Life Is Strange: An Introduction


Note: This article is mostly spoiler free. Aside from explaining the protagonist's ability (which is the main element of the game and probably the reason to play it) and a brief outline of a few characters and plot points, this article is about the tone, themes, and game-play elements of Life Is Strange.  The only major spoiler will be marked.

The renaissance of the point-n-click adventure games has been assured by Telltale Games, with their genre-altering The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among us episodic series. Unlike the Lucas Arts and Sierra games of the past, these series eschewed puzzle solving for a choose-your-own adventure style cinematic story, told in five parts. With minimal objects to collect, the episodic games focus on a mix of major and minor choices which influence the direction of the plot.

Life is Strange is of this new breed, even though it wasn't produced by Telltale. Other companies have discovered that a popular series can be successful, and have invested accordingly.


In Life is Strange, the player controls one Max (short for Maxine), a sort of not quite emo, not quite punk, not quite artist, who is slightly morose but incredibly likable. She has returned to the quiet seaside town of her childhood, Arcadia Bay Oregon, for her senior year of high school. Her parents inadvertently separated her from her best friend, Chloe when they moved to California at the beginning of high school.

The first day of senior year is Max's eighteenth birthday, and in class the player is introduced to a number of characters; from the photography teacher she admires, to the sophisticated, spoiled bully Victoria. Feeling ill for an undetermined reason she excuses herself to the bathroom. (Note Spoilers) There she follows a butterfly into a stall, in an attempt to photograph it, and witnesses a furious argument between two students that enter after her, but don't see her. As the argument spirals into violent passion the man shoots the woman dead. With a useless and desperate reaction Max throws out her arm, and discovers she is back in class ten minutes ago.

Through a number of short experiments Max realizes she has the power to travel back a short period in time and alter events. She returns to the bathroom and ensures the argument is broken up before any violence can occur, erasing the previous events she had witnessed.


The story continues through in the idyllic, but otherwise normal setting of a small commercial seaport. Yet everything is not perfect. Max has a series of visions about a tornado threatening the town some days hence, while acquainting and reacquainting herself with a number of people. In addition, a beloved (but not beloved enough) student at the art school has been missing for a number of months. These, combined with the development of Max's new powers, her reunion with her old friend, and the danger posed by the gunman from the bathroom, seem to complete the major aspects of the plot.

Now, a series of initial observations that will be reconsidered upon the conclusion.

Unlike the previously mentioned Telltale series, the aesthetic design of Life is Strange is uninspired and dull. Life is Strange uses the Unreal Engine 3 which can be used to develop impressive visual effects, but here the models appear lifeless, blocky, and unresponsive to the environment. As regular gamers will know, hair is notoriously tricky, and in one scene Max's hair remains a solid mass in spite of a torrential downpour. While the appearance does not inspire enthusiasm, the bright lighting, combined with a minor pastel style meshes with the tone of the plot.


Choices are the main aspect of Life is Strange. Each episode has five major decisions and twelve minor ones, all of which supposedly effect the plot. In the settings one can chose to have the game notify the player which conversations will have a future effect. This is where the key game-play element is used. After every consequential action or conversation, the player can rewind time and explore other options. Occasionally, information collected in a conversation will allow Max to go back and open up other conversation paths. This creates a different atmosphere than the Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us. In those games danger was always lurking in the player's path, and many decisions were made with a timer counting down (until you realize you can pause the game, but don't, it totally ruins the atmosphere).

In Life is Strange the player can examine both dialogue trees and ultimately reach the conclusion they desire. It's cerebral instead of reactive, though that isn't to claim that the choices are difficult intellectual problems. And of course, just because the player has seen both conversations doesn't mean one can predict the outcome of any choice. In addition, there are a significant number of morally ambiguous major decisions, and the game highlights this aspect by having Max provide a few questioning thoughts about the negative aspects of her choice. And in the final choice of Episode One: Chrysalis there are four different outcomes that can be discovered, offering a variety that TellTale games can't match.


As mentioned at earlier, Max is a likable character, but is somewhat constructed out of cliches. This feels true for a number of elements in Life is Strange, especially the characters and the dialogue. The plot occurs in a high school and Max is constantly complaining about how it shouldn't be like high school, and yet the stereotypes common to high school are all there: the gossiping mean girls, the nerds, the loners, the jocks, the stock Christian character, and the socioeconomic divide. The dialogue between them turns on agonizingly outdated and cliched phrases that a forty year old adult apparently believes high schoolers are using right now. Yet, occasionally, especially Max's internal monologues, rise to above average, if still failing to be truly profound. When the game isn't immersed in the depths of high school, it aims for the profoundness of philosophy, but mostly hits the intellectual level of an eighteen year old.

In conclusion, at the games worst, the dialogue and characters clash on the ear of the player, but at its best it uses its appealing protagonist to explore her thoughts about growing up, the challenges of returning home, along with a unique time rewinding mechanic combined with difficult decisions.

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