Life Is Strange: Before the Storm - Game review

By
Adonis Monahan
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Life Is Strange: Before the Storm

After the raging success of the third-person episodic video game, which left many questions unanswered, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm was announced as a prequel that seeks to portray the heartbreaking disappearance of Rachel Amber and how her unlikely friendship with the brash tattooed punk, Chloe Price, had come to flourish.

While the original game is a teen-drama with a sci-fi twist, the prequel seems to focus on keeping players intrigued with a feel-good Romeo-and-Juliet kind of forbidden love story as the underlying focus of the plot; that is if Romeo was a pot-smoking soon-to-be high school dropout, and Juliet was a DA’s daughter who snuck to local punk rock concerts.

The gameplay controls remain simple, except as Chloe Price, players don’t have the luxury of rewinding time to rewrite the future. Objects that can be explored are outlined in white, and can be examined and added to Chloe’s journal in the event they’re significant to the plot.

Similarly to its predecessor, not all the objects or choices made in the game are essential to the progression of the plot, but they nonetheless add to the depth of the story and draw the characters in a more three-dimensional light.

And despite Chloe lacking the ability to manipulate time, she’s given another “superpower,” although admittedly less impressive, of manipulating people through her knack for persuasion. In the form of a dialogue with another party, players attempt to pick the right responses in order to get Chloe out of compromising situations. It goes without saying that the ability lacks the supernatural slant that gave an edge to the original game.

Because Chloe doesn’t have the option to snap photos that are added to her journal, she’s given the opportunity to draw graffiti on some surfaces, which is more fitting to her personality and style. She also has access to her wardrobe at the beginning of every episode, which gives players the chance to dress her up.

Other than that, most of the game controls, general aesthetic, and video game direction are recycled. Surprisingly, all the voice actors in the game were recast, but it’s really hard to notice seeing as singer and actress, Rhianna DeVries, does an excellent job mimicking Chloe’s original vocal style and character.

And although the plot, along with the game controls, are objectively less convoluted than the game’s predecessor, Chloe’s and Rachel’s likeable characters make the game intriguing, despite how the game falls short to deliver plot twists that would have made the story more impactful.

There are mildly suspenseful moments, but nothing that drops jaws. Stirring emotions are reserved for emotional cut-scenes wherein Rachel and Chloe become closer “friends.”

The game opens with Chloe and Rachel running into each other at a punk rock concert, with the former being in awe with how a girl as popular as Rachel would want to be friends with her. The duo continues on skipping school to embark on teenage-love-story kind of adventures, like chasing trains and exploring junkyards.

It’s unclear whether Chloe’s infatuation with this girl is a catalyst to an epiphany of her sexuality, or just a means to fill the void that her childhood best friend, Max Caulfield, has left when she moved out to Seattle.

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Meanwhile, it’s also unclear why a girl as popular, wealthy, and beautiful as Rachel Amber, who seems to have it all, would want to be involved with someone like Chloe. While seemingly unrealistic, the reason for this unlikely interest is revealed towards the end of the game, which particularly starts when the duo spot Rachel’s dad kissing another woman.

On the surface, it looks like an affair with a tattooed gang member, but as the plot progresses, players find themselves in the familiar territory of escalating events that gives the teen drama a taste of the crime-thriller genre.

As we explore the familiar grounds that we have seen in Life Is Strange, like Blackwell Academy and Chloe’s home, we see the younger versions of characters that we already know, and spaces that haven’t bloomed to become more visually punk-inspired, like Chloe’s bedroom.

In fact, Chloe looks like your average student, despite having the same rebellious attitude – just without the blue hair and a dragon sleeve tattoo. But all of these small changes are perhaps what makes the game overall less impressive than the original game. The prequel lacks surprises and instead walks you through the details of what you already know.

With that said, there are moments when the characters notoriously overreact, almost as though in an attempt to make the plot more interesting; however, these sudden mood changes are eventually explained when the bigger picture is revealed as we approach the climax.

Despite the game generally entertaining, it lacks the sci-fi twist that made its predecessor distinct, which makes the experience far less intense. Although you’re certainly left with a sense of suspense at the end of each episode that leaves you excited as to what happens next, the heat of the action isn’t revealed until perhaps the very end of the game. This includes a shocking scene in the junkyard that explains why Chloe later tells her childhood best friend why such a wreck of a place is so close to her heart.

However, there is a fair share of plot twists that players wouldn’t expect. The writers eventually reveal why a girl like Rachel Amber would be drawn to Chloe’s chaotic character or her affinity for rebellion. At first, it seems as though Rachel is just looking for something different than the triteness of her perfect life.

But eventually, players see that these unruly adventures she has with Chloe are more familiar territory than we’re originally led to believe, and it’s up to Chloe whether or not she lets her friend live in the dark, or disclose to her that she had been living a lie.

Just like Life Is Strange, the game has two endings, as well as a “secret” ending that players can unlock with a decision that has to be made earlier in the game. This is perhaps what distinguishes Before the Storm as a prequel. And although one of the endings is seemingly “happy,” players are reminded with the fate of Rachel Amber in a chilling post-credits scene. Overall, the impact of the game is milder than that of its predecessor, but it’s the emotional bond that Chloe and Rachel share that gives the game depth.