Life is Strange: Before the Storm

Disclaimer:  This blog contains major spoilers for both “Life is Strange” (LiS) and “Life is Strange: Before the Storm” (BtS).

So let's start with my usual unrelated rambling...

I've been waiting for a series like LiS for a long time.  I've never really cared about my actual skills as a gamer, but as I get older I'm favoring story over gameplay even more.  There are so many games out there with an interesting story, but where the actual "game" gets in the way.  One of the reasons I like Skyrim so much is because it's relatively easy, so I can get immersed in the world without worrying too much about my reflexes.

Not long ago I bought "The Last of Us Remastered" because it was on sale.  The opening was fantastic.  Honestly it was better than most actual theatrical zombie apocalypse movies.  There was a real sense of urgency as you looked out the car windows and watched the chaos developing around you.  When you have to get out and run on foot, there's a sequence where you can see the shadows of the infected people chasing you at the bottom of the screen, showing you just how close they are, and the effect is terrifying.

But once the intro was over, things went downhill. I found the game itself to be dull.  The combat wasn't fun, and the stealth parts were just tedious.  I know the game has received fantastic reviews, so I know it's just me.  And that's okay, y'all enjoy your games, and I'll enjoy mine.  I would love to watch someone else play "The Last of Us", because the story was pretty cool, but I have no interest in slogging through it myself.  Maybe I'll look it up on YouTube sometime.

So the LiS series is good for me.  I can appreciate a good story, without having to worry about my gamer skillz.  In fact, I've gone ahead and added to my list of all time favorite games.  I've also checked out the fan-made "Love is Strange" visual novel, and I've been reading the comic book series.  And finally, I've finished the prequel, "Life is Strange: Before the Storm".  When I get into something, I really go all out.

The visual novel is kind of odd.  First off, a visual novel seems like a step backwards anyway, since LiS is one of the reasons I feel like VNs should be obsolete.  But I suppose it's the easiest medium for dating simulators, especially low budget ones.  "Love is Strange" is not a sequel or a prequel, but a "what if" interactive fan fiction.  "If all the characters from Life is Strange had survived and managed to attend Blackwell at the same time, who would date who?"  I don't have the patience to finish it, but the strangest thing I've come across so far is that their teacher is Hawt Dawg Man.  The artwork is nice, and I can tell it was made by true fans.

The comic book series is interesting.  It takes place one year after the "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay" ending.  Max starts to experience odd shifts in the present timeline, like Worf's dimensional shifts in the ST:TNG episode "Parallels".  Chloe and Max decide to return to Arcadia Bay to find out what's going on.  I'm only two issues into the four-issue limited series, but I'm enjoying it so far.

Now, back to "Life is Strange: Before the Storm."

Episode 1:

It opens with 16 year old Chloe breaking curfew, defacing people’s property, throwing unprovoked insults at almost everyone she meets, drinking alcohol, trying to score some pot, damaging somebody’s car so she can steal a T-shirt (and/or some cash), and getting into a bar fight.  Granted, a few of those are optional.  Still, why are we supposed to like her again?  I mean, I grew to like her over the course of LiS, but anyone who starts with BtS might be a bit put off. 

One of the minor criticisms of the first game was the outdated slang.  There's even a YouTube clip that compiles all the uses of "hella".  Personally I never thought it was supposed to represent current slang, but rather intentional personality quirks.  Chloe and Max hadn't seen each other for five years, so they reverted to the way they used to talk to each other.  And besides, small towns often have their own common slang that's behind the rest of the world.

So I was amused when BtS addresses this by having Chloe remark, "Hella?  Who says that?" after hearing it from California-born Rachel.  The LiS series seems to do this a lot - listen to fan reactions then respond to them in later episodes.  It's a good retcon.

And yay, Rachel started a forest fire.  Rachel's connection to fire is an interesting theme.  Later in Episode 3, the fire goes out at the same time Rachel is stabbed, giving the impression that there could be a supernatural connection.  LiS centers around a tornado, and LiS2 has a kid who possibly makes tornadoes, so the writers really love their elements.  I wonder if some future sequel will tie it all together.

Episode 2:
Chloe's family dynamic is all too real for me.  After my parents divorced, my mom started dating a total asshole (also ex-military).  Of course, that was nearly 30 years ago and they're still together, so I've learned to put up with him.  But unlike Chloe, I never had to live with him.  I was never rebellious like Chloe, but I might have turned out very differently if I'd gone to live with them instead of my dad.

I usually don't even notice the game's Hammerspace inventory system.  When Max carried five bottles around in LiS, it didn't even occur to me to wonder where she'd stashed them.  But in this chapter, when Chloe picks up a car battery then makes a movement like she's stuffing it in her back pocket... well, I just had to laugh.  I liked the bit of customization within the car.  For the record, I used the blue light bulb from the robot, the welcome mat on the floorboard, the pirate flag for a seat cover, I did put the bobble head on the dash, and I wrote "You are about to die" on the back wall.

The toughest choice this chapter was whether to stay with Mikey when Damon attacks Drew.  For me, it was actually harder than the game's final choice.  I stayed with Mikey to keep him out of harm's way, but it was really tough to listen to Drew getting his ass kicked outside.  Even if Drew is a jerk.

