Ten years ago, Life is Strange changed everything

On January 30 2015, Square Enix and DONTNOD debuted the first episode of Life is Strange. A grounded but timey-wimey mystery where a teenage Max Caulfield discovers they can rewind time and uses this to save their best friend’s life, it was clear this game was something different. 10 years ago, Life is Strange changed everything.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where the idea and concept of Life is Strange first reared its head, but undeniably its roots are in the booming episodic narrative games that were occurring at the time. Telltale Games was at its peak in this niche, working on games like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us. Then along came this coming-of-age narrative venture where the supernatural and teenage hood collide in Life is Strange. In that first episode alone, it sparked a fire in queer gamers alike.

Life is Strange’s inciting incident is the reunion of Chloe and Max. Following years of estrangement, the two best friends reunite in their late teenage years and drop all prior resentments and focus on what they love most: just spending time with one another. Of course, this is cut short when Chloe is murdered in cold blood, and then Max learns she can rewind time and stop it from ever happening. In the most sapphic and fierce love move of all time, Max defies all logic and obstacles in her way to protect the one person she’s ever truly cared about. Of course, that’s just sapphic in vibes. It’s not truly explicit until later.

From there, Life is Strange steamrolls into a story all about the two. There is a mystery that you are investigating. There are supporting characters. Though it’s hard to deny this is Max and Chloe’s world and we’re just living in it. Every single scene that the pair share becomes pure gold; a series of vignettes of two young girls finding out their sexualities and love for each other. A first kiss shared in a bedroom on a hazy late afternoon upon a dare. A risque shared swim in a public pool after dark. One cries into the arms of another as they experience grief for the first time. These are the snapshots of two teenage girls in love.

The very reason Life is Strange resonated with so many players is that the connection between the two girls is electric. You’d be hard-pressed to find a player (even a straight male one at that), that chose not to pursue Chloe. From the very first time you save Chloe’s life, rewinding time to stop her murder, their relationship, history and future is crystalised.

Of course, we all know where it’s going. By the very laws and facts of life, Chloe shouldn’t be here. A lot of the weird things going on post-saving Chloe shouldn’t be happy. In Max’s selfish choice to preserve Chloe’s life, she fears her new-found powers and vows to only use them for good. From there, she uses her powers for very selfless reasons. She helps her fellow underdogs in Kate Marsh. She solves the mystery of the missing Rachel Amber. Max tries her hardest to make the world right. However, she can’t. She can’t stop the rolling storm that’s coming.

Then comes the final decision of Life is Strange. Do you save Chloe and let the whole town die or do you say goodbye to Chloe, restoring things to how they should be in turn saving the town Arcadia Bay? The famous ‘Bae or Bay?‘ option. Whichever choice one makes is divisive amongst fans, both for equally valid reasons. I wouldn’t fault anyone for choosing to save the town and save humankind, because duh, but to me the only natural and obvious choice is to save Chloe. Let me explain.

Life is Strange resonated with me in ways I didn’t know how to explain at the time. Why did I resonate so much with these two young queer women? I was (or at least I thought) a straight cis man at the time. I’m now the exact opposite of that. What I’ve come to realise following the game quite literally cracking my egg is that I see so much of myself both in Max and Chloe. I’m the more riotous blue-haired punk that is Chloe thanks to my rebellion and give-no-f*ck attitude in simply existing as a queer woman today. I’m like Max in that I’m not all that outgoing and I’m more reserved and quiet and want to only hang about those closest to me.

I’m like both of them simultaneously because as a queer woman, society often is eager to keep me down. It wants to suppress my pride and have me hide. I’m not allowed to be selfish for the ones I love. In saying that, of course, I chose to save Chloe. Of course, I finally let Max embrace being selfish because she has earned it. The Bay and its other people were just set-dressing, after all.

Ten years ago, Life is Strange began. Ten years ago, Life is Strange changed everything. It was the most high-budget and prolific game that depicted a canonical relationship (romantic or otherwise) between two young girls. Everything non-indie and queer in games before was side romances. Options. This had a story to tell and it damn well told it, making no concessions. This was a game all about Max and Chloe.

Life is Strange now has five games in the series in its 10-year existence. Suffice it to say, though I’ve almost equally loved them all (except that most recent venture), nothing quite resonates and is the touchstone that the original was. The disconnect between some of the creators of the series and the very art they made is quite troublesome, as proven by a thorough report by IGN last year. Amongst horrible reports of studio mismanagement and abuse, allegedly publisher Square Enix stated that they didn’t want Life is Strange to be considered “the queer game.” On the day of Life is Strange’s tenth anniversary, I ask “Why don’t you?” You made the queer game blueprint that’ll be echoed for years to follow.

That first little game-that-could that was released all those years ago bewitched me. They can’t take that away from me. They can’t take that away from us. Here’s to ten years of the adorable queer pair that stole my god damn heart.