TW: Mentions of death and suicide
Background:
I played “Life is Strange”, a narrative game created by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix. The story targets teenagers and young adults and may be played on Xbox, PS4, or PC, and I played the game on PC after installing it on Steam.
“Life is Strange” tells the story of Max Caulfield, a high schooler who discovers she has the ability to rewind time after seeing her peer, Chloe Price, getting shot by another student, Nathan. She uses her power to save her classmate and soon finds out that Chloe is her childhood friend, though she is nearly unrecognizable since they had last seen one another. Chloe is close friends with Rachel Amber, a student who has recently disappeared, and the remainder of the game follows Max and Chloe’s journey to find out what happened to Rachel.
An example of a decision made in-game, when I tell the principal about Nathan having a gun.
Mechanics that contribute to the mystery:
The ability to rewind time is a fundamental mechanic as players control Max’s actions, and it affects both how players affect and interact with the mystery. As players rewind time, they have the ability to undo certain actions or decisions, especially in conversation. For instance, after undoing Chloe’s death I have the chance to tell the school principal that I witnessed Nathan holding a gun, and I’m given the option to retry the conversation after seeing that he is not receptive to my complaint. I found myself backtracking on many different decisions just to see how conversations could play out differently, oftentimes trying to set myself up to have the most connections and good relationships possible to leverage later on in the game, potentially to get more information helpful to uncover the mystery. Some of these decisions play out well—for instance, when I need to save a suicidal student, Kate, my previous positive conversations with her in addition to my dialogue options during the scene let her trust me and help me save her life. As a story and relationship-driven game, “Life is Strange” offers this unique mechanic as a way to allow players to feel more invested and deliberate about their decisions, adding more personal stakes to how the story plays out, as well as more opportunities to decipher the mystery of Rachel’s disappearance. There are many instances where rewinding time helps me uncover previously unknown pieces of information, even in smaller mysteries like the cause of Chloe’s dad’s, William’s, death. Max has the opportunity to explore a past where she saves William’s life, but also witnesses the unexpected adverse consequences within this timeline.
Saving a student, Kate, from committing suicide by building up our relationship and dialogue choices.
Beyond building or exploring relationships, rewinding time is required to progress in the game and its plot. For instance, Max has to use her powers to escape dangerous situations, like her kidnapping in Episode 4 after she is trapped by the same person who murdered Rachel. At the end of the game, we also find out that the decision to rewind time at all is necessary for the narrative as the “butterfly effect” of my choices affect the story itself. Max’s frequent use of her powers cause escalating natural disasters as she repeatedly rewinds time to save herself or Chloe, and she either has to choose between saving her town from a tornado or saving Chloe as the last major decision in the story. As such, this mechanic does not just affect how the player interacts with objects and characters, but it affects the plot and loops in this in-game ability to what ultimately plays out.
Max snooping through another person’s laptop to see clues for Rachel’s disappearance.
Setting in relation to narrative:
Another mechanic that contributes to both the narrative and the mystery is the ability to click on different objects to investigate them further. This makes players feel like they have more agency in unlocking knowledge as they theorize what might have happened to Rachel using these clues.This is woven into the setting and its narrative impact as well; drawing from the “What’s the Point of Architecture in Video Games?” reading, we may see that this ability to explore different settings and objects is directly related to several primary purposes of architecture, being exploration and concealment. Exploration allows us to investigate spaces relevant to Rachel’s disappearance, including the school, local diner, and forest, where we uncover clues and inch closer to understanding what truly happened. Concealment is also useful as we hide from other characters in our search to find such clues, including when Max and Chloe break into the school at night to investigate the principal’s files and have to leverage the layout of the locker room to hide from the police. As a secondary purpose of the architecture, the atmosphere of “Life is Strange”’s setting is also quite distinctive and contributes significantly to the player’s experience. The high school setting is familiar and the warm-tinged color palette makes events feel more dramatic and deepens the nostalgic feeling behind Max and Chloe’s shared childhood memories. As a player, I enjoyed the beautiful graphics and acoustic music that immersed me in this small-town setting.
Max hiding from the police in the locker room, ducking behind lockers and other obstacles.
Max investigating different clues laid out on a board.
Game accessibility:
There may be some accessibility difficulties when it comes to making quick decisions. For instance, in episode 2 Chloe is trapped in train tracks and Max has to move quickly to save her life. This may be difficult for players with cognitive or physical disabilities who are delayed in making this decision or mobilizing the character. However, through rewinding time, players are able to replay this scene as many times as needed until Chloe is freed. As such, this mechanic lowers the stakes for such situations and offers players the opportunity to continuously retry their decisions while still meaningfully contributing to the plot. For some, this may make the gameplay experience less exciting as there’s no “real reason” to be stressed. However, for others who are more invested in the characters and story, this mechanic makes it more possible for players to focus on the overall plot. As the game is centered around the mystery of Rachel’s disappearance as well as Chloe and Max’s relationship, this loss of high-stakes tension does not seem to detract significantly from “Life is Strange”’s core goals for its player experiences.
Wires that Max needs to cut in order to stop the train from hitting Chloe.
