The plot focuses on Max Caulfield, an 18-year-old photography student who discovers that she has the ability to rewind time at any moment, leading her every choice to enact the butterfly effect.

Fetch quests and making environmental changes represent the forms of puzzle solving in addition to using branching choices for conversation.

The developers conducted field research on the setting by traveling to the Pacific Northwest, and subverted known archetypes to make the characters.

Life Is Strange received critical acclaim and was commended for its character development, rewind game mechanic, emotional depth, and tackling of taboo subjects.

[6][7] The player can examine and interact with objects, which enables puzzle solving in the form of fetch quests and making changes to the environment.

[6] In October 2013, 18-year-old Maxine "Max" Caulfield (Hannah Telle) returns to Arcadia Bay, Oregon to attend Blackwell Academy.

During her class with photography teacher Mark Jefferson (Derek Phillips), Max experiences a catastrophic vision of a tornado destroying a lighthouse and approaching the town.

Leaving for the restroom to regain her composure, she witnesses classmate Nathan Prescott (Nik Shriner) shoot and kill a young woman in a fit of rage.

In a sudden effort, she develops the ability to rewind time and saves the woman, revealed to be her childhood friend Chloe Price (Ashly Burch).

[19] Continuing their investigation, Max and Chloe discover a bunker under a derelict barn owned by the Prescotts, where they find a collection of binders filled with pictures of girls tied up.

[19] Max wakes up in the bunker, where Jefferson has been drugging and photographing young girls to "capture the moment when innocence turns into corruption."

Max travels back to the time at which she took the gallery photo, which eventually leads her to sojourn alternative realities as they devolve into a dreamscape nightmare.

[33] The episodic format was decided upon by the studio for creative reasons, financial restrictions[34] and marketing purposes,[35] allowing them to tell the story in its preferred slow pace.

[37] The development team visited the region,[15] took photographs, looked at local newspapers and used Google Street View to make sure the environment was accurately portrayed.

[23] The original story was written in French by Jean-Luc Cano, and converted into a game script by the co-directors and design team.

[48][34] Visual effects like post-processes, double exposure and overlapping screen space particles were used as an artistic approach to be displayed while the lead character rewinds time.

[49] The textures seen in the game were entirely hand painted, adapted to achieve what art director Michel Koch called "impressionistic rendering".

[47][51] Additional sources of inspiration include the visual novel Danganronpa, in terms of balancing gameplay and story,[52] and the novel The Catcher in the Rye, whose protagonist Holden Caulfield shares a surname with Max, the game's lead.

[38] For the sake of serving the realism, the supernatural elements were designed as a metaphor for the characters' inner conflict,[53] and experts were consulted to tackle the subject of teen suicide.

[56] Featured artists include José González, Mogwai, Breton, Amanda Palmer, Brian Viglione, Bright Eyes, Message to Bears, Local Natives, Syd Matters, Sparklehorse, Angus & Julia Stone, alt-J, Mud Flow[57] and Foals.

[129] Adnan Riaz of Hardcore Gamer said Episode 3: Chaos Theory was a dramatic improvement that presented a "thrilling, poignant, fascinating and ... enticing" narrative whose outcome from past decisions also added a sense of realism.

[131] Though GameSpot's Alexa Ray Corriea said that the fetch quests interfered with its emotional quality,[8] the episode built up to a "killer cliffhanger" according to Farokhmanesh.

[133] Tom Hoggins of The Telegraph said the developer's venture into subjects like social division, online bullying, parental conflict and suicide were "bold".

[134] Critics said there were tonal problems, caused by the game's "cheap ways" of progressing the plot, such as character inconsistency and superfluous shock value.

[137][138] They said the final episode, Polarized, had a "fitting conclusion" to the coming of age story of Max Caulfield and the relationship between the two leads was carried out successfully.

[148] The retail edition made seventh place in the top ten UK game sales chart for the week ending 23 January 2016.

[186] In 2016, Square Enix sponsored its own "Everyday Heroes" photography contest, inspired by the game, offering a US$10,000 scholarship for the winning entry.

[187] Square Enix also coordinated with Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights (PACER) to support an anti-bullying initiative based on themes within the game[188] and donated a total amount of $25,000.

[203][204] The remaster includes previously released content with updated visuals and gameplay puzzles, improved character animation, engine and lighting upgrades, and full facial motion capture.

[205] Developed by Deck Nine, Life Is Strange: Double Exposure features an older Max Caulfield who discovers the ability to experience two parallel timelines simultaneously as she tries to prevent the murder of her friend Safi.