Life is Strange: Before the Storm Ep. 1 sets up an intriguing story that lives up to the franchise’s name. Even though its not flawless, the prequel delivers an experience worth living.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm gets a lot of things right about Life is Strange, and I for one am hella excited to ride this train with Chloe and Rachel right to the end.
really, really good. When i saw the trailer i wasn't really attracted or convinced about buying this game because the best part of LiS was the rewind and i thought if you couldn't do that it would **** but after i played this i was completely blown away one of the best games i played this year if not the best, really recommend you to buy it did not disappoint me one bit.
What a beautiful master piece that makes me want to REEEE right along with Rachel Amber, The story really makes me want to Km/s while listening to the puns and autismo like jokes
That story stops in a beautiful place at Episode One's end: a cliffhanger that makes me want Episode Two, stat. I'm a little nervous about having to deal with more of Chloe's pop-punk-esque "I'm not OK" pontificating. But based on what I've seen from Before the Storm's premiere, I'm willing to tough it out alongside her, and Rachel, and the rest of Arcadia Bay.
Like Chrysalis, Awake once again feels like the beginning of something great. It is referential for sure, it has to be, but it’s never wholly reliant on what came before. This is a markedly assured debut for new developer Deck Nine, who have confidently executed the core elements that made the original so well liked, but also put their own spin on the world to weave a new tale. Before The Storm is set to be a nostalgic trip back to a home away from home that many thought they’d never get to visit again. I’m delighted to once again be part of this world – if only for a little while.
Life is Strange : Before the Storm Episode 1 is a good prequel to the original game that retains most of the strength. The only flaw is the bigmouth system that chloe can use to bend people to her will, and which seem overused.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm is an underwhelming start to a miniseries that still has plenty of promise. Deck Nine has shown it can create lovable characters and believable drama, yet fails to cohesively implement them into the experience. That being said, things could easily improve from here.
If you ever turn to this game you will never stop playing. The best thing is that it can really take you away for a whole day. The plot is interesting and characters are well developed.
Gut aber weit weg von der Klasse des Vorgängers
Warum?
Es hat nichts magisches mehr. Es wird nur eine intensive und erstklassige Geschichte zweier Freundinnen erzählt. Erzählerisch ist man weit besser wie die Spiele von Telltale Games aber es entwickelt sich im Verlauf der Episode immer mehr zu einem ähnlichen Spiel.
Der 9 € teure Aufpreis für die edle Version kann man sich sparen.
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Well, however, far from the class of the predecessor
Why?
It has nothing magic more. Only one intensive and high-class story of two friends is told. Narratively one is far better like the plays of Telltale Games, however develops in the course of the episode more and more to a similar play.
The surcharge at cost of 9€ for the noble version can save one.
Life is Strange: Before The Storm Episode 1: Awake
No confidence in whats to come
Before the storm is a prequel to life is strange where you play as maxs blue haired friend chloe..
though at least in episode 1, that blue hair is nowhere to be seen…
This time the story focuses on her friendship with rachael amber.. the missing girl from life is strange…
She saves you from a party and the rest is history..
episode 1 is reminding you about chloes fathers death, how much she hates school and her step dad.. and how much teen angst she has, while setting up her and rachels relationship and care for eachother..
but by this 2 hrs long episodes end… my care was nowhere to be found…
There is no special rewind ability here.. this is all interacting with the environment and dialog choices.. turning this into a telltale games sort of adventure..
Appreciated though is that chloe talks to herself reminding you where items are or where you should be looking for a certain item to progress the story.. it doesn’t waste your time which is refreshing for an adventure game…
There is also a battle system where you trade insults or come up with clever replies based on when your opponent says to get your way in a situation..
and you have to do so quickly as youre being timed…
this system is really the only noticeable gameplay here…
Again there is no rewind puzzles or really any puzzles in this first episode
aside from a few fetch questy moments finding your moms phone or an item to pry open a coinslot… the game was dialog choices with characters and a situation I just didn’t care about…
the game gives me no reason to care about chloe and rachaels relationship…
I asked myself while playing multiple times what is even the point of this
There was one cool moment here where I was playing a table top game with these 2 nerds at a picnic table and had to make choices, it was fun and immersed me into the world…
but afterwards I was just out of it, again wondering why…why does this game even exist…
Im not sure if this is just fan service or if this game is going to actually go somewhere..
