Life is Strange: Before the Storm - 13/52

     Life is Strange marks one of the most polarizing experiences in a game I've had in my entire life. There's a lot to dislike about Life is Strange, from the sometimes stilted voice acting to the weird animations to it being a wholly narrative driven game based entirely on walking and seemingly arbitrary multiple choice questions. Not to mention it relies seriously on the cliche of small towns always having a messed up underbelly that needs to come to light. As someone who has basically grown up in small towns his whole life, I can tell you that underbelly is mostly just rampant heroin addiction and improper trash disposal. But for all its faults, I fell in love with it. It wove a rather interesting and compelling mystery, with characters I really did like and a primary gameplay mechanic, short-term time travel, that, while never used for anything especially cool until the final chapter, really did serve to get in tune with the world that Life is Strange built. It was one of the first games I cleared on my PS4 and I basically binged the whole thing. So with my clear love for Life is Strange, I was excited for more to be released. Even if it wasn't the same characters, setting or narrative, I just wanted more of this universe where random indie songs start up for no adequately explained reason and all you need to fix a 40-year-old truck is a toolbox, a picture, and a pirate flag. And I got my wish in the form of a prequel, Life is Strange: Before the Storm.

    To talk about Before the Storm I must first talk more about the original Life is Strange.  Don't worry, I'll make it brief. The original Life is Strange is the story of high school student Max Caulfield, who has recently moved back to her childhood home of Arcadia Bay, Oregon, to attend a prestigious prep school.  After a whirlwind of a first day of the semester, wherein she stops a drug deal, gets shot and discovers that she has the ability to travel back in time in brief periods, at most twenty minutes, she reunites with her childhood best friend, Chloe Price, who pretty much is rightfully angry at Max for moving away to Seattle and then proceeding to basically abandon her for years on end.  She then shows Chloe her gift and the two set out to solve the disappearances of several teenage girls in Arcadia Bay over the course of the past couple years, a mystery that Chloe has a personal stake in as her girlfriend, Rachel, is one of the missing girls. This is all juxtaposed by the impending threat of a massive hurricane that Max keeps having recurring visions of that threatens to destroy Arcadia Bay.  The overarching theme of these games is just ‘when it rains it pours’, if you couldn’t tell.

    Now, I know what you're thinking.  'Ethan' you may be saying. 'I thought you said it would be brief.'  To which I reply, that was brief. I could go on for a full entry about Life is Strange easily, I love Life is Strange.  Anyways, you may also be asking about the relevance of the plot of the future entry in the series chronologically. Wouldn't that be giving spoilers to the game you are currently playing?  And indeed, it is true. Playing through Life is Strange does give you the ending to the story in Before the Storm and, without giving too much away, it's not a happy ending for anyone involved.  But I feel it was relevant to mention this as you needed some smattering of information on the previous game to adequately understand my thoughts and feelings on this one. So, without further ado, let's dive into our main event.  Life is Strange: Before the Storm.

Okay, so it's 'I Can't Believe it's Not D&D'

    Life is Strange: Before the Storm is set 3 years before the events of the original game.  In it, rather than playing as original protagonist Max Caulfield, you play as original deuteragonist, Chloe Price.  The game's focus is on a young Chloe meeting Rachel and discovering her own sexuality, as well as dealing with the much smaller but still kind of big mystery of Rachel's dad's mysterious makeout buddy who, she'll note, is definitely not her mom.  As well, Chloe is dealing with her mom finally moving on from Chloe her dad's death and finding love again, and Chloe feeling unwanted in her own house. And a wildfire. There's a raging wildfire too. Oh and the drug subplot. And D&D. This game is ten hours long and you play D&D twice for roughly eight of those ten hours. I love this series, man, but it really just needs to chill out for a second.  It's up to Chloe to solve the mystery and get the girl. Probably not, she's just a teenager, and she doesn't even have time travel superpowers.

    Life is Strange: Before the Storm is a smaller, more character-driven fare than the future past entry in the series.  Rather than really focusing on the disaster or the mystery, Before the Storm prefers to focus on the developing relationship between Chloe and Rachel.  Which makes sense, the driving force of the original was this relationship that Chloe and Rachel had, but we never properly meet Rachel nor do we get to really see the relationship.  And this both works and kind of doesn't work. Chloe and Rachel are both fine characters that have a lot of really good moments throughout the three main episodes of this game. They play off each other exceedingly well, making for, in some ways, a better buddy duo than even Chloe and Max were.  Chloe and Rachel are both rebels, lashing out in the same way for vastly different reasons. But there is another side to this that I'll save for a little later since I like to start these things off positive.

