Game:

Life Is Strange (2015)

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Life Is Strange is an episodic graphic adventure video game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix's European subsidiary. The first installment of the Life Is Strange series, the game was released in five episodes periodically throughout 2015 for Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One. It was ported to OS X and Linux in 2016 and iOS and Android in 2017–2018. A remastered version of the game was released as part of the Life Is Strange Remastered Collection in February 2022.

The plot focuses on Max Caulfield, an 18-year-old 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 player's actions adjust the narrative as it unfolds, and reshape it once allowed to travel back in time. Fetch quests and making environmental changes represent the forms of puzzle solving in addition to using branching choices for conversation.

Development of the game began in April 2013. It was formed with an episodic format in mind, for reasons both financial and creative. The developers conducted field research on the setting by traveling to the Pacific Northwest, and subverted known archetypes to make the characters. Player feedback influenced the adjustments made to the episodes. Story and character arc serve as the central point in the game.

Life Is Strange received generally favorable reviews commending the character development, rewind game mechanic, and tackling of taboo subjects. Criticisms included the slang that was used, poor lip-syncing, and tonal inconsistencies in the story. It was purchased by 3 million unique players in May 2017. A prequel, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, was released in August 2017, and a sequel, Life Is Strange 2, in September 2018. An additional installment to the series, Life Is Strange: True Colors, was released in September 2021.

Life Is Strange is a graphic adventure played from a third-person view.The player takes control of Max Caulfield, whose time rewinding ability allows the player to redo almost any action that has been taken.The player can examine and interact with objects, which enables puzzle solving in the form of fetch quests and making changes to the environment.Items that are collected before time travelling are kept in the inventory after the fact.

The player can explore various locations in the fictional setting of Arcadia Bay and communicate with non-playable characters.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.In some instances, choices in dialogue alter and affect the story through short or long-term consequences.For each one of the choices, something good in the short term could turn out worse later.

In October 2013, 18-year-old Maxine "Max" Caulfield (Hannah Telle) returns to Arcadia Bay, Oregon to attend Blackwell Academy. During her class with photography teacher Mark Jefferson (Derek Phillips), Max experiences a catastrophic vision of a tornado destroying a lighthouse and approaching the town. Leaving for the restroom to regain her composure, she witnesses classmate Nathan Prescott (Nik Shriner) shoot and kill a girl in a fit of rage. In a sudden effort, she develops the ability to rewind time and saves the girl, revealed to be her childhood friend Chloe Price (Ashly Burch). The two reunite and visit the lighthouse, where Max reveals to Chloe her powers. Strange weather and other anomalies begin to occur throughout Arcadia Bay.

The next day, Max's class is halted when Kate Marsh (Dayeanne Hutton), a fellow student who is being bullied for a viral video depicting her kissing several students at a party, commits suicide by jumping off the roof of the girls' dorm. Max manages to rewind time and reaches the roof, giving her the opportunity to talk Kate down. She ultimately resolves to uncover what happened to Kate and Chloe's missing friend Rachel Amber.Max and Chloe break into the principal's office that night, discovering multiple clues pointing to Nathan. The next morning, they sneak into the motorhome of drug dealer Frank Bowers (Daniel Bonjour), and learn that Rachel was in a relationship with Frank but kept it from Chloe. Max later examines a childhood photo of her and Chloe, but is suddenly transported to the day the picture was taken. She prevents Chloe's father William (Joe Ochman) from dying in a traffic collision, which inadvertently creates an alternative reality where William is alive but Chloe has been paralysed from the neck down as a result of her own accident.Heartbroken, Max uses the photo to undo her actions and return to the present day.

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