Life Is Strange (series)

Following the critical and commercial failure of their 2013 action-adventure game Remember Me, French game developer Dontnod Entertainment was forced to restructure and reinvent themselves. Dontnod CEO Oskar Guilbert explained "Before, what we wanted to do was make big games with large teams and long production cycles... So we had to change that, do something smaller with smaller teams. We didn’t want to do just a small game; we also wanted to bring something new to the market."[1]

Life Is Strange was conceived around the rewind mechanic, a concept which had already been briefly explored in Remember Me. The protagonist of the first game, Max Caulfield, was created with the ability to rewind time to supplement this mechanism. Development began in April 2013 with a team of 15 people, with further people added as the collaboration with Square Enix began.[2] Before signing with Square Enix, Dontnod imagined Life Is Strange as a full-length video game similar to Remember Me that Dontnod would self-publish; however, Square Enix realised it would be more successful as an episodic title, both for creative reasons, financial restrictions[3] and marketing purposes.[4] This allowed them to tell the story at a slower pace.[5]

Development began under the working title What If, before being retitled to avoid confusion with the film of the same name.[6] It was Dontnod's second title with a female protagonist, and most prospective publishers were unwilling to publish a game unless it had a male protagonist. Guilbert also challenged the idea at the start. Dontnod Creative Director Jean-Maxime Moris explained that Square Enix was the only publisher with no intention to change this. "Square [Enix] is basically the only publisher who didn't want to change anything about the game... we had other publishers telling us to make it a male lead character, and Square didn't even question that once."[7][8]

For the first game, the Pacific Northwest was chosen for the setting to convey a nostalgic and autumnal feel, with the team eventually settling on Oregon as the location of the fictional town of Arcadia Bay.[9] It was decided early on that most of the budget be spent on the writing and voice actors.[10] The story was originally written in French by Jean-Luc Cano, and converted into a game script by the game's co-directors and design team. This was then handed over to Christian Divine and Cano to be fine tuned in English.[11][12] Recording sessions were done in Los Angeles, California, with the French developer brought in via Skype.[13][14] The textures seen in the game were entirely hand painted, adapted to achieve what art director Michel Koch called "impressionistic rendering".[15] Sources of inspiration include the visual novel Danganronpa, in terms of balancing gameplay and story, and the novel The Catcher in the Rye, whose protagonist Holden Caulfield shares a surname with Max, the first game's lead character.[16] For the sake of realism, the supernatural elements were designed as a metaphor for the characters' inner conflict,[17] and experts were consulted to tackle difficult subjects such as teen suicide.[18]

Following the release and rapid success of the first Life is Strange, publisher Square Enix chose American developer Deck Nine to develop a prequel game focusing on the life of Chloe Price,[19] while the Dontnod team began developing a direct sequel. Development on the project began in 2016 with assistance from Square Enix' London Studios.[20] Ashly Burch, who voiced Chloe in Life Is Strange, was replaced by Rhianna DeVries due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.[21] However, Burch and Hannah Telle, who voiced Max Caulfield, both reprised their roles for the bonus episode Farewell.[22] The project went under various working titles during development.[23] The writers researched memoirs and psychology to understand Chloe's grieving process,[24] and the script for the game was over 1,500 pages, written by lead writer Zak Garriss and a writers' room. Prior to its official announcement, images had leaked online indicating that a prequel to Life Is Strange was in development.[25] Square Enix revealed Life Is Strange: Before the Storm on 11 June during their E3 2017 presentation.[26]

Dontnod had decided early on that prospective follow-ups to Life Is Strange would feature new characters and locations to the original, with the developers feeling that Max and Chloe's story had run its course over the first two games.[27][28] Game Co-Director Raoul Barbet explained that "It’s a question we asked ourselves at the beginning. Is it Max and Chloe, Arcadia Bay? No, it’s about everyday characters, relatable characters with stories you can involve yourself in, because it reflects your own experiences. With some supernatural stuff on the top.” Michel Koch added that “everyone loved Max, Chloe, Rachel... But [their story]...it's done. We have nothing more to tell. We don't want to. Other people will do it, and it's okay... But for us, we have nothing more to do. Take [them] and do whatever you want."[29]

Development on Life Is Strange 2 began in early 2016 as the first game shipped its physical edition.[30][31] Michel Koch and Raoul Barbet returned to direct the sequel,[32] with Christian Divine and Jean-Luc Cano reprising their roles as co-writers.[33][34][35] The concept was influenced by the photography of Mike Brodie, who would freighthop across the United States and take pictures of drifters.[36] The game is structured like a road movie, inspired by the film Into the Wild and novella Of Mice and Men. Dontnod conducted field research on the West Coast of the United States, meeting people and taking pictures there.[34][37] The two primary themes of the game are education and brotherhood.[38] Using the Unreal Engine 4, they upgraded the animation system, physics, and shaders. According to Dontnod, one of the biggest challenges of development was the artificial intelligence of the character Daniel.[34]

The Life Is Strange games are graphic adventures played from a third-person view. The player can examine and interact with objects, which enables puzzle solving in the form of fetch quests and making changes to the environment. The player can explore locations and communicate with non-playable characters. Dialogue exchanges feature branching options in conversation. In some instances, choices in dialogue will alter and affect the story through short- or long-term consequences. For each one of the choices, something good in the short term could turn out worse later.

Each individual game in the series features a central mechanic unique to that game. In Life is Strange, the player has access to a "rewind" ability, which allows them to rewind time and alter the course of events. The rewind mechanic is accessible in conversation, allowing players to navigate branching dialogue options and change the outcome of a conversation to be beneficial to the player. Items picked up are kept in the inventory after a rewind, and changes in the environment remain in place. In Before the Storm, Chloe has a "backtalk" mechanic that allows her to persuade and intimidate other characters through conversation, with either positive or negative effects. Life is Strange 2 is an exception in that the player themselves do not have access to the central mechanic; rather, the player (as Sean) must guide Daniel, who has the power of telekinesis, through various moral and ethical choices that will influence how he will use his powers to help or hinder the player as the game progresses.

Reception to the franchise has been generally positive.

Life Is Strange received generally favourable reviews, with a Metacritic score of 85/100 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Some criticised issues with the games's lip-syncing[64][65][66] and use of outdated slang,[66][67][68] but most lauded the character development[66][69][70] and time travel component.[66][71][72] Eurogamer called it "one of the best interactive story games of this generation"[73] and Hardcore Gamer said it was the sleeper hit of 2015.[66] Life Is Strange received over 75 Game of the Year awards and listings.

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm was met with generally favourable reviews, according to Metacritic.[74][75] Critics praised the characters, themes, and story, but criticised plotholes, the main relationship, and the impact of players' decisions near the end of the game.[76][77][78][79]

Life Is Strange 2 was met with generally favourable reviews, according to Metacritic.[80] The Verge said that the game "wades into more political, timely topics", with the first episode set in October 2016, right before the 2016 United States presidential election.[81] In their verdict, IGN also opined about the underlying political atmosphere of the game, describing it as a "bigger, more complex story than told by its predecessor, charting a cross-country road trip across Donald Trump’s America", going on to say that "though its social criticisms feel broad and rather clumsy, its core story of brotherhood and fraternity between two believable characters is enormously touching".[82]

• Official website