Life is Strange
Storytelling Reinvention:
allows the player to revise event outcomes through time-travel, enhancing the player-agency and understanding of the narrative
Game Information
Release Date: January 30th, 2015
Developer: Dontnod Entertainment
Publisher: Square Enix
Rating: Teen
Genre(s): Exploratory, Role-Playing
Price: $4.99
Website: http://www.lifeisstrange.com/index.php
Life is Strange, a choice-based story game made by DONTNOD Entertainment, follows Maxine Caulfield, a girl who wakes up in class one day to find out she can bend the fabric of time and must use that power to save the life of another. The story takes place in the ficitonal town of Arcadia Bay -- a locale that is loosely based on an Oregon sleepy town, with thoughts to Garibaldi, Tillamook, and Newport.
This game is revolutionary in several ways, most notably of which is how it redefines its genre. Choice-based story games have existed for quite some time, and in the years of their existence one of their soul premises is that the player has to make a choice from a selection of prompts that affect the outcome of the game. And no matter what, a player cannot undo those choices or actions without restarting the whole experience.
The key feature in Life is Strange is Max Caufield’s ability to rewind time, which lets players re-examine the choices given to them if they don't like the outcome. But not only that, the game requires players to do so -- to continue through the character's life, making mistakes, learning outcomes, and attaining information by choosing the right or wrong choices offered in dialogue. Choices, then, open new paths in future or past dialogues and time-lines. This unique idea places players in a world where they not only explore the concept of what would they do if given a second chance, but how they could re-write life if given the opportunity, and even with that power, how such actions can lead to a completely unpredictable future.
References:
1. http://life-is-strange.wikia.com/wiki/Arcadia_Bay
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_Strange
Researcher: Travis Lane and Bernd Hoffmann
