Chrysalis is the first episode of the five-part Life Is Strange adventure
series. The entire game takes place in the course of a week in October 2013.
The story is told from the point of view of Maxine Caulfield, a 12th grade
student who wants to make a career in photography and gets a scholarship for
the fictional Blackwell Academy in Arcadia Bay, Oregon (USA). She grew up in
Arcadia Bay and spent most of her childhood there until she had to move with
her parents to Seattle, leaving behind her best friend Chloe. This first
episode starts with a strange vision near a lighthouse, showing a tornado, and
then moves on to a photography class, taught by Mark Jefferson, at the
academy. This episode largely serves to establish Max as a character and to
introduce the people in her class and dorm and their relationships. There are
however several events and relevations that already force Max to take some
tough decisions.

Rather than a puzzle based adventure game, it is more of an interactive drama
similar to the contemporary Telltale games. Max can explore the full 3D
environment freely and the focus is on interaction with other characters to
shape the story and character arc. There is a free camera during exploration
and cinematic camera angles during cut-scenes. While walking around characters
or items of interest are highlighted in white with their name shown. By
clicking relevant words or actions are shown and those can be selected. Early
on in the game Max discovers she has a strange ability that allows her to
rewind time at will. With a strong focus on choice and consequence, and
providing or withholding information, Max often has to choose sides. She can
use this ability, which is a part of the game world and not just a game
mechanic, to rewind time and watch the outcome of different choices before
deciding how to move on. She can also use information for different choices at
the initial starting point, for instance to warn people or to anticipate
actions or questions or to steal an object and then rewind them to prevent
people from noticing. There is a limit to the length of rewinding as the game
uses internal checkpoints at certain points, but almost any scene can be
rewound, weighing the consequences as the game encourages the player to
experience the butterfly effect. Similar to the Telltale games the player is
warned when characters will remember Max’ actions, when there are consequences
or when new conversation options are available if time is rewound.

Rewinding time is shown as a spiral in the top left corner of the screen with
dots for important decisions. Most of the progress is based on exploration and
conversations, but there are a few minor environment based puzzles, often
based on the rewind function, information from conversations, observations or
using a single item that is stored automatically and does not require
inventory management. There are often small, optional parts in the game,
encouraging exploration to take pictures of specific situations. These are
stored in a separate screen and are rewarded with achievements or trophies.
Max keeps track of the events in her diary. Important documents are stored in
a separate screen and there is also an overview of all the characters she
meets along with a bio. Max can sit down in various locations and she will
then ponder the game’s events. The game has a texting system Max uses to
receive messages from other characters in the game. Unlike many Telltale games
there are no timed conversation options with neutral choices where you do not
choose anything at all, or quick time events. At the end of each episode an
overview of all the major and minor choices is shown, with percentages for all
players worldwide.

Life Is Strange: Episode 1 – Chrysalis