The story so far is just not compelling
nothing from episode 1 has hooked or intrigued me, nothing has me excited for the next episode…
this isn’t a good sign when this game is set to take place across only 3 episodes total…
I give
Life is Strange: Before The Storm Episode 1: Awake
a 5.5/10
Life is Strange: Before the Storm Episode 1 is a slow, monotonous, slog **** which not only fails to live up to games within its own genre, but also to its predecessor, which despite the dialogue had a few emotional moments in which Life is Strange: Before the Storm fails to deliver either because of the dialogue, because of the obnoxiousness of the symbolism, or because of the illusion of reality being broken. The game opens with a concert, introducing the player to the general gameplay of Life is Strange: Before the Storm. Similar to a point-and-click adventure game, in every area Chloe can walk around and interact with random objects, most of them with very little significance until she interacts with the right object and the story progresses. The issue with this comes with the fact that there is no flow to any of the conversations, and can lead to extreme examples of ludo-narrative dissonance while in a supposedly tense conversation, there can be five minute pauses where the player thinks of what to say. The pacing of the story is too easily disrupted without the player doing anything in order to disrupt it. The illusion of reality is too easily ****, and the player doesn't even have to do anything to break it. The backtalk challenges fix this by adding a timer, however, even by fixing the unnatural pacing of the conversations, the game reveals another flaw: the dialogue. The performances are passable, for example I think Chloe's voice actor despite not having a lot to work with did a decent job of capturing the voice of a the apathetic, unhappy, shallow character Chloe is. Which leads to the flaw that Chloe and her interactions with the other characters lack emotional weight and any sort of reliability, because all the characters and relationships are all very surface-level. While understanding that Chloe is not necessarily meant to be likable, the way she interacts with the different objects in the world certainly reinforce her bitterness and her frame of mind, they never expand upon her character beyond reiterating that she is unhappy. The player never learns how her mind works, or how she approaches situations other than that she approaches them from a cynical point of view, and that is it. It's not fun to play as this character because it is impossible to understand how she thinks, and therefore getting engaged with her plight is borderline impossible. For example, the player does not learn anything by clicking on the objects in David's garage. Chloe simply restates that she hates David until the player decides to progress the story. She has no emotional connection with any character besides Rachel and to an extent David, so it isn't just Chloe who feels shallow, it's the world around her, and almost every character in the game. The dialogue, like the first game, is out of touch and unnecessarily forced. The reason the slang in Life is Strange feels so unnatural is because even to the people this game is aimed towards, it ages very quickly. Now especially, things become outdated faster than ever, and by putting references to internet culture into their game, Dontnod is ensuring that the older this game gets, the worse its biggest flaw will be. Before the end of this review, I want to note that the symbolism between this game and the Tempest is an interesting touch. For as much as I dislike this episode, it does have its appeal. I understand why people enjoy watching Chloe and Rachel's relationship evolve while it is still fresh, and I feel as though this is the best the game gets in terms of visuals. So I'm going to give Life is Strange: Before the Storm Episode 1 a 4 out of 10.
In my review I'll be doing my best to avoid comparing this title to the original Life is Strange, they really are in different veins. That said, Before the Storm's first episode feels very flat. I feel a bit of compassion for the writing team, as they're really in a corner here. The whole point of an RPG is usually to give a degree of control over a character and their story. Unfortunately, in this case we already know where the story leads and who the characters are. Thus, it's a bit bewildering to me why they've chosen to both A.) Make this a prequel and B.) Really double down on the narrative side. There are no new gameplay features to be found, other than graffiti, which is just a photo replacement, and the argument system, which doesn't do much. And story wise, this episode is sorely lacking. There's nothing to really drive it along, other than the teenage angst which very few honestly enjoyed in the first outing, and the relationship between Chloe and Rachel; which returning players already know the ending to. Honestly, going forward I'm not sure where the story wants to go, either. So far it has just gone through the motions, and I can't really say that it's worth any monetary or emotional investment. I'm hoping for an upswing in the coming episodes, but as of right now; the free first episode of Life is Strange gave us so much more than the paid episode of Before the Storm. The only really saving grace so far is the once again brilliant soundtrack, both in the original numbers and the real world artists, it shines. I'm hoping that episode two brings something new and exciting to the table. There is potential delving into the loneliness theme, as well as what may have been a slight foreshadowing of another sci-fi element at the very end, though that may have been wishful thinking.
Episode One Ratings:
Graphics: 2/5
Story: 3/5
Replayability: 1/5
Sound Design: 5/5
Angstiness: 6/5
SummaryLife is Strange: Before the Storm is a new three part standalone story adventure set three years before the events of the first game. This time play as Chloe Price, a rebel who forms an unlikely friendship with Rachel Amber in a dramatic new story in the BAFTA award winning franchise.