Life Is Strange and Tales From The Borderlands: A Tale of Two Finales
Two games. Two finales. One day.
If you were a fan of narrative-driven episodic adventure games where choices mattered in the mid-2010s, chances are that October 20th 2015 was a big day for you. That was the day that Telltale’s Tales From The Borderlands would release ‘Vault Of The Traveler’ the game’s fifth and final episode. It was also the day that Dontnod would release Polarized, their fifth and final instalment of Life Is Strange. For most of 2015 I was utterly obsessed with these games and spent a lot of time on the Telltale Games forum and the Life Is Strange subreddit in the runup to the release of their final instalments. The fourth episodes of both games ended on shocking cliffhangers and speculation on how they would end was rampant. The wait seemed interminable, but inevitably, October 20th rolled around. But six years on, how are these two games remembered?
Both these games had driving questions that were going to be answered in the final episode. For TFTB, one of the main ones was — who was the mysterious Stranger who had kidnapped Rhys and Fiona? Why was he so interested in getting their sides of the story of the vault heist? Where was he taking them? And for that matter, why did the gang split up? The game heavily hinted that the Stranger was someone known to us, and there were a lot of interesting theories on who they could be.
Since Life Is Strange explicitly had a mystery at the center of its story — Rachel Amber’s disappearance as well as other questions related to Max’s powers and the apocalyptic storm from Max’s visions, there were more driving questions. Max and Chloe took it upon themselves to uncover what happened to Rachel Amber which meant that the player was exposed to a many hints and clues about what was really happening. Each new episode seemed to uncover more clues and even more questions. This abundance of hints meant that the theorycrafting scene for Life Is Strange had abundant material work with. The game’s subreddit r/lifeisstrange was a great place to look for theories and discussions, but my other favourite source for theories was Geek Remix, a channel on YouTube that made insightful analyses of the game and based theories on these analyses that often ended up being proved right.
So, in the lead-up to October 20th, anticipation was through the roof. ‘Which game should I play first?’ was a thought that occupied an inordinate amount of space in my head. And not just mine. That decision however was taken out of my hands since the release for Life Is Strange Episode 5 happened earlier in the day, and so that was the one I played first.
Life Is Strange Episode 5 — Polarized
There’s no way to get around it — Life Is Strange had a disappointing finale. While there’s no official word on the matter, it really feels like this episode was hamstrung by budgetary concerns. The game’s world feels smaller in this episode compared with the number of new locations introduced in the previous one. A third of the episode is dedicated to an extended nightmare sequence which gives the game an excuse to recycle locations, assets, and even dialogue. Characters that were hinted to know more about what was really going on were either unceremoniously killed off or simply did not appear in the episode.
Most of the mysteries surrounding the game got no satisfying answers. We never learn why Max got her powers and at one point in the episode, the game makes this explicit by saying that it doesn’t matter why Max got her powers. The origin of the storm is explained as being caused by Max saving Chloe from being shot, and the final choice of the game is to go back in time to let Chloe die, saving the town or let the storm destroy the town, which allows Chloe to survive.
While I do believe that there was some seeding for all of this — the butterfly effect is brought up a lot, it seems like Chloe is simply fated to die (through the game, Max uses her powers to save her from dying multiple times), and the final conversation at the lighthouse was hinted at as early as episode 1. However, there were also numerous indications the storm was always fated to happen, and that other characters knew about the storm, especially the Prescotts, which conflicts with the game’s assertion that Max’s powers were the cause of the storm.
Discussions immediately after October 20th mainly concerned expressions of dissatisfaction about not getting resolution to a lot of the game’s loose threads, which ending option was better (‘Bay vs Bae’ was the nickname given to this choice) and dealing with ‘post-LiS depression’ because such was the love for the game that many people found themselves deeply moved by the game. In the immediate aftermath, I myself found myself deeply disappointed by the game’s conclusion. I was however, moved by the game’s ending anyway and was dealing with my own post-LiS depression. Luckily, by the time I had finished ‘Polarized’, the perfect distraction was available to me.
Tales From The Borderlands Episode 5 — Vault Of The Traveler
Tales From The Borderlands (TFTB henceforth) had a conclusion that was everything that Polarized was not. It tied up every plot point, character arc, and mystery in a finale that was everything that it needed to be — pitch-perfect in tone and narratively satisfying. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that this episode did everything perfectly. TFTB as a whole had much smaller playerbase than Life Is Strange, and even among Telltale Games’ output is often overshadowed by The Walking Dead Game and The Wolf Among Us, when in my opinion, it is probably the best game Telltale ever made. The game’s sense of humour does a lot to endear the characters, make you care about the story and just make the story world more fun to inhabit. But it never gets in the way, and consequently, scenes without any jokes in them have that much more weight.
I think a part of the reason TFTB stuck the landing when Life Is Strange couldn’t is that TFTB had a much narrower scope than Life Is Strange and was therefore able to be more focused about arriving at its conclusion. The main characters’ motivation is straightforward and concrete — they want to get rich and will get into all sorts of ridiculous hijinks to achieve this goal. TFTB also had a great sense of narrative economy — any element introduced to the game served some purpose and you could generally see what that purpose was. It was paced masterfully. Each episode deepened your understanding of the characters, and a big part of your investment in the story ended up stemming from how much you cared about them
It also had fewer lingering mysteries and was able to set them up and resolve every one of them in a satisfying way. The reveal of the identity of the Stranger is one of the few dramatic reveals in fiction that legitimately made me scream out loud. It exists in that perfect spot where it was someone that I (who had that point had read almost every theory there was) had never suspected, but it wasn’t so outlandish that the story stopped making sense. So many of the sense gained new meaning in retrospect thanks to that reveal. It, like the rest of the game, was perfect.
So…How Are They Remembered Now?
At first glance, it seems that TFTB had the better finale, and in the weeks following the release of the two finales, the Life Is Strange ending definitely soured me on the game for some time.
Yet now, six years later, I still find myself thinking Life Is Strange on a frequent basis, but not so much about TFTB. I think that TFTB is so sleek and flawless in its perfection that it feels difficult to get a foothold into. You just have to appreciate it for what it is and leave it at that. Life Is Strange on the other hand, is ambitious, flawed but just as much of a masterpiece as TFTB. Its flaws help you think about the game you’d like it to be, and all the missed opportunities and wasted potential haunt you and move you in a way that’s quite in keeping with the game’s themes and overall mood. It’s definitely the better-remembered of the two now, and while that’s obviously because it was.
My favourite thing about Life Is Strange is its atmosphere. Visually, a lot of scenes are set during the golden hour, giving everything a hazy, golden glow. There are often lingering shots of specific objects at the beginning of cutscenes, creating a sense of coziness. It helps to highlight the quiet moments and small moments. The game’s soundtrack is meant to evoke a sense of nostalgia, something that also comes through from a lot of Max and Chloe’s dialogue, reminiscing about their childhood exploits. I’d never encountered such a meditative, introspective atmosphere, and it helped me see the world around me from that perspective. 2015 was the year I really got into video games, and it’s a time I look back on fondly. I spent a lot of time engaging with these two games through forums and social media and met some interesting people that way. That’s why I always take a moment every 20th October to reminisce about the conclusion of these two excellent games and all the emotions that went along with it.
