I played Life is Strange Episode 1 (which was the only free version on Steam). Life is Strange is a choose your adventure game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix. It’s available on most of the largest online game stores like Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC, the Google Play Store, and the App Store. There is also physical copy. The game is meant for mature audiences aged 17+, and because of it’s high price tag of around $49.99, it is not available to people who cannot afford it. It is a horror game where, in short, the storyline follows Max Caulfield who returns to her hometown of Arcadia Bay after five years away to study photography at Blackwell Academy. Somewhere down the line, Max finds out that she can rewind time, which she uses to save her childhood friend Chloe Price. Together, they begin investigating the disappearance of Rachel Amber, a popular student missing for months. As they dig deeper, they uncover darker sides of the story, and Max’s time travel powers are helpful in making the right decisions that change the future.
How Narrative is Woven into the Mystery Through Mechanics
The time-rewinding mechanic is a huge part of what makes the investigation aspects of Life is Strange different from any other game. When I walked Max through the game and conversations, I could rewind after seeing reactions and fix things that went wrong or try a different approach. This created a knowledge disparity dynamic where I had knowledge that my character shouldn’t have yet. The first time the rewind mechanism happened was when Max shouted with Nathan after witnessing him shoot someone with a gun. For this first time, the instructions guided me through it and from then on, I had full power to use the rewind mechanic using the right trackpad button.
This point forward is when the real game started. I had to plan dialogues and choices to solve the mystery learned about during the phase before where I couldn’t do rewind and was just reading all the clues from the scenes. The mystery of Rachel Amber’s disappearance unfolds gradually through this mechanic – as I gathered information from one timeline and applied it in another, the narrative deepened. I loved the examination part. It was easy to move as a character and easy to use the trackpad to click on objects around the school, which made me feel like I was actively constructing the narrative instead of passively receiving it in an essay like other games have. This created an archaeological approach to mystery where I was piecing together evidence from dorm posters, abandoned buildings, and personal items, as seen below:
I discovered Life is Strange uses multiple elements to shape the experience for the player. The rewind mechanic has limitations to make sure that the storyline progresses. Max can only rewind to certain points, cannot transport objects through time, and the reason that the game gives is that Max will have a headache when pushing her limits. I discovered that not every event can be reversed, creating tension between power and powerlessness that mirrors the narrative themes. This intentional limitation weaves narrative urgency into the mystery – some plot points must remain fixed, driving the story forward while maintaining the stakes of the investigation. This actually gives me a feeling of comfort because I know that the authors of the game will make sure that I progress. The primary resources are knowledge and relationships instead of weapons. Information gained from one conversation could be leveraged in another, even after rewinding which creates an information economy that is challenging to navigate. The overall goal is to uncover the mystery of Rachel’s disappearance and this is introduced to us through the 20+ posters that was available to be read before we learned about the rewind mechanism.
How Architecture Controls the Story
The architecture that the game was built in was an active storytelling mechanism. The design changes that happen from classroom to hallway to bathroom to outdoors creates an illusion of freedom while carefully directing narrative progression because a lot of times we cannot return. We can look at the game through Ernest Adams’ principles of exploration and concealment, where environment both reveals and obscures key narrative elements. Blackwell Academy’s classroom structures and well curated social hierarchical dormitories is a representative of real school life. I felt that the confined classroom spaces create a feeling of claustrophobia that contrasted with the freedom of outdoor locations, which is a clever use of setting to create and shift between different levels of tension.
Accessibility Considerations
I found that Life is Strange has the typical accessibility features that try to mitigate barriers but there is still more that can be done to improve it. Right now, the game is only available in 7 languages, mostly European ones, with vibration and captions being add-on accessibility features that can be configured in settings. This seems standard, but the game’s heavily relies on visual cues which bars visually impaired players. In this way, the time-rewind mechanic acts is unintentionally an accessibility feature, because with a button, it can allow someone to go back and see again. Or in time-sensitive scenarios players with cognitive or physical disabilities can use rewind to try these sequences multiple times to be faster. This separates mechanical execution from story progression, making the game more accessible. However, there are a couple of features like colorblind modes, text-to-speech replay options, or controller remapping that would have been a nice addition to the game. I appreciated how Life is Strange establishes a contemplative pace that works for various cognitive processing speeds. Unlike reflex-dependent games, most sequences allow progress through deliberate consideration rather than rapid response, which allows more people to solve the puzzles with their own abilities.
