For the critical play on mysteries, I played the original Life is Strange. Life is Strange was developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix. You play as Max Claufield as you she goes about her day. Suddenly, you see someone get shot in the bathroom, and are right back to where you were in class a couple minutes ago. Here, Max comes to the life changing realisation that she can go back in time. This game is perfect for collectors and storytellers, as you get more information throughout the game, and feel more like Max. Narrative is woven in through the mechanics by the ability to rewind time.
As Max experiences the same thing she did before seeing someone get shot, she tries to actively rewind time, to find out she can. She even answers questions with the answer she got from someone else before she rewinded time. Thus proving that she can turn back time.
(a picture of Max rewinding time)
As Max rewinds time, the screen gets blurry and everything is backwards. This really shows the confusion Max feels while watching time unravel. At the top left of the screen, you can see a spiral with a dot on it. The dots are moments where you interact with things or people. This puts me in Max’s shoes even more because there are times where I wanted to redo an entire conversation with someone, and she can, and they don’t even remember the previous one. This allows you to change how people think of you, no matter what you do.
The puzzles use this mechanic very well. There are times where you need to get something, and if you do it wrong, you can just rewind time and try again. Or, when in a very stressful, fast paced situation, you can rewind time to rewind others, and get more time on what you’re doing. That works because time rewinds for everyone except you and the stuff you interact with. And I found myself figuring out how to complete the puzzles after trying, making the rewind mechanic very helpful. This is a lot better than putting you in a fast paced situation that causes a lot of stress and annoyance as you constantly have to restart. It also gives you more time to look around and appreciate all the work the developers put in with the background and other stuff that is overlooked in fast paced situations.
(look at all the work they put into her notebook. It really feels like a teenage girl writing down her feelings. But chapter one is structured so you don’t have to read it at all)
Looking through the game, I don’t think there are any disabilities that would impair the player except for total blindness. The game uses color for mood and aesthetic, so other colorblind players won’t have an issue playing. The game is completely voice acted, but there are subtitles for those who are hard of hearing, or don’t like playing games with the sound on. I love when games add subtitles because I find it very hard to hear some times and subtitles make everything easier. The game also tells you how to do something after a couple tries of getting it wrong. I was struggling with the mechanic of looking at items because I’ve never played a game like this before. After trying everything but the correct way to do so, the game just told me to left click and hover over the word “look”. This was really helpful for me, an unexperienced player, while keeping it away from seasoned players who would think the game is insulting their intelligence.
