Why I will always choose Bae>Bay, and why I believe it’s the choice the game pushes you towards
If you’ve never played Life is Strange then click away, as this discusses the epic finale of the game that going into blind is something everyone should get to experience.
One of my favorite games of all-time is Life is Strange; it’s a game that really got me into video games past just playing things like the The Sims and Minecraft. It was the game that made me realize that video games can tell stories, and emotional ones at that.
Narrative-driven, choice-based, the atmosphere of a small Oregon town on the coast, and an unforgettable soundtrack, makes up this critically acclaimed classic. The idyllic vibes, of course, are misleading as you’re thrown into a dark mystery, and forced to make an impossible choice.
I first played this game during my winter break freshmen year of college, and 7 years later I’ve replayed it a handful of times, watched streamers play it, and have encouraged friends to play it. When I first played, I blasted through it in the span of 24 hours, finishing it at about 2am on my couch, feeling utterly wrecked. There’s even a steam review that shows exactly what I was feeling.
When the moment for the ultimate decision arose, SACRIFICE CHLOE vs. SACRIFICE ARCADIA BAY, I sat with my jaw hanging open for about 2 minutes straight, desperate for a different choice. After much deliberation, I chose to sacrifice Arcadia Bay, and it’s what I’ve continued to choose ever since.
Why? Because I honestly believe it’s the right decision; obviously, the game isn’t meant to have a “right” decision, but I think in the grand scheme of things, saving Chloe is what you were always meant to do.
The game starts with showing you the storm prior to Max’s powers manifesting; prior to her saving Chloe. This implies she was always going to save Chloe, and the storm was always going to come. From the first time you save her, one of your main goals becomes keeping Chloe alive. You save her from a ricocheting bullet, an on-coming train, and a bullet to the head.
Some people think this means Chloe was always meant to die. But the efforts you make throughout the game to keep her alive, feel utterly futile if in the end, you decide she was always meant to die by the hand of a damaged kid in a high school bathroom. Max traverses time and space to not only save Chloe, but try to make her happy and fix the past. Chloe’s well-being has always been Max’s top priority, and it feels like a betrayal to her character to go against that at the end.
Not only that, but choosing to sacrifice Chloe, also means you sacrifice every moment you spent together in the game. The rebuilding of your relationship, every moment you showed Chloe you’re there for her and not leaving her again. Everything you did to help her find Rachel Amber, even if the end result was devastating.
The choice is selfish but it’s one of utter love and devotion, and it shows Chloe for the first time in a long time that she matters; that she matters to someone. The game is about being there for a friend that you left behind, a friend that has been beaten down by life, and showing her that she’s worth saving.
Letting Chloe die in a bathroom, thinking her best friend abandoned her forever, her other best friend missing and adding to that sense of abandonment, is honestly more heartbreaking than the destruction of all of Arcadia Bay. Chloe is worth more than her life ending in unanswered questions and an overwhelming sense of abandonment.
I know people disagree with this, and that some people think Chloe even sucks as a person, but her trauma runs deep and she takes accountability for her actions throughout the game, whether it’s through a text or a begrudging word outside a hospital room. She’s a 19 year old whose life is a disaster; can anyone honestly say they were their best self at 19? Chloe’s behavior shouldn’t condemn her, and she deserves the chance to continue to grow and heal, just as we see her begin to do during the game with Max by her side.
This game is about hard choices and consequences, but it’s also about being found and redemption. It’s about devotion and love and mattering more to the universe than you could have ever fathomed. To me, sacrificing Chloe is an injustice to the entire journey and message of the game.
Bae>Bay, always.
