Life is Strange
Life is very strange for Max, a photographer who recently discovered her time-manipulating powers. The game starts off with her waking up just as a hurricane was about to make landfall. We were in a mutual state of confusion, so I had Max walking over to the nearest shelter: a lighthouse. Unfortunately, a massive piece of flying debris hits the lighthouse and topples it onto Max.
She wakes up abruptly in the middle of a photography class. The game then gave me the opportunity to look around the classroom and interact with various objects by looking at them or using them. Each object reveals bits and pieces of Max’s personality, her backstory, and so forth. Slowly, I learned that she loves photography, admires her photography teacher, and is currently attending Blackwell Academy on a scholarship for her final year of high school.
Once class was over, I was able to explore the hallway. There were a plethora of posters covering the hallways and closer examination revealed that most of them were missing person notices for Rachel Amber. Max’s responses to the posters as well as conversations with students and teachers built up fragments of who Rachel Amber is and the fact that it’s a mystery about how she went missing. Entering the bathroom is where things start to become even more strange. After witnessing a student get shot, Max suddenly rewound time and we were given a second chance to save the student. Having the ability to rewind time granted me the ability to revisit conversations, take a different route in them, and investigate the situation around Rachel Amber further. However, the lack of ability to rewind before a certain checkpoint ensures that despite being able to “undo” actions, there is still the “what if” thought bouncing around in my head after I commit to an action and pass a checkpoint. The actions I take have lasting consequences as I progress deeper into the plot, the effects manifesting in others’ behavior around me and the range of options I have in conversations with students/teachers. I haven’t made it far into the story yet, but the story already intrigues me.
