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About the Story
"[A] surprising iPhone and Apple Watch bestseller is pushing the boundaries of fiction" - boingboing.net
"This is the best game on the Apple Watch" - Time.com
Lifeline is a playable, branching story of survival against all odds. Using your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, you will help Taylor make life or death decisions, and face the consequences together.
Acclaimed writer Dave Justus (Fables: The Wolf Among Us) weaves a gripping interactive story through the aftermath of a crash landing on an alien moon. Taylor is stranded, the rest of the crew are dead or missing, and Taylor's communicator can only reach you.
A totally unique experience enabled by modern devices, this story plays out in real time. As Taylor works to stay alive, notifications deliver new messages throughout your day. Keep up as they come in, or catch up later when you're free. You can even respond to Taylor directly from your Apple Watch or your iPhone lock screen, without launching into the app.
Or, dive in and jump back to earlier points in the story, and see what happens when you make a different choice. Simple actions can have a profound effect. Complete any single path to restart the story and unlock this mode.
Lifeline is a deep, immersive story of survival and perseverance, with many possible outcomes. Taylor is relying on YOU.
NEW in version 1.8: Stick around after the game for a special story epilogue from Dave Justus. For players who have already finished the game, the Sneak Peek becomes available under the game options. Enjoy!
Internet connection not required. No in-app purchases and no ads.
Ratings and Reviews
| Average Rating:   Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 1 |
The basic idea of the game is that your PC is an astronaut in a dire situation, the only person he is able to contact is you, and the only medium available is text messages. So you control him by sending him messages and you see the world through messages he sends in response. If your PC is sleeping, or is doing something time consuming, the game pauses. This simple concept really works wonders in drawing you into the game and building up suspense.
The execution of the idea, however, is not flawless. Often it seems the authors could not really decide if the medium is text or voice messages, which breaks immersion. The story is interesting, but not really innovative. Some passages feel very linear.
Still, all in all a great idea for IF on phones.
2 Off-Site Reviews
Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling
Lifeline is an iOS and Android mobile game in which you are fielding a distress call from someone named Taylor (gender never actually specified -- I've seen some reviews refer to Taylor as male, but I pictured a woman). Taylor was the youngest, most naive crew member aboard a space ship that has crashed on a distant moon. They have no previous space experience and only the most rudimentary safety training. For some reason you are the only person in communication range, so they need you to prompt them through a series of survival decisions.
The story plays out in roughly SMS-sized messages from Taylor, which sometimes come in rapid succession and sometimes only after a substantial real-time delay. These exchanges are backed by atmospheric music, and though the actual content is quite bare-bones and without visuals, the presentation is glossy and solid.
See the full review
50 Years of Text Games, by Aaron A. Reed
The game’s success was a combination of great timing and great execution: a clever idea, some snappy writing, and a launch on a new platform where few other apps were yet available. “It’s the first game I’ve loaded on my Watch that is not only fun to play,” said TIME Magazine, “but fun to play specifically on a wearable.” Though distant from the innovations in technology or design happening in other commercial text games, Lifeline demonstrated the genre’s appeal even with the most straightforward of foundations.
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Tags
Game Details
Current Version: Unknown
License: Commercial
Forgiveness Rating: Cruel
IFID: Unknown
TUID: zor1al2my922f0w1
Lifeline on IFDB
Polls
The following polls include votes for Lifeline:Best Mobile Games that Aren't Choicescript by thecanvasrose
I've run into some cool ones. Let's hear it! 》 Choicescript games are often (but not always) titled "Choice of ____." Games like "Choice of Robots" and "Creatures Such as We" are Choicescript games.
For Your Consideration - XYZZY-eligible games of 2015 by Brendan Patrick Hennessy
This is for suggesting games released in 2015 which you think might be worth considering for Best Game in the XYZZY awards. This is not a zeroth-round nomination. The category will still be text-entry, and games not mentioned here will...
Games that broke containment by OverThinking
I could have sworn this was already a poll, but I can't find it now. This is for games that gained some amount of recognition outside our bubble. Any amount of notice will do, from write-ups on non-IF gaming blogs to Wikipedia pages to...
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This is version 15 of this page, edited by Cerfeuil on 4 April 2025 at 8:47pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page
