Life is Strange was a game that took many people by surprise. It stormed to success, winning awards, accolades, and is celebrated for its storytelling and honest depiction of youthful, impressionable characters. Before the Storm seeks to continue that success; this time placing the player in the role of Chloe Price.
Just as Life is Strange presents the player with choices that impact the plot, offering numerous and deep and meaningful choice, leading to\ different outcomes, and tense decision making; Before the Storm is more of the same, just so far, without granting the player any supernatural skills.
The game opens with Chloe heading out to a concert in the middle of nowhere. A new game mechanic is introduced, and I dub it adolescent bickering.
You listen to the NPC, and prey upon their choice of words until they get sick of hearing Chloe's witty remarks. They are indeed witty, and well written. I got a few laughs out of the burns provided by Chloe early in the game; but what is off putting is that some situations that you chose to escalate really shouldn't end the way in which they do.
The original game used the Unreal engine, and Before the Storm employs unity to do its deeds. Immediately, the engine being different is quite jarring. It results in slightly lower quality textures and facial animations, which is really important in a game like this; where reading the expressions of characters is fundamental to progression of the story.
Even with this drop in visual fidelity, the game is still capable of delivering cinematic storytelling that leaves a resonating impact. The choice of camera angles, composition in scenes and visual poignancy immerses you in a world where a novice film student would delight. Scenes have meaningful props and items that flesh out the plot, even if you can't interact with every single one of them. You can be a vandal, leaving graffiti in almost every place you go; and as a result, leaving a further legacy on your environment, a vast departure from simply capturing it in the original game. I wonder if the consequences of Chloe's graffiti will come back to bite her later.
Here's an example of that visual poignancy. If you look closely, you can see Chloe curled up in front of the wrecked car. The scene is a junkyard, the car is junk, and she's vulnerable. The setting sun is symbolic too, indicating that the idea of youth is one that is transient.
In this first episode, the relationship between Chloe and Rachael, the most popular girl in school is fleshed out through a sequence of scenes that dominates the later part of the episode. The dialogue flows well, however the voice acting is a little lacking in emotion at times.
One of the most enjoyable scenes in the game will probably have very little to do with the outcome of the plot. There's a wonderful scene, where before entering the school building, you get the opportunity to take part in some Dungeons and Dragons style table top roleplay. Here is where the voice acting of Chloe's character shines brightest, and the joy and innocence of student life is so accurately captured.
The despair is captured earlier in a long, drawn out interaction between Chloe and her mother, and her mother's new boyfriend. These scenes seem forced, and confrontational for the sake of being confrontational.
Episode 1 of Before the Storm sets the scene and gets us ready for what is to come later. There's another 2 episodes, and at about 3 hours for the first (I played at a meandering pace) - this game should represent good value; however at this stage, it feels very much like there's a bit of improving yet to be done for this title to shine as brightly as the first entry in the series.
Don't forget this doesn't have the same development team behind it. I have reviewed the Steam version of the game, on PC.
