Square Enix has announced that the Life Is Strange: Remastered Collection will release sometime later this fall following the release of the latest entry in the series, Life Is Strange: True Colors, this September.
Including both the original Life Is Strange and its prequel, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, the Remastered Collection enhances the games with improved visuals and animations to make the games play better than ever.
To celebrate the upcoming release, we’ve decided to take a look back at 10 moments we can’t wait to replay over and over in the Life Is Strange: Remastered Collection.
First Instance of Rewinding Time (Life Is Strange – Episode 1)
Once you finish taking in all of the goings-on down the corridor to the toilet from Mr. Jefferson’s class, Life is Strange introduces you to its premiere gameplay mechanic of rewinding time.
It’s not like it throws a small, relatively insignificant event to show you the ropes either. Instead, you save a girl’s life… who turns out to be your best friend that you haven’t spoken to in a couple of months. Not only that, but it’s from the local psychopath.
At that point, we had no idea the significance of that very moment and the photo we took of the butterfly. It would all become very clear soon enough though.
Talking Kate Down Off the Roof (Life Is Strange – Episode 2)
While this moment does hinge largely on whether you make the right choices in order to successfully talk Kate down off the roof, it was hugely rewarding and a big relief if you did.
Saying the right things to Kate when you finally make it up to the roof quite literally had us on the edge of our seat. We pondered the right decisions for minutes. We couldn’t screw this up!
When you successfully bring her down off the roof, you feel a great sense of pride inside. Kate is even kind enough to show her appreciation for your efforts in text messages in the following episodes too! We always liked that girl.
Jumping Into Photos (Life Is Strange – Episode 3)
Toward the end of Episode 3, Life is Strange throws a curveball at you: Apparently, you can rewind time to specific events if you look at a photo.
After Chloe gets pissed at Max, you stumble upon a photo of the pair when they were younger. By focusing on the two smiling faces of Max and Chloe, you are thrown back to when Chloe’s late father took the photo right before his accident.
By throwing us back in time, Life is Strange really hit home just how tragic and sad the car accident was. Rather than just referencing back to it every once in a while, you have to experience the lead-up to it.
After hiding his car keys so he had to take the bus, we thought it was a job well done. We jumped back to the present day, but all was not how we expected it to be.
A Different Chloe (Life Is Strange – Episode 3)
Upon returning to the present day, we felt like absolute legends. Brought our best friend’s deceased dad back to life? Now that’s what you call a friend!
Alas, Max’s plan hadn’t quite gone to plan. Sprinting round to Chloe’s house to see William Price and Max’s partner in crime, she rings the doorbell, only for Chloe to open the door.
All of the meddling in the past to save William’s life has led to Chloe suffering an accident in this new timeline. She’s bound to a wheelchair, with normal-colored hair, and doesn’t have the bad-ass attitude that just makes Chloe… Chloe.
The very first time you experience this cutscene for yourself, it really does take you aback. Plus, when the episode originally launched, we had TWO unbearable months to wait until we could see how Max would fix things.
Uncovering the Prescott Bunker (Life Is Strange – Episode 4)
Episode 4 was when Max and Chloe really upped the investigative ante as they poked around the old Prescott family barn on the outskirts of Arcadia Bay.
Here, they find a number of normal farming tools and machinery. All hope is seemingly lost, until Max uncovers a brand-new hatch door under some hay on the ground. Soon enough, the duo are already devising a ingenious plot to break the padlock open and see what hides underneath.
Turns out this wasn’t some ordinary barn after all. It was a bunker housing a bunch of incriminating evidence, including pictures of Kate and Rachel tied up and drugged.
Finding Rachel (Life Is Strange – Episode 4)
While scouring through all of the evidence and photos at the bunker, Chloe and Max find a photo of a drugged Rachel lying next to Nathan Prescott surrounded by garbage.
Immediately knowing where this is, Chloe and Max head to Chloe’s favorite spot, the Junkyard. Message To Bears’ Mountains kicks in, and the two begin digging in search of Rachel. It doesn’t take long for them to uncover her body.
The camera zooms out, Max consoles a heartbroken Chloe, and the screen fades to black.
This may well be one of our all-time favorite scenes in any video game. DONTNOD Entertainment does an exceptional job in the first game of nailing the licensed soundtrack to accentuate particularly emotional scenes, and Mountains is the perfect song for this moment.
