It’s no secret that I am just about the biggest, loudest, Life is Strange fangirl on the planet Earth. It was the very first thing I wrote about on this website page! The original game goes on sale for $5 basically every month and can be played on just about anything that doesn’t say Nintendo on it, and as such I no longer accept excuses from people who still haven’t played it. Get your shit together!
Anyway. As you can hopefully tell by now, I am invested. So when they announced that more games were coming, I got nervous. Life is Strange was lighting in a bottle, and I’d hate to see that diluted like a TV show that refuses to end. There’s a sequel in development, and at this point not a lot has been made public about how that’s gonna go, besides that it apparently will not be about Max and Chloe, which I think is a good thing. As long as it’s not about boys.
And then they announced Before the Storm, a prequel to the first game, with Chloe as the lead and a story focusing on her and Rachel Amber. There were red flags all over this thing. It was being made by a different studio, would they be able to capture the right tone? Ashly Burch wasn’t reprising her role as Chloe due to the Voice Actor’s strike, would the new actor bring enough heart to balance Chloe’s attitude? And, most worrying, if you played the first game, you already know Rachel and Chloe’s fates. Why tell this story when we know it can’t end happily? Well, episode one is here, and with it come answers to the first two of those concerns, if not the third.
Here we go again.
(This review will contain some minor plot details, and will describe the general story for the episode. I won’t spoil any major beats, but spoilers are in the eye of the beholder so this is fair warning!)
The game opens up with Chloe out by herself at night, walking the railroad tracks to go see a band playing at an old mill on the outskirts of town. It’s a prologue, introducing you to Chloe and eventually to Rachel. But it’s also a tutorial, reminding you to wander around and look at things to unlock dialogue options, and forcing you to try the new game mechanic: Chloe doesn’t have Max’s time control magic, or any magic at all. Her superpower is arguing and insulting people! It sounds terrible! And the first time you use it, Chloe is trying to smooth talk her way through a bouncer to get into the show, and it feels stilted and dumb and bad, and I hated it. And also, at this point, the new voice actor wasn’t working for me. She sounded like she was doing a Chloe impression. And all the lines were written as exclamations. It all just felt unnatural and ill-fitting. And like maybe Chloe was too acerbic a character to carry a game in the lead role? But then the prologue ended, and Chloe woke up in her bedroom that we know so well, and suddenly I was right back in my baby gay broken hearted feels.
Do you really want me to answer that?
This game takes place three years or so before the first game. Chloe’s father is dead, and her mother has just started dating David and his mustache. Max moved away and stopped returning Chloe’s texts. Chloe is sad and lost and lonely (and so young) and is flunking out of school. And suddenly, the most popular girl in school is talking to her.
That’s all it takes for the game to come alive. Just putting Chloe into her real world. Putting us in her shoes and in her head.
Speaking of shoes, do not wear them in your bed, please.
Following the tradition of the first game, episode one of Before the Storm takes place over the course of a single day. Chloe meets Rachel at that show she talks herself into in the prologue, and Rachel finds her again at school the next day. They play hookie. They have an adventure. Things go not-exactly-as-planned.
The first game was a slow burn (as much as a game that takes place over the course of five days can ever be considered “slow”). Max and Chloe had grown up together and grown apart; they had to figure out how to know each other again, and what the shape of their relationship would look like after everything that came before. That game was also about saving the world, and while Max and Chloe’s relationship was always the emotional anchor and the driving force of the game, it wasn’t always the plot.
This time, at least through episode one, Chloe and Rachel’s relationship is the focus, and it is coming in hot. This is a story of firsts. Of meeting a person you feel like you might have dreamed into existence. Instant connection and the surprise of how exciting every second suddenly is. It’s a story about how terrifying it is to be honest with a person, and how unbearable it is when they can’t understand you. This is, essentially, the best angst fanfiction I have ever read.
Oh god I ship it already.
Arcadia Bay once again provides the perfect backdrop to all this emoting. It’s still the same place, industries failing and unemployment on the rise, but it doesn’t yet know that it is doomed. There are familiar faces (Drug Dealer Frank is probably the most important to the plot, but Victoria is obviously the most important to my heart. I swooned half to death when I saw her.) And there are some new ones (do not skip the opportunity to play DnD with the nerds.) And, best of all, there’s no Warren! There are plenty of other boys to say “no” to, though, don’t worry. If anything, Chloe is even better suited to playing this game as a Misandry Simulator than Max was.
Marry me.
