Last updated on January 4th, 2026 at 09:02 am
Lifeline… – Adventure Game Review
Lifeline… is a Adventure/Entertainment/Roleplaying game from 3 Minute Games, Inc., first launched in 20th April 2015.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 4,426+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Lifeline… Stand Out
“[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.
Lifeline pioneered a new narrative 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.
You can play Lifeline in any of these languages:
- English
- French
- German
- Russian
- Simplified Chinese
- Japanese
- Spanish
- Korean
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 Bonus Story becomes available under the game options. Witness the events leading up to Lifeline: Silent Night.
Internet connection not required. No in-app purchases and no ads.
Praise for Lifeline:
“I’ve played many games that I find engrossing, but Lifeline may be one of the first that changed the way I thought about my daily routine, which leapt off the screen and became a part of my lived experience.” – Eli Cymet, Gamezebo
“I felt an immediate attachment to a fictional character pinging me from a strange galaxy to my wearable.” – Luke Hopewell, Gizmodo Australia
“[P]laying it on the Apple Watch makes you truly feel like you’re exchanging messages with an astronaut via a futuristic transmitter.” – Michael Andronico, Tom’s Guide
“For a few brief hours I cared – really cared – about the fate of a completely fictional character. I don’t think any other game I’ve played has made me feel that way before.” – Matt Thrower, PocketGamer
Lifeline was created by:
Dave Justus
Mars Jokela
Dan Selleck
Colin Liotta
Jason Nowak
Ben “Books” Schwartz
This Adventure game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Lifeline… is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 13th June 2022
Recent improvements include:
New art!
Download & Availability
Lifeline… is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
We love that. Im getting prompted by text from the game. Feels like Im communicating someone from out of space through a text message.
This game is awesome. It has plenty of possibilities, but be careful a wrong decision could cost Taylor his life. We are sure you will enjoy it so give it a try.
Our son turned us onto this years ago. This game is fun of course the first time we played we like killed poor Taylor a gazillion times. But its a playable game. This is the first one in his series. Theres four adventures for him and those games are just as fun. Its one of those games that have you play. He let sit for a while when you cant remember what happened and then you play again. It doesnt get old. And we like the fact that you can just kinda take your time hell send you a text and then hell be off doing something and its not a Constant thing, unless you decided to turn on fast mode.
This game gave us one of the best experiences Ive ever experienced in a game, the real time gameplay was crazy! One tip if you are thinking of playing, turn off notifications while you sleep because playing this at night gives you the chills. Especially at 3 AM.
Finally a mobile app worth paying.
RETURN GAME IN A STEAM PLEASEEEE.
There arent many games we would write a review.
One of the best short game. Fantastic story. Interesting form. Also support Apple Watch. Love it.
Since the start of the game to the end of the game, its been nothing but fun and we like all the questions and things you have to think about in the game and the puzzles that he gives you to answer. Two game creator. Thank you for making this game and as youve been feeling that it was a good view and Im only 13. Thank you for making the game.
Downloaded this because the idea of storytelling over time through a fake interface seemed interesting. The game is decent and is an interesting gimmick. Unfortunately, there isnt really much gameplay to speak of – almost any choice you make thats a wrong choice Taylor will ignore and just do what the story wants you to do instead. There are only really 2 major choices at the very end that determine what ending you get. Everything else is pretty pointless and leads to the exact same text eventually. The writing is also – fine, but not amazing. Its like a college student wrote a sci-fi short story. Decently interesting, but the dialogue is at times unrealistic or awkward. Still giving it 5 stars to differentiate it from typical App Store slop. Its definitely not that.
10/10. Loved the eerie/unsettling music. The layout and two options youre allowed to pick, which can leave you guessing on where the other choice could have lead you. And its only 3 dollhairs! (dollars).
We love a good choose your own adventure story, and we really enjoyed this one. The only thing we didn't like was when Taylor decides to message you 100 times and your watch keeps going off in the middle of a meeting.
Honestly amazing game , the fact your Apple Watch can connect and make the experience more real makes it more fun and impactful.
We love the fact that its a choose your own adventure and it reminds us of that old Netflix show uhm You Versus Wild it somthing and we really liked that show so yes we love this game.
Ive been out of here for a long time, even didnt know the whole series removal from our region. We managed an impulse try to recover our purchase, also a chance to rewind all our memories. Now it has been almost 9 years since the little nagging genius communicated with us, who was a girl sneakily playing iPad for the first time at 3 a.m. We love this feeling of being someones company, hope and LIFELINE!! And we always believe that its a two-way relationship. Were actually saving each other. Without exaggeration, Ill say this game changed and determined our life. Thanks for creating Taylor also other lively characters and their stories for us, for everyone.
Lifeline is a challenging game because you have to make tough decisions and you dont know which one is the best or the worst. 5 stars.
Keeps our mind busy without it being Tiktok haha.
This game is intense. Its also way fun.
Its been years since we played this and we STILL think of the storyline.
This game is so suspenseful and fun! We are exited to get the texts from Taylor and live guiding her on her adventure. Definitely recommend.
