Life is Strange: Before the Storm Review

Before the Storm is the prequal to the game Life is Strange, taking us back to the events happening prior to the beginning of the story. In a quick recap, the events of Life is Strange is set in a time where a young girl named Rachel has disappeared with the whole school of Arcadia Bay being in shock and mourning. Rachel was a beloved person, most beloved to her best friend Chloe. In Life is Strange Chloe’s old friend Max, whom she have had no contact with since they were children, reconnects and try to solve the mystery of what happend to Rachel.

In Before the Storm we learn about two different stories – the background of Chloe and Rachel’s friendship (and kinship), but also Chloe and Max’s childhood memories up till when Max moved out of Chloe’s life. The game starts out in Arcadia Bay, Oregon in 2010 at which Chloe is 16 years old. The beginning of the game has you sneaking Chloe in to a punk-rock concert in an abandoned lumber mill. Here you learn the base mechanic of the game. Wherein Life is Strange the base mechanic was time manipulation, in Before the Storm it is Backtalk. Backtalk is a mechanic where you use arguments or insults in order to get what you want. When inside the concert you end up in a conflict between two men, and is saved when Rachel creates a distraction for you. The day after at Blackwell Academy Rachel and Chloe chooses to skip class, and jumps a train together ending up at Lookout Point.

Using a viewer, they spy on people from atop the hill. They spot a couple kissing, which makes Rachel upset. Trying to cheer her up, Chloe steals some wine and heads to the scrapyard for some destructive fun. Rachel’s mood does not change, so Chloe confronts her about it, and she confesses that she has spottet her father cheat on her mother through the viewer on the Lookout hill. In a fit of rage Rachel lights a family photo on fire, kicks the trash can and starts a wildfire.

The following day they are back in school being scolded by the headmaster for skipping class. In order to dodge more scolding Chloe hides at the scrapyard they visited the day before, where she finds an old truck in dire shape. The gets a call from her drug dealer, who wants to meet up and talk about her ever-rising debt. Not having the money to pay back the drug dealer, Chloe agrees to repay him by stealing said money from one of her classmates, a fella who also owes the dealer a great amount of money. In trying to do so, Chloe learns that the poor student is being extorted violently by yet another drug dealer.

But life does not stand still at Blackwell Academy, and the past comes knocking. Due to the wildfire roads has been closed off around Arcadia, which in turn causes an actor to not being able to show up for the theater production of The Tempest. A bit against her will, Chloe agrees to fill in for the missing actor. When the play is done Rachel and Chloe decides to skip town, and heads back to Rachel’s house to pack. The plan is to ride off into the sunset with the beat-up van Chloe found (and repaired) at the scrapyard. Before the pair can leave, they end up in a confrontation with Rachel’s dad, and when Rachel calls him out for his cheating, he confesses that the woman he was kissing actually was Rachel’s biological mother.

Following, the father explains that the biological mother is a drug addict, and  the reason he kissed her that day was because he has rejected her wish to reunite with Rachel. Against her fathers wishes, Rachel (with the help of Chloe) decides to find her biological mother. Chloe contacts the drug dealer, and he agress to meet them at the scrapyard. Whilst waiting for him she repairs the truck, and just when she is finished she is ambushed, and Rachel is stabbed after the ambusher learns that she is the daughter of the district attorney.

Rachel survives the stabbing, and recovers in the local hospital. Chloe continues the search for Rachel’s biological mother in the meanwhile. In doing so, she breaks in to Rachel’s father’s office, trying to find information on her, but instead finds evidence that he has been in contact with the very guy who stabbed his daughter. He calls up the guy, and learns that he has kidnapped Rachel’s mother, and is holding her for ransom. Getting the money, Rachel heads to pay off the ransom, but learns that Rachel’s father actually hired him to kill her. In a stroke of luck Chloe’s drug dealer shows up, and fights off the kidnapper, saving Rachel’s mother. She makes Chloe promise not to tell Rachel of what her father has done. In the end, Chloe is facing down Rachel at the hospital, and has the choice of either telling Rachel everything or keep the truth to herself.

The main part of the game ends here. But as an added bonus, they added a last chapter called Farewell. Farewell is the story of how Max is struggling to tell her best friend Chloe that she is moving to Seattle in three days come. The year is 2008, and the two girls discover an old recording they made when they were 8 years old. In the recording they are playing pirates, talking about a buried treasure. They discover an amulet and a treasure map in the attic, and by following the clues they discover  that Chloe’s father has put their time captule into a keg together with his own recordings. Now Max has the option to either tell Chloe that she is moving, or to keep it to herself. Before the day is over Chloe’s mom returns home with the sad news that Chloe’s father has died in a traffic accident. Some days later Max attends the funeral, and then leaves for Seattle, leaving Chloe griefstruck.

Before the Storm is sort of an coming-of-age story, with a rebellious twist. It’s a rather melancholic experience, and you end up feeling sorry for the main characters. Both Chloe and Rachel has tragedy in their lives, and being the rebellious teenagers they are, the world does seem to be against them. That being said, they are not bad people, quite the contrary, and exist in a world that seems to be full of the bad ones. The last chapter, Farewell, serves as an emotional round-up of the story of Max and Chloe prior to Max’s return to Arcadia in Life is Strange. The game’s story is well-written, and a rollercoaster of emotions. The game-mechanic of Before the Storm, Backtalk, is a bit of a dissapointment coming from Life is Strange’s time manipulation, but it does fit the theme of the game quite nicely.

The graphics are identical to that of it’s predecessor, it looks rather nice, and walking around Arcadia Bay is always a delight. The music score is also great, something the series has going for it. If you want to give Before the Storm a go, it is paramount that you first play through Life is Strange, even if Before the Storm is a prequal. As this may not always be the case (some games I’d for instance rather play the sequal before), it gives for a more nuanced picture of the telling of Chloe (and Max, as well) if you have the backstory of Life is Strange before playing Before the Storm. And if doing so, you are in for a nice expansion of the world of Arcadia Bay, and the inhabitants that you have grown to love.