You as the player first meet Chloe Price in a life or death situation, and Max doesn’t even recognize her. Then she comes in later as an ex machina (a literal ex machina because she drives up in her pickup truck) and saves you from the same boy who almost shot her in the gut. The heat of the moment jogs Max’s memory and she finally calls out to her childhood friend as they drive away to safety.
From that point on, in addition to trying to stop the storm, the game becomes a rescue mission. Rachel Amber, a previous student of Blackwell Academy, has gone missing, and Chloe is the only one looking for her anymore because of just how long she’s been gone. The missing person posters put up all over town and at the Academy were all Chloe’s doing, and as you continue the game, you realize how important Rachel was to Chloe. In fact, Chloe loved Rachel.
Max’s life escalates as she and Chloe team up and race against the clock to solve Rachel Amber’s disappearance. Through numerous investigations and rewinds, Max and Chloe uncover the complicated network of connections between the residents of Arcadia Bay, from Rachel’s brief romance with Frank Bowers (the local drug dealer), to Frank’s business with Nathan, to Nathan’s cliquey friendship with popular Blackwell Academy student Victoria Chase, and to Victoria’s manipulation of meek religious student Kate Marsh.
Poor, poor Kate Marsh. This character represents one of the game’s heaviest social issues. Kate is mercilessly bullied by Victoria and other classmates for a “porn video” posted online after a school function – she dances with and kisses multiple boys and displays promiscuous behavior – but she doesn’t remember any of it. She admits her grief to Max, who asks for more information. But all Kate remembers is feeling ill, then Nathan taking her somewhere, and, when she woke up, feeling wrong. It’s difficult to hear her say these things, especially hearing the hopeless tone in her voice and seeing her eyes red and puffy from crying.
You can make another choice, here, talking with Kate in her room. She asks you if she should go to the police, and you can either tell her yes, or tell her that she needs to have more proof. Each choice has a consequence – either the police won’t believe her, or she’ll turn away from you because she doesn’t feel supported. Many of the choices revolving around Kate and information about her reach far back to the beginning of the game. Your ability to remember small details about her life (emails from her family, highlighted quotes from the Bible) and actions like answering her phone call and returning a book you borrowed from her, come together into one of the most heartbreaking, upsetting, all-too-real scenes in the game: Kate’s attempted suicide.
A new mechanic appears as you race to stop Kate from jumping: you stop time entirely. The ability puts enormous strain on Max, and as a result, she temporarily can’t use her rewind powers. Now, you run to Kate on the roof. She says with tears in her eyes that she feels so hopeless, so trapped. Your mind races as you realize you’re unable to redo any dialogue between her and Kate. This is a test, and it demands you draw upon information previously learned about Kate in order to either save her or doom her. And if you fail, you can’t help but fall silent.
I don’t like to dwell on topics like this. There are many more social issues at the center of Life Is Strange, such as drug use and assault. Max and Chloe’s journey to find Rachel Amber is wrought with danger and sacrifice.
Tomorrow I will wrap up my thoughts on this game’s narrative, including just how severe the consequences of Max’s rewind powers are.