Firing up Before the Storm Episode 1: “Awake”, makes for an incredibly familiar experience. From the title screen, to the in-game overlay and prompts, to the distinct visual style and perfect soundtrack, Before the Storm feels more like an expansion of Dontnod’s excellent original. I went into this game with high expectations and skepticism (many fans will no doubt do the same), and found this was probably the right choice for the new developer, Deck Nine. If you were worried a change in dev team would impacting the carefully crafted characters, their distinct personalities, and excellent writing, you can rest easy. Even the basic gameplay mechanics remain near identical, only with Max’s time-altering powers replaced with a dialogue challenge mechanic for Chloe.



Narrative adventure games (feel free to insert your own description) are always tough to discuss without drifting into spoiler territory but broadly speaking, Before the Storm focusses on the developing relationship between Chloe Price and Rachel Amber, teenagers on the opposite side of the social spectrum, yet sharing troubled childhoods.
Chloe is just as defiant and rebellious as you remember her in Life is Strange – still struggling with the death of her father, unable to relate to her mother, full of teenage angst, and so desperate to define herself that the rebel persona is effectively a caricature. What makes her likeable is that she doesn’t entirely believe her own bullsh*t and, through player decisions, can demonstrate far more emotional maturity when defending herself or others.

Rachel Amber, who many will remember as missing girl from Life is Strange, is the perfect student and envy of her peers. Capable of achieving top grades while socializing with the elite or slumming it with the goths, she struggles to deal with her own family turmoil while trying to live up to expectations. Whereas Chloe’s rebellious behavior is consistent, Rachel rather acts out in random bursts, making her unpredictable and often putting both herself and others at risk.



The first episode lasts about two hours and does a great job of reintroducing Chloe, her personal thoughts, attitude towards the world, and her prowess in arguing down others. Although there is no established threat or villain just yet, you get glimpses of her solitary lifestyle, family drama, student interactions, and general disregard for formal schooling. The bulk of the narrative focusses on her developing relationship with Rachel and how that relationship develops over the course of 24 eventful hours. Player choice dictates whether they will share their rebellious nature with one another or divulge their troubled past. As with Life is Strange, there’s an established narrative arc that moves forward regardless of your choices but your interactions along the way can drastically change the tone and smaller variables.

Chloe also gets to spend plenty of time engaging with some old and some new characters from Blackwell Academy. You retroactively get to see how students have matured (or if not changed at all) and dictate how Chloe interacts with students across the social spectrum. Joining the school “nerds” in a tabletop role-playing game was a particular highlight. Chloe spends plenty of time recounting her childhood experiences with Max and her regret, and some bitterness, about her move to Seattle. However, we also see her discovering to certain locations and characters that she later introduces to Max. A lot of thought has clearly gone into how to link events together and it mostly succeeds.

If there is only one change that is sure to bother some fans, it’s the new voice actor for Chloe. It’s jarring at first to hear Rhianna DeVries’ voice but, given her experience as Chloe’s motion capture actor and the support of Ashley Birch as a writing consultant, I brain soon accepted the change and the way she speaks, her internal ramblings, and general attitude is a perfect match.



Gameplay has changed very little. You control Chloe from a third-person viewpoint and can explore limited areas, interacting with the world when prompted to do so. Exploration, observation and dialogue is rewarded as it unlocks new branching dialogue options or alternate solutions to the puzzles the game presents. With a strong narrative focus, there are plenty of cutscenes that push events forward without much player input other than dialogue choices. These tend to be the major choices, however, so it’s best not to zone out lest you miss a prompt. There are also plenty of quiet or reflective moments, allowing you to simply take in the scene or enjoy an interaction, often while listening to a great selection of rock music.

With no ability to rewind decisions in life-threatening situations, Chloe instead gets dialogue challenges that allow her to intimidate others. You need to assess the opposing characters dialogue, pick up the most important element of that conversation (typically something that makes them anxious or a characteristic to ridicule), and then respond appropriately. You have to achieve a number of successes and avoid too many failures to succeed. In the first episode, I found most choices rather obvious and I never failed a challenge. The only other feature of note is Chloe’s love of graffiti - there are multiple opportunities to whip out a marker pen and alter some existing artwork with one of two choice phrases or drawings.



As far as visuals go, everything that made Life of Strange great returns. Character models and the environment are still angular and exaggerated, with plenty of aliasing and some rough looking objects (especially the foliage). However, facial animation and motion capture is excellent, the dialogue is always perfectly in sync with the character animation. Extensive use of post-processing effects, such as motion blur, bloom, lens flare, and depth of field, ensure every scene looks cinematic. Voice work is excellent and most voice actors have returned to fill their respective roles. The soundtrack is once again expertly chosen for each scene, though if you’re not a fan of alternative and heavy rock, you may not agree.

So far my only concern is that three episodes may not be enough to tell a truly engrossing story. This is somewhat offset by the familiarity players will have with most characters and the longing to discover what led to Rachel’s downfall. If you’re looking for more Life is Strange, Deck Nine has delivered with Before the Storm. The time-rewinding puzzles are gone but Chloe’s own dialogue mechanic coupled the carefully crafted narrative should keep you captivated and it has me waiting eagerly for the next episode.