Life is Strange Episode 4: Dark Room attempts to wrap up the episodic drama by throwing the answers in your face rather than letting them naturally unfold. The game’s touching moments are overshadowed by glaring, melodramatic storytelling and weird narrative issues.
[Warning: review contains mild spoilers from Life is Strange episode 3 and 4]
The Story
The fourth installment of Life is Strange starts with an alternate reality. Max’s decision to save Chloe’s father in Episode 3 backfires. In this new reality, Chloe’s father gives her a car on her 16th birthday. She gets into an accident and becomes paralyzed from the neck down. Max realizes she needs to go back in time and let Chloe’s father die to save her best friend.
Fast forward to the present, Max and Chloe are now on the hunt for more clues about Rachel Amber’s disappearance. Max breaks into Nathan’s room, and David Madson’s garage, to find the final pieces of the puzzle. Max and Chloe find out what Nathan’s been hiding and solve the Rachel Amber mystery. Without giving too much away, Max and Chloe attempt to confront Nathan but end up in the worst scenario imaginable.
I should also note that in Life is Strange Episode 4, Max realizes her powers are limited and she only uses them when necessary. There aren’t too many major rewind moments and Max begs Chloe not to do anything rash when confronting key characters in Rachel Amber’s disappearance. Chloe agrees they must be more cautious now that they are so close to finding out what happened to Rachel.
My Thoughts
Life is Strange Episode 4 suffers from poor pacing and inconsistency. There are parts of the story that go by too slow, especially between the time you’re transported back to “reality” to the point where you solved the Rachel Amber mystery. There’s a lot of unnecessary time spent walking around trying to find Nathan. Some people, including Max, make decisions that are out of character just to progress the story.
These issues were illustrated in the way Chloe’s alternate reality played out. The first sequence is incredibly emotional as we see how a paralyzed Chloe lives her life: she’s a straight A student, loves science and tech, but she’s incredibly alone. Max didn’t even visit her once while she was in the hospital after her accident. Chloe got her father back, but ending up losing so much.
When the game transports you back to the original “reality,” you lose that emotion because everything was “fixed” without any real consequences. Max is aware she has the ability to time travel, but doesn’t decide to reach out to Chloe and try to prevent Rachel Amber’s disappearance in the past. She doesn’t try anything. The fact that nothing changed in the original “reality” felt like the easy way out.
It’s also difficult to enjoy the story because the game is constantly trying to sway you in one direction. It’s too obvious. All you hear is "Nathan Prescott is evil because the Prescott family is filled with terrible human beings." It’s so over the top anti-Nathan that it becomes obvious he’s not going to be the only player in Rachel Amber’s disappearance.
That may be on purpose, but it creates a problem for the twist at the end of Life is Strange Episode 4. Without spoiling the end, the game poorly connects Rachel Amber to the person revealed in the last scene. It was cheap shock for the sake of cheap shock. One family openly doing bad things isn’t interesting.
A lot of the decisions brought up in Life is Strange Episode 4 don’t really affect the game’s story. There was a point where Max and Chloe confront Rachel Amber’s drug dealer boyfriend Frank but every decision you made during previous encounters with Frank gets wiped away in one confrontation. Frank even texts Max wishing her luck on the quest to find Rachel Amber, which is completely random since he’s made it clear he doesn’t like Max and Chloe. Also, it’s out of character for Max to give Frank her number considering how many times he’s threatened Chloe. It would be stupid for Max to assume everything is okay with Frank after one conversation.
The Verdict
Life is Strange Episode 4 tried really hard to shock you, but it falls right into plot holes and clichés. It’s over-the-top twists make it too melodramatic to be enjoyable. Overall, Episode 4 has the weakest storyline and feels like it was rushed to get to the game’s final installment. Score: 2/5