Max was an outsider: new in town, uninvolved with anything around her until we forced her to get involved. She was truly aloof until we were ready to be attached to the game. Chloe is an outsider, too, but in a totally different way. She is hopelessly mired in the town around her as much as she’s also isolated herself from it. Where Max moved through Arcadia Bay almost in a dreamlike state, a little above it all, Chloe’s distance from everyone is felt through a painfully relatable haze of grief and insecurity. (If this sounds big and dramatic and pretentious, well, it is and it’s not. She’s a sixteen year old girl. Her feelings are big and dramatic and pretentious, but they are also entirely real.) She’s rude and annoying and can be depended on to say the wrong thing at exactly the wrong moment, same as ever. But now you’re in her brain and you know how hard she’s trying and how aware she is of her failures. Be prepared, even just in this first of three episodes, to love Chloe even more than you already did, more than maybe you thought was possible. She absolutely wrecked me.
Hopefully this give us this same button prompt later for Rachel amiright.
So. Does the new studio have a handle on the tone this game needs? Damn right, they do. After the uneven prologue, you will find yourself right back in the bittersweet teenage dream that is Arcadia Bay. The lighting is as moody and airy as ever, and the soundtrack as perfectly curated. And the same is true for Chloe’s new voice actor. Halfway through this episode I had completely forgotten that Chloe had ever sounded any other way; she is entirely herself, for better and for worse. The final question: Is this story as doomed as it seems it has to be, and is that a story we should allow ourselves to get invested in? I don’t know the answer to that. We’ll have to wait to see how the next two episodes play out, and even then I doubt it’ll be too much clearer. For now, I am happy to see Rachel Amber being given a voice, and a life, and a role to play beyond being a face on a Missing Person poster. I’m happy to get to know her, even if I am just setting myself up for a fall.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm is available for Windows PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. The whole game (three episodes in total) will run you $16.99, or you can spend a few dollars more to upgrade to the Deluxe Edition, which will eventually include a bonus Max episode. There’s no release schedule for the next episodes yet, but the last game released one every three months or so, so that’s my best guess until the developers say otherwise.
Did you learn nothing from Buddy Threadgoode?
If you liked the first game, you’ll like this one. And if you loved the first game, you’ll probably already have played this one by the time this article goes up, and you and I both are probably still wallowing in our feelings. So get yourself into the comments and release those feelings like you are Chloe Price and this article is a future stepdad who dared to offer you a ride to school.
I know I say it every time but it never stops being true: Your writing makes my heart pound really hard and it makes me actually swoon.
Thank youuuuuuu <3
“And if you loved the first game, you’ll probably already have played this one by the time this article goes up, and you and I both are probably still wallowing in our feelings.”
Yes, correct.
Anyway, I totally agree with you about how, at first, the lack of Ashly Burch was super jarring, but by the end of the episode Chloe felt totally natural. Also, as you already know, Chloe’s journal entries/letters to Max make me ::pterodactyl screech::
I had to go back and watch a comparison video of the two Chloe voices to even remember that they were different! I was so afraid I’d be totally thrown off by the voices, but they really did find a great replacement. I also think bringing Burch in as a consultant on the script was a wise move to keep it as authentically Chloe as possible.
At first her voice felt so wrong to me but i think it was the writing maybe? Because eventually I was just like THIS IS CHLOE I LOVE CHLOE PROTECT HER AT ALL COSTS.
Ah, yes, a perfect article to read while I listen to the Life Is Strange playlist on Spotify on repeat, as I have done almost every day since I first played this episode.
I was surprised by how much more deeply I felt for Chloe. This is the Chloe I expected based on who she was in the first game, but there’s a difference between knowing how much of a jagged, open wound she was and participating in her experience of it. Playing the first game through Max’s eyes obscures it through the lens of Max’s guilt. Man is it rough to be in Chloe’s shoes instead.
It makes a certain ending to the first game hurt even more, even after just this one episode. It’s heartbreaking.
She’s such a person in this game, such a kid. And the world is so unkind to her!
I am flailing about with longing for the day that this will be available for Mac. Maybe it’ll be like the original, when all the episodes dropped for Mac at once? But I want it now (grumble grumble).
I’d expect a Mac release when the game is finished, yeah. Sorry you have to wait!
Before The Storm is almost all I’ve been able to think about for the past two weeks! It lodged itself in my feels every bit as effectively as the original game did. Chloe’s journal ans texts punched me right in the heart!
I’m so relieved that the gayness is much more explicit this time. I mean, it wouldn’t make sense to make this game if you didn’t make it gay as fuck, but when do straight people ever make sense? So I went into it afraid of Gal-Palling Chloe and Rachel. Ashley Burch was one of the main writers and I think we have her to thank for a lot of this. Also can we talk about how awesome baby gay Steph is? She’s my new fave!
