I adore this game. Life is Strange: Before the Storm is, for me, possibly one of the most powerful, story-driven experiences out there with characters so well-made that you become so strongly attached to them, seriously loving some, despising others, and stopping to carefully consider the choices the game presents to you as you are only too-aware that they will have consequences.
Story:
This is easily the most amazing thing about this game – its story. It is in a league of its own as it takes you through a believable and meaningful association between two girls (Chloe and Rachel), students at Blackwell Academy, who form a fast friendship. You follow as they come to know each other more and more, and overcome various obstacles and share various poignant moments together in a bond that feels like it should last forever.
Both Chloe and Rachel are such deep characters that captivate us from the moment they appear, never relinquishing their depth and intrigue and carrying the story majestically through peaks and troughs all too relatable to our own lives, but somehow, often, more meaningful, despite being fictitious. The other characters in the world all have memorable and unique backstories and fit in well to the environment, making one of the most real-feeling settings I’ve ever seen in a game thanks to a thought-out and realistic cast with different characters you’d typically expect to find in a school.
Behind the backdrop of the main story, there is an excellent and believable cast that each feel like they are living their own lives while you explore yours, playing as Chloe. The world feels truly lived in, and your choices have consequences that are felt in believable ways throughout the game.
I am also really into literature and love theatre. This game is, without being a painful reminder of English classes that most people hated, themed around the theatrical/drama world with close ties to Shakespeare – particularly his play The Tempest (through Rachel’s character as she is a drama student – with a wild side) and this was so, so beautifully done. I’ve been to see a few live productions of Shakespeare plays and I adore the atmosphere they have.
This game captured it so well; it was something so perfectly wholesome, reminiscent of those warm summer nights, perfect for an outdoor production. It reminded me of such happy times, and made me connect with Rachel on another level. She slowly became the sort of friend I always wanted, too.
Sound:
The sound design for this game was also incredible. While I did prefer a lot of the music selections from the first game, Life is Strange, that is not to say that the songs picked in this game did not work extremely well. They complimented scenes perfectly and helped to bring out a really strong sense of emotion in most of the scenes they were used, making some truly memorable moments. From the menu and ambient music to songs used in the background of powerful scenes, the developers nailed this.
Environmental sounds were also generally very good. Birds, wind, footsteps, etc all added to the atmospheric noises and made the game world feel ever more immersive. However, some NPCs that were together talking don’t have any dialogue that you can overhear and, if you notice this, it can break immersion just a little. It wasn’t a major issue, and some NPCs do talk to each other, but it was something I noticed in playing.
Visuals:
The game adopts a rather cartoon-like art style and the graphics remain consistent with this all-through, but there were some parts of the game that had a noticeably lower graphical quality than the rest of the game and this was odd to me. It’s not a particularly demanding game, especially since the graphics are so cartoon-like, and yet for example when in the courtyard of Blackwell Academy, if you look out to the main road and over it, character models and environmental textures look nothing less than terrible even though they aren’t all that far away.
A similar issue outside Chloe’s house when you look down the roads. I know better-quality draw distances would require more demanding hardware, but this felt a little too short for a draw distance. I guess it was hoped most people wouldn’t look so closely since you can’t go to any of these areas anyway, but nevertheless.
This is a small thing that I noticed in only two scenes and the rest of the game that you interact with has very good graphical quality, consistently. It’s a small complaint and shouldn’t put you off.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is quite simple. Movement controls and animations are fine, but I could’t say they were perfect. It plays a lot like a walking simulator – except third person – with confined map spaces you can move around in. The majority of this game is told through cutscenes and dialogue or notes, computers, journals, etc., found in the game world, and since the playable environments are fairly small in most cases, this all works just fine. For a game like this, its gameplay is really its story, and on that point alone this will always be a game very close to my heart.
Summary & Conclusion:
I’d highly recommend this game to anyone thinking to play it. Between a phenomenal story, excellent sound design, great graphics and some of the most seriously memorable fictional characters ever made in a game there is nothing to stop you. For me, it’s definitely worth the asking price but an even better deal still in a sale.
There is a Deluxe upgrade, too, that offers Chloe’s in-game outfit from the previous Life is Strange game and a bonus episode called “Farewell”, which shows you a little of Max and Chloe’s close friendship from their childhood before the setting of the original Life is Strange game. This, I would say, costs quite a lot compared to the whole main game. The outfit isn’t worth it, in my view, since it’s a defining characteristic of Chloe at a later time in her life, and I feel in Before the Storm, she’s not yet become that person, so in a way the different outfits in the game better reflect this.
The bonus episode is only an hour or so long and doesn’t offer any more achievements or anything, but for the lovely story it tells I think it is worth getting if you can. It adds some really heartfelt context to their backstory that I’m so glad I was able to experience.
What I Loved About Life is Strange: Before the Storm:
- One of the strongest stories of any game I’ve ever played.
- Characters that you get to truly know, and truly care for.
- Pictures and notes around the world are entirely optional, but offer interesting context into the world and characters.
- Music is great.
- Voice acting is amazing.
- Graphical style is unique, and generally looks pretty.
- A journal and a phone can be checked that offer further depth into Chloe’s life and mind as she writes to people and herself, and helps to make her feel even more real and complex than she already did.
- Choices felt like they mattered. Some were hard to make as the consequences were unknown, but most choices did in some way affect the world later and I liked this.
- There is a collectible mode to easily collect achievements you missed without replaying the whole game.
- The bonus episode, Farewell, was a beautiful and moving end to the game.
- The game is themed in part around the Shakespeare play, [i]The Tempest[/i].
- There are a lot of choices, and dialogues in the game that explore some really deep and meaningful ideas about friendship, truth, trust, love, and forgiveness.
- Easy enough to 100% achievements for completionists.
What I Didn’t Like:
- Some distant areas in the game, outside of the playable space, look worse than the main game.
- Ideally, more episodes for a longer game, and more time with Chloe and Rachel would be lovey, but ‘quality, not quantity’.
- The DLC is not very well priced compared to the main game for what it gives you. The bonus episode is very good, but just over half the price of the main game (about 20 hours) for one episode that gives you about an hour.
- No borderless window option.
