Life Is Strange: Before The Storm – Review

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Life Is Strange: Before The Storm is a third person graphic adventure that takes place 3 years prior to the events of Life is Strange. This time around you’re controlling Chloe Price. Episode 1 deals with Chloe struggling with her father’s death and her new relationship with Rachel Amber.

The format is much the same as the original in that you will need to make choices for Chloe which will, in turn, shape the story and gameplay. You can interact with the environment and other characters to find out information to help you progress throughout the story. Some of the locations will be familiar if you played Life is Strange, such as Blackwell Academy and Chloe’s House.

Before The Storm differs from Life Is Strange in that there’s no time travel this time, instead, Chloe is able to use her attitude in a ‘Backtalk’ option in certain situations – for instance when an underage teen is trying to get into a gig in the opening chapter. Though beware when using this option as the results may not always be favourable and you may actually make situations worse. 

Even though there isn’t any time travel you can replay chapters and change your choices or you can simply go back using the Collectable Mode which doesn’t change choices but allows you to explore items you may have missed. Whereas in the original Max is ‘collecting’ pictures, Chloe enjoys Graffiti, so you can go back and make your mark in each chapter if you miss it first time round.

Having played Life is Strange, it’s nice to get the backstory to Chloe, they portrayed a vulnerability in her well which makes you warm to her. Given one of the plots of Life is Strange was ‘missing girl’ Rachel, it was good to get to know more about her character and what she and Chloe have. However, I did feel that the speed in which their relationship progresses (less than 24hrs!) was unrealistic. But if you can get past this, then the story is pretty interesting.

The dialogue is good and the gameplay itself is simple. Moving around and accessing menus to view your journal and any texts messages is very easy. Your journal basically keeps track of your interactions and progress through the game. You will occasionally get text messages which either give you the information you may need or help build depth to characters by giving them more interactions with Chloe.

Given it’s a ‘graphic’ adventure, I felt the graphics were pretty outdated and lacking. The characters don’t look realistic, the landscapes don’t have any real depth and given the advances in many games on the market nowadays, this was disappointing. It would’ve really enhanced the whole experience of this game if the visuals were sharper.