Developer: Dontnod Entertainment
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PC
Tested on: PC
Life Is Strange: Episode 5 – Review
After eight long months, we’ve finally come to the last episode in the Life Is Strange series. Life Is Strange: Episode 5 will finally give an answer to all your questions and solve the mystery surrounding Arcadia Bay, or will it? If you haven’t already, you can find all of our other reviews right here on our website.
Story
Once again, events described in this section may differ from your experience as a lot of the events in the game are decision driven and will impact later sections of the game. We’ll quickly give you a rundown of what the game is about, but after that it’s going to be full of spoilers, you have been warned!
You play as Max Caulfield, an ordinary teen who decided to move back to her home town after being a way for a while. You returned mainly to go study photography at Blackwell Academy, an extremely prestigious school, in the hopes of one day becoming a professional photographer. One day, you find yourself in one of Mister Jefferson’s classes when you suddenly get a strange feeling. After you leave class and go to the restroom, something happens that exceeds your wildest dreams, an event that will change everything.
SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT
Episode 5 picks off where the last one left. In Episode 4, you were conducting an investigation as to what happened with Rachel Amber and Kate March. After finding Rachel Amber dead in the junkyard, you decide to end this once and for all and go after Nathan Prescott, who should have been at the Vortex Club party. However, you didn’t find him there, but you did get a disturbing text message from Nathan stating that you wouldn’t find any more clues about Rachel once he’s done with her. Obviously, you rush to the junkyard only to find that she’s still there. At this point, someone kills Chloe and drugs you, disabling your rewind powers. You get one last glimpse at the person as you faint, it’s Mister Jefferson.
This is the point where Episode 5 starts, you wake up strapped inside a chair in the Dark Room, with Victoria sleeping on the ground next to you. Surely enough, a little cart is right in front of you with a picture that was taken while you were drugged. You decide the only way to fix this is to focus on the photo and go back in time to the moment where it was taken. This gives you a scary glimpse as to what Mister Jefferson was doing, and he describes in detail how everything will be blamed on Nathan.
At this time, something interesting happens. You find a picture on the ground from your diary, the selfie you took in class in the first episode of Life Is Strange. Now you go back and decide to quickly alert David Madsen, the head of security, and hope he’ll find out what is happening. When the time fast forwards again, it seems that everything is okay again. Nathan and Jefferson were arrested and you’re on a plane to San Francisco because you won the Everyday Heroes contest! However, you get a call from Chloe once you’re at the art expo. She’s at the beach and a tornado is about to hit her. This means that you didn’t save anything as you have to go back again.
When going back again, you rip the photo that won you the contest, but after fast forwarding you find yourself in the Dark Room again. However, David Madsen storms in right on time and manages to rescue you, but Chloe is still dead… After some more rewinding and fast forwarding, hell breaks loose as your power might have driven you and the environment insane. You then have to make the hardest decision you ever did, one that could save many lives.
Honestly, coming this far to the end of the last episode, it’s safe to say that the story in Life Is Strange is simply amazing. What seemed like a normal game at first quickly turned into a vortex of emotions and plot twists as you discover what you’re capable of. Nobody could have expected how the story would unwind because it’s so intricate and far-fetched, but still makes perfect sense in the end. It’s filled with emotions, action, decision-based events and optional events, which makes it impossible to go through everything in one or even two playthroughs.
Graphics
Of course, nothing has changed when it comes to graphics, but the atmosphere changed drastically. Everything is way more in theme of “doomsday”, as the storm you’ve been having visions of finally hits Arcadia Bay. Everything is very violent and there’s a lot of death involved, which makes it all the more ominous.
Sound
As we’re used to by now, Life Is Strange: Episode 5 has the same great music and sound effects as previous episodes had. Most of the music is very intense because you’re in the middle of a storm and all, but at the end of the game you get some great melodies again, which is awesome to hear after all the adventures you went through.
Gameplay
Like expected, Life Is Strange: Episode 5 still plays in the exact same way like the previous episodes, it’s the same game nonetheless. Everything you’ve learned and used in the previous episodes is still at your disposal, especially the rewinding back time by focusing on a photo, which is pretty much at the center of this episode. The controls are (still) WASD and some other binds to rewind time, or you can sit back and relax with a controller, which is all the more enjoyable.
Conclusion
Now the game is finally finished, it’s safe to say that it was one hell of a ride. Every new episode makes the previous one seem like it was nothing, and every one of them will take you on an emotional roller coaster. The plot and story are amazing from start to finish with not a dull moment to be found. The game is definitely worth it if you enjoy a good story, even for people who don’t play games often.
Life Is Strange: Episode 5 - Review,
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Loving the positive and negative points summary haha! Think I’ll finally need to check this one out.