When people talk about their Roman Empires, we never thought we had one. Until, literally twenty minutes ago at the time of writing this review, our brain finally gave us the name of this experience. This was one of the first mobile apps we ever owned on our own phone (back when it was, if we remember correctly, free, since we were twelve and had no job to pay for silly phone games), and no matter how many times we finished we would play it again and again. Im now almost 20 years old and Ive just repurchased all Taylors stories to live through again. Truly one of the best games Ive ever had the pleasure of playing.
Only a little ways in but we get the concept. Pretty cool, its unique and that is something that is lacking in games today. Four stars just because we havent finished it, when we do we would be willing to up it to 5 stars (unless it just gets really stupid). Update: changing from 4 to 5 stars, had a blast with this one. Kind of short, but theres is a bonus story, then a sequel. Awesome job guys, what a cool game.
This game is great, very accessible to VoiceOver.
The most innovative game in years, despite being years-old.
Great game, will play this FOREVER.
Okay, first of all, this game is AMAZING. Second, DUDE TAYLOR IS MY NEW BEST FREIND (jk). We were just completely surprised by how good it was this game is our new obsession and we have never felt EVER like a fictional character is our friend. Seriously, AWESOME. – Duskpool.
We can not stop playing this game for years.
This game beats any others. It draws you in, it makes you feel for the main character–really urging them to keep his life online. Nail-biting, pacing, and thinking is all we did. We love this. Buying the others. We WANT MORE MORE MORE.
We really enjoyed this text-only, choose-your-adventure-style game. We were surprised how much we connected with the main character and how we wanted to help him out. We enjoy the plot line and the overall mystery. Im looking forward to the next one.
Super fun game!!! We like going back through and trying all the different endings.
Great story that keeps your head spinning.
Downloaded for the first time in 2015, and its still holds up.
Ive gotten all the games/books really fun stories and adventures. Id recommend this to anyone who like chose your own adventure stories.
We havent even been playing for 15 or 20 minutes and we can already tell we love this.
So far been very fun interesting highly recommended.
Loved playing this game! We felt like Taylor was our friend and we were totally invested in helping her get rescued.
The lifeline series is our favorite series across the entire App Store. There is no better storyline that draws you in and makes you feel connected to a character any better than this series of games, with this game being the best one in our opinion. Im a few years out of high school now and we remember playing this game in junior high. Thought we would leave a review after remembering this game and just how much of a masterpiece it was. Glad to see theres plenty more added to the series while Ive been gone ;).
At first we thought this was going to be pointless and then when our mom decided to just click by it anyways we were a little bit upset that her money got wasted on something so pointless and then we actually played it and it was amazing our only request would be able to have an option of a mini gameOr maybe a button to click that so we can see what he sees at the very moment not anything that moves just may be a picture like if he was standing out of area and he was busy and if he was standing at the Varia we would just be able to see the Varia And that would be it no bugs or anything so far and we absolutely love this game and we are thinking about buying the second one how have we not heard about this before so worth three dollars.
We love this pocket choose your own adventure game. The story flows really well, the responses make sense, and the app itself has never had any problems. If you like Sci-Fi Choose Your Own Adventures than youll like this.
It gives you a chance to get away from the game for a bit, and when you are playing it goes through real time, and paints a picture in your mind of the surroundings. Its fun and interactive.
Love the way this game makes you think about the impact of little decisions.
Lifeline has wonderful creativity in how the story goes, choices can puzzle your brain into making the right choice and helping Taylor survive! Also, using beliefs (aka, aliens who take over your body) on such a game, really stretches out the imagination of ones mind. As you follow Taylor on an epic adventure, you have fun all the way through.
Great CYOA and love that it works in real time. Already got the second one.
O our gosh its amazing likeoh our.wow Im honestly speechless if you buy this you have 100% not wasted money whenever we open our IPad and see the notifications it just makes our day its cool how when he/she sleeps or explores theres no messages its just an Amazing game we have been looking for a choice game LIKE THIS for almost 2 years and we can assure you that we WILL buy another of these once Im done its an amazing game made by an amazing group/person if you buy this we assure you that you have not wasted money (sorry for being so repetitive) we also love how realistic the message time and wordplay is! Thank you for making this amazing game which could change some peoples life.
Ive always loved choose-the-story adventures. The character and personality of Taylor really shines, and the tension is deliciously palpable with the real-time game element. Plus, a little mystery never hurts ;) Love it :) (Im in the process of replaying the series, and looking forward to it ).
We have had this game for years. The story is incredibly well written in a not-in-your-face kind of way. The pacing is just right, with highs and lows to keep you on your toes. Sometimes it really does feel like you are having an interaction through a terminal. Very much recommended.
Im so glad that it does not take us all the way back to the beginning like it did previously this was a great purchase.
The storyline and the lore of this fantasy world is just amazing! You need to play this game. We love the feature where you can rewind and do the new parts of the story after you get to one ending! Seriously, great game.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 2.2
- Size: 76.18 MB
- iOS: 11.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
- Developer: 3 Minute Games, Inc.
Last updated: 13th June 2022 | Genre: Adventure, Entertainment | Developer: 3 Minute Games, Inc.