I preordered, so I got the ‘original’ Chloe outfit. I’m thinking I’ll save that for episode 3, maybe.
SPOILERS BELOW THIS.
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So this game dropped when I was out visiting my grandmother+family, then going home for more +family time. Got home on Tuesday, with the promise to myself that Wednesday would be LiS:BtS time.
… Then I played it twice through. There was a choice at the beginning that I wanted to change, to see if it would change that thing that happens after you compare your choices to everyone else’s. My choice did not change it, FYI! But I was happy with *other* choices I made, so I think I’ll be playing that save first.
Also my heart was so full of happiness during the D&D sequence. I played Chloe as all into the geekiness, because I decided that if she’s doing something, she does it with her whole heart. Callemandia (sp? I can’t find this quickly online) lives!
I don’t know if she could, actually, it was a bit railroady with the face that you had to chop Mikey’s character’s feet off. Maybe if I didn’t try for the loot? But Mikey was so happy to go there and show off. I didn’t want to stop him from getting loot, being the new kid joining a game at the conclusion of the adventure. TABLETOP FEELS.
Also can I just be super happy with the step up in animation we got? There were so many controls! people held things! There was snarling! That bit where Chloe waves farewell the the jerk selling that t-shirt had overlapping action!! Her grabbing the nail file from Rachel and like, swinging it around her!
They got to do so much character animation and it was super duper funnnn. I loved the little expressions they were able to use, seeing thoughts flash across people’s faces was just the best.
The look Chloe gives Frank when she thinks he’s forgotten her name! OMG I’ve made that face.
It’s really interesting to see Chloe as someone who is ‘beginning’. She’s not a bad ass yet, she’s just playing one. But she’s still concerned that she’s going to get grounded by her mom (sort of concerned) and she’s not sure where these FEELINGS are coming from, or what they mean. I mean, bangs, Chloe? Really?
As the player, you’re still playing some one who is coming to terms with themselves, their lives, and how they can influence people and the world around them. So that’s similar to LiS. But this time, we get to see Chloe and RACHEL and I ship it toooo but Max??
I’m also looking forward to learning more about Rachel. She feels like she’s a whole mess of feelings that have been tied together with string so she can maybe make it through a day. Everyone knows who she is, and she can play the parts they need her to play so well. But when does she get to just express what she’s feeling, without needing to mirror people?
I want a better ending for her. I want her to climb Everest, to make it to LA and maybe be a star, or maybe find something else there. It’s sad to think that she’s just going to be gone, after this.
(Also I chose the LiS ending where this is all EVEN SADDER and and and…)
I also loved Frank. With Deidre (I think?) the pitbull being at the old mill, I’m hopeful we’ll get the story of Pompidou too.
I wasn’t sure that there was going to be a season 2 of LiS, I thought this was it? So I’m happy about that! But… I really hope it isn’t about the boys. I shut Eliot down very fast, haha.
I am also kind of sad that this will only be three episodes, but it doesn’t have quite the depth of LiS to sustain five. There isn’t some strange supernatural thing happening (or is there? Rachel seemed to be able to control the wind, at the end), and there isn’t a murder mystery to solve.
I’m also NOT a fan of how the autosave works. I chose something that was not what I wanted to choose, and then had to replay like half an hour of game. My room mates came home and wanted to eat, so I shut it down on my second play through. When I turned it back on, I had to replay that part AGAIN. (Though I got some info to use to help with some backtalk, so that was good I suppose.) BUT STILL. SAVE BUTTON. There is like a demo tape to listen to and a thing to sign and stuff to draw and backtalk to do AND NO SAVE.
First playthrough I didn’t warn Justin about the cloud o’ weed he had floating around him, and didn’t get spritzed with the axe? body spray. Second playthrough I did, but Chloe still freaked out over how she smelled to Rachel. XD I was hoping she wouldn’t worry as much!
… For my new headcannon of after math of LiS, there is this fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10883931/chapters/24185373
I believe in my heart that things could go this way. I might have spent too much time today reading this fic, I wanted to get some sewing done. OH WELL.
TEEL DEER, I just have so many LiS and BtS feels. <3
YES to this super comment!
Hmmm… I’m happy that you wrote about the animations, because that IS true, now when I think of it. But when I went back for a lil bit to re-play LiS again because I’m a sap and missed it after playing BtS, I found the sheer look of the new characters to be… uglier. Is it just me? I liked the oil-painting look of faces in LiS better than the slightly more plastic look of BtS.
