Life Is Strange: Before the Storm Review – Episode 1: Awake

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm Review of Episode 1: Awake. Prequel to Life Is Strange, Before the Storm takes place three years prior and focuses on Chloe Price and her unlikely friendship with Rachel Amber.

Developer: Deck Nine
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PC, PS4 (reviewed), Xbox One
Released: August 31, 2017
Copy purchased

Max Caulfield’s BFF Chloe Price stars in Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, a 16 year-old rebel with the ability to ‘Backtalk’.  Nearly two years removed from original, Square Enix has recruited not Dontnod — but Deck Nine to develop this prequel.  Not only that, but the esteemed voice actress for Chloe Price is not Ashly Burch.  No doubt fans of the original Life Is Strange have cause for concern over the quality.

Chloe shows off her favorite finger.

Let’s cut to the short of it. There are two questions fans want to know: 1) How does the quality hold up with the loss of Dontnod team and Ashly Burch? and 2) Does this prequel have any value in experiencing? After playing Episode 1, the answer lies somewhere between ‘Yes’ and ‘somewhat’. When Max Caulfield exits the classroom, puts on her headphones and the music plays, you knew immediately this game was special.  Before the Storm doesn’t have any clear indicator like that and in fact it starts quite slow.  The turning point for me was somewhere in the middle of the 3-hour long episode, when Chloe reaches Blackwell Academy and the “chase” for Rachel Amber begins.

“Do not” means “Please, go right ahead” to Chloe Price.

Chloe Price has a downbeat and abrasive personality which makes it difficult to find her a likable character.  The writers have leveraged Chloe’s personality interestingly to get her out (or at least delay) some bad situations and even improve some.  The ‘Backtalk’ option keeps you engaged in the conversations by forcing you to focus on certain keywords in order to “win” them.  The loss of the Rewind mechanic was a blow, since it so conveniently allows you to retry for a different choice.  For dialogue-heavy, multiple-choice adventures, this was a huge boon.  It’s not a big loss I suppose, since you can restart a checkpoint or play again via chapter select.

One of my favorite scenes in Episode 1: Awake.  Chloe happy as a clam.

You can make certain story choices in the game as before, but since Before the Storm is only three episodes, they feel more inconsequential.  The budding relationship between Chloe and Rachel is the high point, and matures as organically as it can despite some parts feeling rushed.  The new voice actress is not bad and you get acclimated over time.  There is still no substitute for Ashly Burch, because for me she is Chloe Price.  But it is enough to dock the review score a single point.  Some people may not care so much, and that’s fine.  I’m hopeful they can get her to record the tracks as DLC later after the SAG-AFTRA strike is over.

Chloe’s tough exterior melts away when she sees a chance at happiness.

The soundtrack for the most part fits the tone of the original game.  There are some corners cut here (like why did Rachel gravitate towards Chloe), but it’s expected when the entire arc is only three episodes.  There are high expectations for anything related to Life Is Strange.  It’s understandable any imitations will come under major scrutiny.  Before the Storm is serviceable and in certain areas it shines as the original did, but when compared against Life Is Strange, it’s a half-step behind.  Ultimately, Episode 1: Awake of Before the Storm doesn’t do anything to sully the name and at $6 per episode, I would recommend it.

Score: 7.5 out of 10

My Playtime (estimated): 6 hours in total.  Played through this twice completely.  Each playthrough was a bit more than 3 hours which is what players can expected.  Found all the Graffiti to unlock all the trophies.  You can use the Graffiti guide to find them all.  Also check out the full Walkthrough of Episode 1: Awake.

***BONUS***

The bad lip syncing of the first game is gone now; I kinda miss it.  One of the last scenes of Episode 1: Awake with Chloe she has written on her hand ‘Ansia‘.