Life is Strange
Overview
Life Is Strange is an episodic interactive drama graphic adventure video game developed by Dontnod Entertainment, and published by Square Enix. The game's plot focuses on Maxine Caulfield, a photography student who discovers that she has the ability to rewind time at any moment, leading her every choice to enact the butterfly effect. The game will consist of five episodes. With seven weeks between each episode, it released its first on 30 January 2015. Life Is Strange is available for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One and Xbox 360 via digital distribution.
In the game, story and character arc serve as the central point rather than traditional graphic adventure tropes like point-and-click puzzles. The player's actions will be able to adjust the narrative as it unfolds, and reshape it once allowed to travel back in time. Themes of memory and identity are used to convey an adolescent sense of nostalgia, while the allegory of inner struggle is derived from the mystical aspects.
Life Is Strange is a graphic adventure, played from a third-person view. Introducing the mechanic of rewinding time allows the player to go back and redo any action other than what is done past a checkpoint (however long a checkpoint lasts). Outfitted with a polarity system, the choices made will alter and affect the story through short or long-term consequences. Dontnod creative director Jean-Maxime Moris added however that "for each one of your choices that you make there's no definite answer. Something good in the short-term might turn out worse later". Dialogue exchanges can be rewound while branching options are used for conversation. Once an event is reset, the details provided earlier are permitted to avail themselves in the future. Items that are collected before time travelling will be kept in the inventory after the fact. The player can also examine and interact with objects indicated by a UI of hand drawn icons, which enables puzzle solving. Easter eggs are present in all the levels of the game to accommodate exploration.
In the game, story and character arc serve as the central point rather than traditional graphic adventure tropes like point-and-click puzzles. The player's actions will be able to adjust the narrative as it unfolds, and reshape it once allowed to travel back in time. Themes of memory and identity are used to convey an adolescent sense of nostalgia, while the allegory of inner struggle is derived from the mystical aspects.
Life Is Strange is a graphic adventure, played from a third-person view. Introducing the mechanic of rewinding time allows the player to go back and redo any action other than what is done past a checkpoint (however long a checkpoint lasts). Outfitted with a polarity system, the choices made will alter and affect the story through short or long-term consequences. Dontnod creative director Jean-Maxime Moris added however that "for each one of your choices that you make there's no definite answer. Something good in the short-term might turn out worse later". Dialogue exchanges can be rewound while branching options are used for conversation. Once an event is reset, the details provided earlier are permitted to avail themselves in the future. Items that are collected before time travelling will be kept in the inventory after the fact. The player can also examine and interact with objects indicated by a UI of hand drawn icons, which enables puzzle solving. Easter eggs are present in all the levels of the game to accommodate exploration.
