Life is Strange

Life Is Strange arrived in 2015 as a slow-burn episodic adventure about a teenage photographer who could rewind time, and it became a touchstone for a certain kind of intimate, character-first storytelling in games. Its real subject was never the supernatural hook but the texture of adolescent friendship, grief, and consequence, told through dialogue choices that genuinely linger.

The series has since experimented with its own formula. Before the Storm dropped the time powers for a grounded prequel, Life Is Strange 2 followed two brothers on the run across America, and True Colors built its emotional mechanic around empathy made literal. Double Exposure and the upcoming Reunion continue the throughline. Detractors find the writing earnest to a fault, but that sincerity is exactly the point. This is a games-only franchise that helped prove the medium could do small, human, and quietly devastating just as well as spectacle.

The Life is Strange franchise spans 8 games in the CrossBinge catalog.