Life is Strange: Episode 4 arrives next week

By Gabe Gurwin July 23, 2015

With only two episodes remaining, Dontnod Entertainment’s Life is Strange has quite a few loose ends to tie up. Episode 3, titled Chaos Theory, ended with a twist that fundamentally changed all events preceding it. The wait for the next chapter has been unbearable ever since, but it will soon be over: Episode 4: Dark Room, arrives for consoles and PC next Tuesday, July 28.

Warning: spoilers for previous Life is Strange episodes below!

The announcement comes with a new trailer, showing a glimpse of protagonist Max searching through an abandoned barn as her investigation into Rachel Amber’s disappearance nears its conclusion.

“We’re getting so close to Rachel Amber,” Max says over shots of drugs and a giant closed vault. “We have to finish this.” Of course, just like Laura Palmer before her, Rachel Amber is now just one of many mysteries in Arcadia Bay.

Square Enix’s Scott Blows stresses that Dark Room is “taking a darker tone than previous episodes,” which makes sense given the conclusion of Chaos Theory — Chloe is now a quadriplegic and many of the earlier choices Max made are now seemingly reversed by her decision to save Chloe’s father. But one there’s still a storm a brewin’, and the “End of the World” party might be more literal than Blackwell Academy’s students expect.

The release date reveal also comes with news that Life is Strange has now passed 1 million total sales. It was not specified if season pass sales were counted multiple times (each contains episodes two through five), but the figures are extremely impressive for a studio that failed to attract significant attention with its previous game, Remember Me. The opening line of our review for that game said that it “won’t be recalled for its writing.” The exact opposite is true for Life is Strange, and Dontnod has a chance to further cement that legacy in the coming months.

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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