Its melancholic tones fading out to Chloe’s cries is a haunting scene we’ll never forget.
Chloe’s Funeral (Life Is Strange – Episode 5)
So, you finally made a choice on that big decision at the end of Life Is Strange.
The screen fades to black, and we’re taken back to the girl’s bathroom where Chloe and Nathan Prescott first had that altercation. The blue butterfly flutters around out of focus in the foreground of the scene. Voices are raised, Chloe questions why he’s got that and then, the gunshot.
Foals’ Spanish Sahara slowly thuds into life. The butterfly slowly floats away, and Max’s tears hit the floor. Nathan recoils back in sheer panic, and Chloe’s bloodied body is left lying on the floor next to the gun.
The camera pans its way out of the bathroom and begins a polaroid-style montage of Max and Chloe, all the trials and tribulations they’ve encountered along the way, and that damn lighthouse.
The ensemble cast all trudge into Arcadia Bay cemetery, gathering around the Price gravestone. The blue butterfly returns, gently landing and resting on the coffin.
This whole ‘ending’ cutscene is just next level in cinematography and soundtrack curation once more. It encapsulates that indie, teen drama feel that Life Is Strange is basically known for at this point.
S-tier game ending. S-tier soundtrack. Unforgettable moment.
Tunes on the Train (Life Is Strange: Before the Storm – Episode 1)
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm tells… well, the story before the storm hit Arcadia Bay and made Max face that heart-wrenching decision.
It focuses on Chloe Price and Rachel Amber, and how their relationship blossomed into something that consumed Chloe by the time the events of the first game rolled around.
Initially, their relationship seems a little odd. They’re friends at best, but there’s an uncomfortable air to it all. That is, up until the two hop on a train, have a heart-to-heart conversation, and then soak up the tranquility of their journey as they share earphones and listen to some tunes.
Said tune is actually Lantern on the Lake’s Through the Cellar Door, and once again captures that coming-of-age, emotive feel.
While you’re able to skip through some of this after a while, we found ourselves just kicking back, enjoying the music, and watching Chloe and Rachel take in all the sights whizzing by.
In a game where there’s so much drama going on, it’s nice to take in these quiet moments with the main characters, especially given you know how their story’s going to end.
The Tempest (Life Is Strange: Before the Storm – Episode 2
Chloe Price is not the teenager you think of when it comes to performing in a school play. Yet, when a wildfire causes a road closure and prevents a student from being able to perform in the school theater production, Rachel somehow manages to persuade Chloe to fill the gap.
What comes next is some of the best writing and dialog choice options we’ve ever been graced with. You’re given some time to try and memorize the script, and you can either knock it out the park by choosing the right lines and positions to move Chloe, or completely screw it up, like Chloe probably would.
Whichever way you go, the scene is very humorous, with Chloe stumbling her way through lines while having moments of comedic inner monologue. The whole thing’s punctuated by shocked faces from Rachel and occasional reactions from the teacher on the sideline.
Eventually, the two veer off script massively, but have this beautifully intimate moment in front of an entire crowd. They, in muddled ye olde-style language, confess their feelings for one another and, in the process, somewhat rewrite the narrative of The Tempest altogether.
Simply messing around with the different dialog options, where you can move Chloe on the stage and see how all of them affect the way this scene plays out makes for a ton of fun. By the end, you can’t wait to watch Chloe wing it once again.
The Walk Home (Life Is Strange: Before the Storm – Episode 2)
After a successful performance of The Tempest, both Chloe and Rachel walk home along the streets. They recall their favorite moments of the performance, ambling past bikes laid casually by the side of the road under the dim, intermittent glow of streetlights.
They laugh, they joke. They talk about how intense the last 12 hours have been and everything they’ve been through. They have that gooey, ‘in-love’ look in their eyes as they hold hands walking down the middle of the road.
Then, in a split second, Rachel decides they should skip Arcadia Bay and go exploring together. They can pack up their stuff, fix up the truck at the junkyard, and never look back.
There’s something so quietly intimate about the scene that it always sticks in our heads, no matter how long it has been. It’s the moment the two’s connection becomes abundantly clear, sealing it all with a kiss, and only adds to the inevitable heartache you know is coming in their futures.
Published: Mar 23, 2021 09:00 am