WE have all had moments when we wished we had a 'rewind button'.

Most of us would do anything to put the clock back after an awkward foot-in-mouth conversation or reverse a regretful decision.

But what if you could? And what would you do differently?

Life Is Strange might be set in a seemingly ordinary high school academy but it sets a dark tone immediately with a premonition of a devastating tornado.

Then when your character Max wakes from this vision/dream she finds herself back in class...but with the ability to reverse time.

Like Buffy The Vampire Slayer before it, Life Is Strange offers a juxtaposition of classroom politics and cliques with supernatural themes.

The main crux of the plot is that photography student Max witnesses a murder in Blackwell Academy's toilets and uses her newfound powers to prevent it.

This sets off a series of events in which you will have to make choices that will alter the course of the game.

It is like a cross between games like Heavy Rain and the Fighting Fantasy books by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone with some of themes of The Catcher in the Rye and detective elements.

Choice and consequence games are hardly new but what makes Life Is Strange stand out is its presentation and depth of story.

You can interact with almost everything and everyone around you and some of the game's well-directed cut scenes and evocative soundtrack give it the feel of an arthouse movie.

You also keep seeing posters of a missing girl, hinting at things to come.

Max's nifty time travelling skills can be used for everything from the trivial to the impactful.

So you can use your powers to get the better of bullies and help friends in need but then there are moments where everything is not as it seems and your decisions will have 'butterfly effect' style consequences in later episodes.

Because Life Is Strange simply involves searching and interacting with your environment and making choices based on your conversations with other characters, its slow pace might put off action-orientated gamers.

But it is just as immersive as any game blockbuster.

What is also refreshing about Life Is Strange is that its protagonist is an 18-year-old girl and a believable and likeable one at that.

Photography nerd Max is just trying to fit in like any other teenager would when she is gifted with supernatural powers and confronted by a would-be murderer.

And the Blackwell Academy setting is well chosen as high school is arguably the time of our lives when we most feel anything is possible.

True, the dialogue tries a little too hard to be in keeping with the way the social media savvy American youth of today speak.

It feels slightly forced and might grate a bit with British players – especially those of a certain age – but it is engaging throughout.

Life Is Strange will be released throughout the year in five episodes in the same way that you might wait for the next series of a TV show. Episode one offers about three hours of gameplay.

- Rating 8.5/10

- Life Is Strange episode one is out now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows. Episode two is due out some time in March.

DAVID MORGAN