of the moment itself were both good. To the point I basically cried along with Max despite suspecting things might end the way they did. I did wonder if Max would come out of hiding and comfort Chloe as she died. That would have been a neat moment but I'm ok it didn't happen.
In the end the final episode did feel a bit rushed and did unfortunately fall into the trap of being a time travel story instead of the relationships story the rest of the game mostly was.
The art gallery was that. Including the ability to small talk and to sit and think.
Yeah, that's true, but it didn't really seem to fit within the episode in the same those moments had in the previous ones.
In the end the final episode did feel a bit rushed and did unfortunately fall into the trap of being a time travel story instead of the relationships story the rest of the game mostly was.
I really think the game could have (and probably would have) been better without the storm angle thrown in. If the final episode was more focused on the Dark Room and taking down Jefferson and the aftermath of that. That part felt sort of rushed through to get to the storm stuff. I would have personally liked it more without the storm at all.
It was a great experience as a whole, and I'll definitely be waiting for whatever dontnod does next.
Pretty much agree . . .
by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 14:27 (3318 days ago) @ cheapLEY
Yeah. The storm got in the way. And doesn't make sense that Max saw it before she first saved Chloe... except, you know, time travel. I liked the art gallery a lot but it would have been more fulfilling, obviously, if it were a valid ending.
Taking away the storm, it would have been interesting if they'd played up the environmental disaster and the decline into unsustainably of Arcadia Bay. I loved how the game touched a little on that. That said, the town failing in five to ten years wouldn't have been an immediate enough consequence to balance changing Chloe's fate.
In the end maybe the best way to do things would be to keep the sacrifice Chloe ending, have the storm, but don't ever kill everyone ( as in always have some random townspeople survive) and kill named character (or not) based on your relationship with them combined with more immediate choices in the final episode. (Maybe having someone come with you puts them at risk, or advising some to seek better shelter goes poorly or not based on if you've built up some trust, etc.) Perhaps even have some mutually exclusive choices (Victoria vs Ms. Grant, Warren vs Brooke, Joyce vs. Frank, etc) and then the final choice is sacrifice Chloe to save hundreds + named characters you didn't save / save Chloe at the expense of hundreds of deaths + friends' deaths on your conscience.
Really, there's a lot of ways to fix the endings but even though I suggest some I'm a bit hesitant because... It's not my story to fix...
Pretty much agree . . .
by DiscipleN2k , Edmond, OK, Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 14:42 (3318 days ago) @ cheapLEY
I really think the game could have (and probably would have) been better without the storm angle thrown in. If the final episode was more focused on the Dark Room and taking down Jefferson and the aftermath of that. That part felt sort of rushed through to get to the storm stuff. I would have personally liked it more without the storm at all.
I don't know. I kind of liked that you pretty much started the episode with the happy ending where Jefferson is busted, Max wins the contest and is on her way to a career in photography, and everything is sunshine and rainbows...except that, going completely meta, you know that it's happening WAY too early in the episode. You know that they're not going to end the game this soon so, even when you're in this moment of peace and quiet and happiness, you're not allowed to enjoy it. You know that, literally and figuratively, the storm is still coming.
Granted, there's probably a way they could have done that without the storm, but it worked here.
-Disciple
Pretty much agree . . .
by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 14:44 (3318 days ago) @ DiscipleN2k
I don't know. I kind of liked that you pretty much started the episode with the happy ending where Jefferson is busted, Max wins the contest and is on her way to a career in photography, and everything is sunshine and rainbows...except that, going completely meta, you know that it's happening WAY too early in the episode. You know that they're not going to end the game this soon so, even when you're in this moment of peace and quiet and happiness, you're not allowed to enjoy it.
Another downfall of episodic games. If this were one long game you'd never know when it was going to end.
Pretty much agree . . .
by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 15:10 (3318 days ago) @ DiscipleN2k
Yep. There's something to be said for that delicious uncertain tension. :)
Why didn't Chloe leave the fucking city when we went to the gallery?! She knew we told her and could see the fucking future! Stupid girl!
Pretty much agree . . .
by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 14:42 (3318 days ago) @ cheapLEY
I really think the game could have (and probably would have) been better without the storm angle thrown in. If the final episode was more focused on the Dark Room and taking down Jefferson and the aftermath of that. That part felt sort of rushed through to get to the storm stuff. I would have personally liked it more without the storm at all.
You know how you usually get the little jingle, and the icon / butterfly for rewind when you make an important decision? I knew something was up when I didn't get that after being truthful about Chloe to David. When David shot Jefferson I thought that'd be a major choice for sure… but nothing. Because you erase all that later.
Pretty much agree . . .
by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 14:40 (3318 days ago) @ cheapLEY
I have three really big issues:
1. Episode 5 wasn't that fun to play. The Dark Room sequence was interesting, but even for LiS, the gameplay sucked. Seriously, the trial and error of getting David to not die from Jefferson . . . I hated it.
WHAT?! HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?! (x15)
"Right... Or, maybe you just suck" - Sophia Bossedon ;)
by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 15:26 (3318 days ago) @ Cody Miller
- No text -
So the game press doesn't know shit
by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Thursday, October 29, 2015, 05:55 (3317 days ago) @ Funkmon