I also really think about what you said about Chloe being “beginning”! I can totally see that. We know that she is, in some senses, “going downhill”, but also how she is carving out an identity for herself and how perfectly hopelessly human and embarrassing she is in that.
I’m guessing the ‘plastic’ look is a problem of having more mobile faces without the really fancy rendering it takes to make the skin look more believable.
I didn’t find them uglier, but if you did that’s totally fair. I think I was too excited by the expressions to notice, haha.
Totally agree about the animation! The face Chloe makes when she jumps out of the train’s way is so cute!
<3
Life Is Strange is on sale right now in the Humble store, as well as on the playstation site. So now is a good time to pick it up! It’s a great 5$ to spend!
i am so gay for this game and this article and also this writer! thanks @dufrau for introducing me to this gay-me
Aw shucks! Thanks buddy :)
Ugh. I am so obsessed with this stupid game! I haven’t been so invested in a relationship for such a long time. It’s like everything I ever wanted from a queer lady ship and it’s making me feel like an angsty teen in my 20s?! What’s going on! So pumped for Ep 2.
I can’t stop listening to the soundtrack. They got Daughter to write most of the original music/ songs and it is amazing.
Don’t listen to ‘A Hole in the Earth’ unless you want major feels.
My computer had taken a shit so I was using my roommate’s and this game came out on a three day weekend for him that was a “only get the actual holiday” off for me, so my only option was to take long naps, wake up when he went to bed, play through the night, and zombie through work, fuck it.
If you haven’t played it yet, I feel this is a good mindset to play from.
So glad to finally see an article on this! Thank you for the thoughtful review. I was so pleased with how gay it was in such an innocent sixteen year old way. I hate that it won’t influence some of the plot is LiS though. Always Bae > Bay.
Also Rhuu – loved that fic too. Soooo good!
Had to specifically search for my login so I could post to this cos aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh the feels! I played episode one through today instead of packing to move apartment and it was time well spent. It was such a relief to have the option of being queer AF and actively choosing options like ‘flirt’. Really fun to play as Chloe and try and make choices that feel right to me but also to her as a character (loads of times I found myself essentially tut tutting at her behavior and language cos I’m a Mom before my time for needless attitude and rudeness, as I work with teens). Loved the tabletop gaming scene and the new characters to interact with. Loved the utter terror when talking to Rachel at points, very relatable. :)
Honestly, I’m like the biggest LIS fan ever. But, I don’t know if I’m ready to play Before the Storm. The first game just changed me so much. I remember after the ending, just sitting paralyzed in the dark for hours, not sure of how to move forward with my life. No game has ever that kind of impact, and I’m a bit scared of what emotions the new game will stir up. Hopefully soon…
(Spoilers here! Beware!)
I really just registered to post my opinion on this at least somewhere. I searched through what seems to be whole internet and nobody made this point, so i have to, I guess. I feel terrible after game’s end, but thats not only because I khew how its going to end up for Rachel and Chloe, there’s more to that. The point is, it feels so wrong for Chloe to end up like this. Happily ever after until the original game. Its not how it is in real life. Maybe Chloe would have survived and didn’t end up like this if she noticed GIANT red flags that what she has with Rachel is not healthy, th say the least. I don’t understand why nobody on the internet wrote about this. Like, even with all her grief, it has been three years for her to notice. It is brought up in the game, but is is immediately written off as nonsense, because the guy who said that (Eliot) becomes concentrated on his feelings and all abusive. But he makes the right point – Rachel is using Chloe. May be not consciously, but certainly using. Only thing Rachel EVER does for Chloe is save her from this guys at the mill. After that – nothing. And Chloe is tearing her life apart to help Rachel. Chloe is always so sympathetic for Rachel about that her father is cheating, but you know, Chloe’s father is dead, and her whole life is total trainwreck after his death. Does Rachel even care? No. Ok, talking about that wont ease the pain Chloe is going through. But maybe Rachel convinces Chloe not to put in danger everything she has left?? No, Rachel doesn’t even try. She just lets Chloe tear down everything she stiil has to get Rachel what she wants. Even when Rachel already knows what is happening in Chloes life. Even if Chloe gets expelled because of her. This is not a healthy relationship, this is not a relationship at all. I have gone through that kind of relationship when you get swallowed up in your “partners” life so much that you forget about your own. It doesn’t end well. Especially is your life is already a mess. This is terrible that the game portreys this as not just okay, but as a GOOD way to start a friendship of a relationship. Like it’s something “special” between you and that girl. Its not. I really hope the writers didn’t mean to put such abusive moral to their story, but it hit me too close to home.