Experience an interesting and unique storytelling adventure in Lifeline, a game that has you responding to a seemingly real person on the other side of your phone or computer. Serving as the first of a number of entries in a text based game franchise players will explore the story of Taylor as they help them survive a ship crash with branching story lines based on two decisions at a time.
While the lack of graphics may not sound appealing on first glance once you find yourself in the game and realise that Dave Justus (writer on The Wolf Among Us) is behind the creativity team you’ll quickly release just how hooked you can become on the writing and storytelling on offer. This is not the only unique element of Lifeline though with the most unique of these being the timed game elements that see you waiting on the main character Taylor to contact you which occurs at predetermined intervals.
This is no freemium title that requires you to purchase gems to speed up gameplay though and this is instead used as a game feature to build suspense, maintain tension and give the game that added dose of realism that you would have if found in this situation in real life. It also helps to build a deeper connection with Taylor who is a recurring character in the other entries in the Lifeline mobile game franchise.
This situation sees Taylor reaching out to the player after crash landing on a distant and unknown moon. As a science student and cadet on the crash landed ship now as the Varia Taylor has the technological knowledge to build a transmission device to be able to get in contact with just one person. As the lucky person in contact with Taylor you’ll have the agonising job of helping them survive and waiting for contact over sometimes hours. Notice the word “them” above as the gender of Taylor is never revealed to the player which helps you create a connection and image of Taylor in your own mind rather than taking the imagination away from the player.
Actual gameplay when you do hear from Taylor is all about selecting choices which range from having no impact, to little impact or massive impact. The large impact decisions in particular drive you towards one of the possible game endings, most of which end in Taylor’s demise. When the game is completed (approximately 3 days depending on how active you are) you’ll be able to rewind the entire story or to certain points to experience the whole game again and explore different pathways.
A recurring theme of these pathways is the hostile align parasitic lifeform that Taylor encounters known as the Greens who call the foreign planet home. With Taylor’s goal to manipulate the surrounding environment and non-natural elements around him to call a rescue spaceship conflict is inevitable with the Greens.
Summary:
- A thrilling and engaging mobile title for iOS and Android.
- Explore the story of a crashed person in real time as you wait for a response as they sleep and explore.
- Multiple endings based on your decisions that you provide to Taylor.
- Restart the game to a previous point once finished to explore alternative branching pathways.
- Help the unknown Taylor as he confronts an unknown planet and unknown hive threat.
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Review Platform: iOS