...Life is People
In the gaming field, few studios dare. Most of the time we notice that they follow a specific recipe for many years. On the one hand, if the game makes good sales, we would say it's not that bad. One the other hand, we have several examples, even from large studios in the area, changing direction, creating something completely out of their league, and most of the time succeeding. In the case of Dontnod Entertainment, which was responsible for the first cycle of Life is Strange and Deck Nine, which gave us the prequel "Before the Storm", they had nothing to lose anyway. Their previous games was Remember Me and Cool Boarders respectively.
However, sailing in uncharted waters requires, first of all, courage and, above all, talent. Dontnod Entertainment proved it to us with the story of Max and Deck Nine is coming to fill the gap and tell us the story of her friend, Chloe. In Life is Strange Before the Storm we will see how Chloe evolved into the girl we met in the first cycle and we will explore the dark parts of both her own character and Rachel's. The girl who was mysteriously missing at the beginning of Max's story and we didn't really know anything about her. Reasonably, questions and doubts were raised. How could we reconnect with these characters, since we already know their fate?
The answer is very simple. The studio focused on telling a story about people. Not just for characters. The supernatural element is absent and this is logical since Max has the power to manipulate time. A force for which we never learned how she acquired in the first cycle and we will not learn in Before the Storm either. After all, this is a story about Chloe, not Max. We already know that Chloe is placed in a difficult transitional period. Two years ago she lost her father in a car accident with whom she was very close, her childhood bestfriend Max has left for Seattle and her mother is trying to rebuild her life while restoring the paternal figure in her daughter's life with a different man that Chloe doesn't approve. All these events push her to make her own revolution. In short terms, this is the story of Before the Storm. And here, of course, comes the confirmation of the rule that the details make the difference as well as we judge someone very easily without really knowing anything about them (which is true in real life too). Every effect requires action, and Deck Nine opens Chloe's unknown personality to us as a book through the extraordinary narration of her story, making us understand and love both her and Rachel.
Before the Storm delves into something much more important which is the root of the problem. Dealing with pain and loss. Chloe's mother has already accepted the death of her husband and she is determined to rebuild her life. Chloe, on the other hand, never accepted it. It tortures her, makes her angry and reactive to everything. From letting her progress in school fail, hanging out with dangerous people and generally living on the edge, refusing to follow any rules. Also, the different treatment of the mother regarding the death of her father, although, inside, she understands it and often wants to move on, she cannot overcome it and gets angry when a new male figure comes into their lives and home, which Chloe is not only unwilling to accept as her father, but gives him no chance. So, Chloe chooses to be out of the house as much as possible.
The most important thing, and where the studio really shines, is when Chloe met Rachel. Rachel is the school's most popular girl, with perfect grades, perfect looks, perfect social status, perfect family and perfect standards for the future. But the truth is that she hides a lot of secrets and in fact she is far from the image that the local community believes in. All this is the perfect prison from which she struggles to escape.
The game takes place in Arcadia Bay, a perfect "fake" world, in which Rachel screams to be saved from. And this is exactly the scream that the revolutionary Chloe will hear and bring them together, developing a relationship between them that while everyone perceives as catastrophic, one will find in the other what they were looking for. But the touch of Deck Nine is that even though the game is ful of upheavals, the player is never completely sure who is dragging whom. A friendship really develops here or something more? Is it a relationship of trust or is it just manipulation? Are the feelings that the player feels through Chloe really overwhelming or are they deceptive?
This doubt was something I liked because I personally can't stand predictable scenarios. There is diffusion not only in the characters and their intentions but also in the story itself. The script constantly directs you somewhere and then takes it back in a way that makes sense and surprises you. I was very happy that Deck Nine in this story managed to leave me speechless several times (especially in the last episode). And imagine that this is a story that we already know the fate of the characters who pass in front of our screen! So maybe in the end, in games like this the ending does not matter, but what happens to the characters until they get there is the key point. In Before the Storm the rest of the characters aren't just there to fill the gap in the script. They have their own personality that influences the protagonists and the player's decisions. There are no good or bad characters and every action regardless of how it looks justifies the player, making him wonder what he would do in their place.
In the gameplay, the well-known recipe of the dialogues was implemented, in which some objects or actions can unlock more options in them. However, the studio presented a new mini-game on the dialogues that has to do with Chloe's confrontation with some specific characters in order to put them in their place, to avoid a situation or to cause it. It's not that important but it's definitely a lot of fun.
The graphics are good and they just do their job. Unity gives a more "cartoonish" texture but I can't say it's bad or annoying. But I clearly preferred the Unreal Engine of the first cycle. The lip sync is meticulous, the landscape and the camera shots are beautiful and in general the whole visual set may not impress but it ties in more than a satisfying way with the game. The music investment continues to steal the show and be one of the strongest cards of the game. Its not from the same composer of the first cycle, but the result fits perfectly with the facts and history.
I suggest you try the game yourselves and fall in love again with Life is Strange unique way of playing❕❕❕
Watch the trailer below!
Box Art
Tested on : PC
Developer : Deck Nine Games
Publisher : Square Enix
Available for : PC, PS4, Xbox One
Release date : 2018-03-09