    As stated before, Chloe cannot travel back in time as Max could.  As a result, the devs had to come up with a new gameplay mechanic to mesh well with Chloe's personality as well as be meaningful to the story.  That mechanic is hardcore disses. Chloe can enter backtalking contests with a variety of characters over the course of the game, and I like how this mechanic works out.  It tests how closely you've been paying attention to character dialogue as well as how well you know Chloe as a character. It even gives the endless chain of seemingly arbitrary multiple choice questions something to do, as now you can just sass everyone when they're being terrible to you like the rebellious punk rocker teenager you are.  It's like living through American Idiot on Broadway, except Green Day is replaced with an English indie/neo-folk band.

    Speaking of which, let's talk about the soundtrack.  Life is Strange had a really solid soundtrack, full of super good chilled out indie tunes that do an excellent job of setting the mood for the game.  As well, they never seem overly intrusive, as they're more or less played exclusively in scenes where it would make sense for music to be playing. The best part, however, is that it was super varied.  Several bands were licensed for the original Life is Strange and it gave it the feel of 'these are just tracks I like from bands I like and want to give more acclaim' over 'this is what we licensed so hope you enjoy it.'  Before the Storm tries the same thing and, while the soundtrack to this one is definitely enjoyable, it is very clearly just all songs from the same band. This arguably meshes better with the character of Chloe Price, being more punk rock and less hipster like Max is, she'd be more likely to just listen to her punk rock bands forever and not have a large variety of music.  Where it loses me, however, is when contextually all these songs by the same band, English indie rock and neo-folk band Daughter, who still do an excellent job I reiterate, are supposed to be from vastly different artists in-universe. Not to mention that, while they do manage to rock it in this game, they are incredibly stylistically different from the personality of Chloe Price.  But overall it is still a good soundtrack, just not as interesting or as relative as the original.

    Let's talk about characterization.  Before the Storm is characteristically a mess.  Chloe Price was one of the stronger points of Life is Strange, being the perfect blend of youthful arrogance and the feeling of indestructibility, and vulnerability and the growing feeling of unstoppable self-destruction.  As such, I came into Before the Storm expecting it to inform the character I loved so much in the original. Instead, I feel like the opposite happened. Instead of Before the Storm giving us insight as to why Chloe became how she is in Life is Strange, it feels like Life is Strange informs Before the Storm.  We see a Chloe who, more or less, is already at the point we meet her in Life is Strange. Now, there's nothing necessarily wrong with that from an overall universe perspective. Chloe being the same person at 15 as she is at 18 is what one might expect from a teenager, especially a rebellious punk rock girl living in an isolated small town in the middle of a vast forest.  The issue I take is that it feels like the game expects you to know who Chloe is before playing the game. It ends up playing like ‘we don’t need to work on this character because you should’ve already played Life is Strange so, here, have some references.’

I may have also forgotten to mention Rachel is a latent Airbender.

    And then there's Rachel.  I'm going to start off by saying I feel like the writers had essentially written themselves into a corner with Rachel.  Life is Strange made Rachel seem almost like a force of nature, someone Chloe felt so strong for that she'd risk everything to be with her.  I can fully see why Chloe would fall in love with Rachel, being as brash and impulsive as her but Rachel not having near the experience growing up as a privileged white girl whose daddy will bail her out of anything and everything. The game makes it so that Rachel is a fun person to be around and I overall did really like her as a character.  I feel moreover I relate to Chloe a lot more, but Rachel is definitely a person I can relate to just from knowing people like her. And I really like how you can already see how this woman turned to self-destruction and slight drug addiction because she does not handle real tragedy well at all. For what is presented as a really good actress who absolutely loves tragedies in particular (Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' plays a particularly huge role in this game's narrative), she's absolutely awful at dealing with them.  I feel the game even kind of expects you to believe Rachel to be a perfect goddess of a woman, considering how much Chloe builds her up in the original, only to be presented with someone who is arguably more flawed than Chloe could ever be. A little ironic considering that’s how Chloe saw her in the original and that’s not at all what we’re given from her as a POV character My main complaint, however, is that the shortness of what was present doesn't give her enough room to grow as a character, and her arc pacing falls flat.  Which brings me to the main problem of Life is Strange: Before the Storm.