Performing Shakespeare made me nostalgic for one of my favorite scenes in an RPG, the "Aria di Mezzo Carattere" opera in Final Fantasy VI.  Afterward, watching Chloe and Rachel celebrating in the streets was touching.  They really captured that energizing euphoria actors often experience after a good show.

When I reached the end of the chapter and saw the big reveal, I almost had to laugh.  The stakes are so much lower in this game than in the first one.   I’m so used to seeing Chloe get shot or made paraplegic that “OMG Rachel’s mom isn’t her mom” barely gets a reaction out of me.  But being a prequel, there really was only so much they could do.  These characters are confined to their destinies, and the writers only had so much wiggle room for extra drama.  Maybe I should have played through the prequel first, just to see how things escalate.

Episode 3:

Chloe's reaction to finding her mom's sex drawer was priceless.

I enjoyed working on the car, even though I hate cars.  Chloe's names for engine parts (like "Fuckamajig") match my own, but she clearly knows more about engines than I do.  

I didn't really like that Frank had to save Chloe at the end.  I was hoping Chloe would find her own way to stop Damon.  Frank could still kill Damon later off screen, but would it have been so hard to write a scenario where Chloe knocks Damon out?  Let the protagonist be the hero, dammit!  Chloe's life is hard, she needs a win.

The final sadistic choice was another “laughably low stakes” moment, at least when compared to LiS.  Do I tell Rachel everything, or protect her from the truth?  Bland as it was, I still spent some time considering it.  Rachel’s going to die next year anyway, why not let her die believing her dad's a nice guy?  But her future death is "out of character" knowledge.  In situations like this I tend to favor honesty, even if the truth hurts.  In my experience, the truth always comes out eventually, so lying just delays the inevitable.  Besides, Chloe wants to blow this town with Rachel anyway, so might as well let Rachel be angry at her dad. 

A lot of reviewers complained about the end of the first “Life is Strange”, because no matter what choices you make during the game, you’re always presented with the same two choices at the end:  Sacrifice Chloe or Sacrifice Arcadia Bay.  It renders all your previous choices pointless.  Why agonize over saving Kate when either (A) she’ll die anyway when the town is destroyed, or (B) she’ll be reset when I reset the week later?

But (as you can tell by my previous blogs), I agonized over them anyway.  I get into games more than most people.  Whether my choices really matter or not, I still want to roleplay a good person.  That's why I could never play a Dark Side character in KotOR. 

So yeah, even though BtS has another binary ending, I don't feel my previous choices were meaningless.  This is not a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book where any choice could lead to a "The End" page.  This is a story with two endings, and lots of possible middles.  I can live with that.

The final stinger, where it shows Rachel's phone while she's in the dark room, was heartbreaking.

Bonus Episode:
Not much to really say here.  It was touching and poignant.  I liked seeing their childhood, and I kind of wish I'd played it first.  

Final Thoughts:
I found myself wondering at times if this story really needed to be told.  It's sort of like the criticism aimed at "Solo: A Star Wars Story" - Was this movie necessary?  Did we need to be shown how Han met Chewie, found his blaster, got his last name, made the Kessel Run, etc?  Same with BtS; we didn't really need to see how Chloe found the junkyard, her truck, her beanie, when she decided on "stepdouche" as David's nickname, when she first dyed her hair, and so on. 

So again, the question.  Was this necessary?  And I have to give the same answer I gave the reviewers of Solo:  Of course it's not "necessary", it's entertainment.  Were any of the Star Wars films actually "necessary?"  How are we even defining necessary?  The first Star Wars movie was groundbreaking and may have changed (or at least accelerated) sci-fi forever, but it's not like it cured cancer or fixed the ozone layer.

Solo was fluffy and forgettable, but it was fun.  Life is Strange: Before the Storm was also fun.  I really liked learning more of Chloe's backstory, and seeing how close she was with Rachel.  Given their eventual fates, it adds a lot of emotional weight to the original Life is Strange.  Necessary?  No.  But damn enjoyable.

So, the big question:  If you haven’t played either one, which should you play first?  That’s a tough one.  I generally advocate consuming stories in release order.  With the Star Wars movies and the Forgotten Realms “Drizzt” novels, I think the original trilogies do a better job of making you care about the characters.  Once you care, you might be motivated to seek out the prequels so you can learn more about the universe.  In BtS, Chloe is so abrasive and raw that it’s hard to care about her until you find out everything life did to her to make her this way.  Some people who try BtS first might not stick with the game long enough to get attached to her.  

On the other hand, if one did stick with BtS and play all the way through it before starting LiS, I think it would make LiS all the more rewarding.  BtS is so much more low key than LiS, that playing them in story order means the dangers constantly get bigger.  The constant emotional gutpunches LiS throws at you would be all the more impactful now that you’ve seen what Chloe’s been through.  So yeah, if you’re going to stick with it, I would advocate playing BtS first, maybe even playing the bonus episode before the other three.  But if you try BtS and you just can’t empathize with the characters, try LiS and maybe come back to BtS later.  I honestly don’t think you can go wrong either way.  Both are excellent stories.

Coming up next: "The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit".

My Choices: