Life Is Strange

Life Is Strange 

Title: Life is Strange 

Production Company: Dontnod Entertainment  

Copyright: 2015  

Genre: Graphic Adventure 

Awards or Honors:Life is Strange won the Grand Prix du Jury and the Prix du Meilleur Scénario (Best Story Award). 

Plot Summary: Life is Strange follows the adventures of 18-year-old Max Caulfield, a high school student going to Blackwell Academy and living in Arcadia Bay, a picturesque small town on the western coast of Oregon. After Max gets a vision of a storm destroying Arcadia Bay, the user discovers Max can reverse time and stop things from happening, which she does to save her long-lost childhood friend, Chloe, from being shot. They experiment with Max’s powers, and they save another student. She and Chloe decide to investigate the disappearance of Rachel Amber, another student at the school. Their investigation leads them throughout school and the town until they find Rachel’s body and evidence Rachel and other girls were drugged. They believe another student is responsible for the plot until they discover their teacher is the mastermind behind everything. After they stop him using Max’s powers, the storm reaches Arcadia Bay, making Max realize her powers brought the storm to Arcadia Bay when she first saved Chloe from being shot. The only way to theoretically stop the storm from destroying the town is to go back in time and not save Chloe. Max is then left with a final choice.    

Production Background: Dontnod Entertainment is a video game company founded in 2008. Hervé Bonin, Aleksi Briclot, Alain Damasio, Oskar Guilbert, and Jean-Maxime Moris started the company, and the company is based in Paris. Their goal is to produce AAA games, which are of a high standard. Their CEO is Oskar Guilbert. The first game they produced was Remember Me in 2012. They began work on Life is Strange in 2013, and they released the game in 2015. Life is Strange became a hit, reaching more than one million sales.   

Life is Strange has also spawned other projects in the Life is Strange Series. The company released Life is Strange 2 in 2018, and they have also produced a prequel featuring Chloe and Rachel Amber. The company has also produced video games like Remember Me, Vampyr, Twin Mirror, and Captain Spirit. They release their games in parts like a television series with episodes.   

Critical Evaluation: The game illustrations are well produced, with wonderful views of the Pacific Ocean, excellent details of small-town American life, and overall realistic gameplay. The plot is well done, with many different twists and turns as users make decisions. The ability to make all the important decisions makes the user feel like it is their story, rather than just going through the motions to reach the end. Users will feel invested and know that the way the game turns out rests entirely on them. Character development is excellent, with lots of backstory about the main characters and the sound development of minor characters. The soundtrack is superb, original, and fits into the tone of the game and adds to the overall gameplay during scenes. The Life is Strange Soundtrack on Spotify has over 46,000 followers, displaying the success of the soundtrack. The game is a success and is also a unique and memorable video game, as evidenced in its commercial success, cult following, and turning into a video game franchise.   

Creative Use: I would want to buy the video game and have it available to play on one of the library computers. The game would be a part of a larger video game collection that the library has available for teens. Many teens like playing video games, and having options available for them will increase in the coming years. The game can be played on a computer and doesn’t need a console. Once we buy it, the library would own it forever, so new teens could use it and play. As video games become more popular and evolve, having a collection would add to our electronic materials option.    

Speed Talk: Life is Strange is a game about choices. Who to save, who you are, and how much someone can grow and learn from their decisions. Max is an 18-year-old photographer who goes from a quiet life in high school to having the power to control time, which shouldn’t be possible. Her power lets her save lives but also puts her and the people she cares about in tough situations. With so many people depending on her choices, what will she do?    

Potential Challenges: There are no potential challenges currently. Potential challenges might be for same-sex kissing scenes and relationships between some of the characters. LGBTQ scenes are often frequent targets for challenges at libraries, and this would be the most likely scenario.   

Reason for Inclusion: The gameplay, plot, art, and music make it a great video game. This is a unique video game that isn’t just a shooting or violent game. It allows teens to play as a teen and make choices that affect the world around them. It addresses teen issues like drug use, alcohol, sexism, mental illness, death, suicide, and choices as you grow up. It doesn’t judge but instead lets the user make decisions and take control. It also features diverse women protagonists, which is not always seen in video games. Having a game with a better representation of women and issues they face is essential for libraries to consider when putting in video games. 

Dontnod Entertainment. (2020). Dontnod. Retrieved October, 7, 2020 from https://dont-nod.com/en/