    The pacing in this game is atrocious.  They attempt to jam more content than was in the original Life is Strange into a far shorter package.  For the most part, they write a lot of the stories with this in mind, except arguably why this game exists.  I'm going to go ahead and give you a brief summary of the romantic arc of this game and maybe you'll see the problem.

Ah that school budget Shakespeare.  It's beautiful.

Thursday - Chloe and Rachel meet for what is basically the very first time at a concert.

Friday - Chloe arrives at school to discover that Rachel is awaiting her at the entrance.  After sitting through Rachel's rehearsal and helping her get dressed, Rachel talks Chloe into skipping school with her and the two board a train up into the mountains.  They play some improv games, steal some booze and Chloe admits to Rachel that she has feelings for her. Rachel is initially hesitant but admits that she has feelings for Chloe as well.  The two set fire to a forest.

Saturday - Rachel and Chloe get called into the Headmaster's office wherein Chloe takes the fall for yesterday and gets expelled, primarily to keep Rachel in good graces with the school.  After being separated for most of the day, they reunite at the performance, Rachel talks Chloe into filling in for another actress who can't make it because of the fire, and while on stage the two improv a scene confessing their eternal love to each other, gaining standing ovations from the audience.  That night they decide to run away together and go to Rachel's home to play meet the parents before they do.

Sunday - After spending the night at Rachel's house (gain from that what you will), Chloe and Rachel set off to confront Chloe's drug dealer about his relation to the mystery.  Chloe's inaction in said confrontation leads to Rachel getting stabbed and being taken to the hospital. Chloe then decides to take it upon herself to solve the mystery, risking prison and even death for her love, Rachel.

So, I'll admit I know basically nothing about teenage romance.  And I get that your initial feelings for someone can be stronger than everything else you may grow to feel about them.  But, it feels a little off how hard Chloe has it after only knowing this woman for roughly three days. Now, Chloe is not exactly good at relationships so that might be why the pacing is like it is.  But here is the other thing. The relationship goes on for another two and a half years that we only ever see via montage before the season closes. And with that knowledge, the pacing seems weak. Our leads get to the point where you'd expect them to be over the course of their entire relationship in only three days.  I fully expected with how quick this was going that day three was going to be the day Rachel disappeared. I feel like it would've helped for each episode to be after some time has passed. Drop the Rachel's father is cheating plot, which isn't especially compelling nor satisfying to begin with, and just go all in on this relationship.  It would give it a more natural flow, something that I feel was severely lacking in Before the Storm.

Let's talk briefly about the video game voice actors strike.  Talk about your mood whiplash, right? Now, there are definitely smarter and more talented people and I'm not going to pretend like I have the tact to comment on what is a very complex subject.  So, for the sake of not looking like an idiot, here are a few articles discussing the subject better than I ever could.  The relevant info is how it impacted the production of Life is Strange: Before the Storm.  Life is Strange was arguably hit the hardest by the strike, as the series unfortunately lost Chloe's original voice, actress, singer, and writer Ashly Burch.  Burch was really, in my opinion, the reason why Chloe worked so well overall in the original and I was worried about her not being able to return to the part. My worries were pretty quickly quashed.  The replacement actress, Chloe's motion capture actress Rhianna DeVries, is very noticeably not Ashly Burch, but she's almost flawless in her capture of Chloe's voice. In fact, I bought this version of young Chloe so well that when Burch actually does do a Chloe from around this age in another part of Life is Strange, it almost sounds wrong.  So, you know. Good job Rhianna DeVries.

    Life is Strange: Before the Storm was super mixed for me.  On the one hand, the character work, when not involving the main relationship, was perfect, the backtalk mechanic was fun, the D&D side story/mini-game was great and I did really dig the soundtrack.  On the other hand, the main story was clunky, the relationship seemed forced and without proper flow and the whole thing felt too small for its own good. I enjoyed my time with Before the Storm, but I don't see me returning to it like I would the original.  Though, if you're new to this franchise, definitely play Before the Storm first. Your views on it might be tempered by the original, as mine definitely ended up being tempered. Overall, though, my feelings are 'it's fun but flawed'. I hope you enjoyed this look into Life is Strange: Before the Storm, and I'll see you all back here for the next entry, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions.

Daughter's solid 3.5/5 soundtrack that I feel I should plug after ragging on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBZagC6IiAA

Ethan's Backlog: https://www.backloggery.com/edzoologist