Played on: PC, Xbox One
After revisiting the original Life is Strange via its recent (and lacklustre) remastered build, I got an equally convenient opportunity to revisit its 'expandalone' prequel, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, which was included for free in its own remastered edition. Much like Life is Strange Remastered, I don't think this remastered build of Before the Storm makes much sense, as it's once again made primarily for PS4 and Xbox One, the exact same consoles that the original Before the Storm was already made for. Adding insult to injury yet again is the fact that Before the Storm's remastered edition is not great in terms of its presentation and polish.
On the bright side however, Before the Storm remains a notably better game than its original inspiration. This is despite its remastered build threatening to ruin the experience with its own unique share of bugs and performance hiccups. So, once again, I'll kind of be touching on how Before the Storm holds up as a game on its own merits, and how it holds up in its remastered rendition for... The exact same platforms.
A bold hook that defines Before the Storm is the fact that it's the only Life is Strange game to date to not feature any characters with superpowers. Instead, it's a fully human, grounded story about the supporting lead from the original Life is Strange, Chloe Price, around eighteen months before the events of the first Life is Strange actually take place. Before the Storm thus recounts Chloe's tumultuous teenage existence shortly before Life is Strange protagonist, Max Caulfield re-enters her social circle, namely as a teenage outcast who finds herself chancing into a friendship with Rachel Amber, the mysterious missing girl from the original Life is Strange game.
On paper, Before the Storm doesn't sound terribly interesting, but honestly, it's probably around the height of the Life is Strange series' current crop of writing. Even as its narrative adventure elements and simple gameplay don't often amount to much beyond light puzzles and moderately branching dialogue choices, the tragic tale of Chloe and Rachel does manage to find its own heartfelt appeal. Of course, it also helps that Chloe, arguably one of the best characters from the original Life is Strange game, has now been upgraded to a main character status.
Without powers in play, Before the Storm also introduces an interesting new mechanic that feels effectively unique to Chloe; Backtalk Challenges. These challenges task you with choosing insults and rebukes to characters that you're trying to persuade to let you pass, picking from a series of possible phrases under a tight time limit. It's actually a pretty fun idea, which is why it's disappointing that Before the Storm never really uses it to its full potential. Usually, if you fail a Backtalk Challenge, either nothing happens, or you can just repeat it, with no discernible consequences.
That's another thing dragging down the otherwise solid storytelling of Before the Storm; Its choices don't carry meaningful consequences for any of its key characters, because their fates are already clearly outlined within the original Life is Strange game. Any attempts that Before the Storm makes to be dramatic or unexpected don't often work well, because the fate of characters like Chloe and Rachel can't truly be uncertain in this prequel. This undermines some of the more overwrought emotional moments in Before the Storm, even when this expandalone still manages to deliver some pretty effective teen angst during most of its other scenes.
I can't go into that angst much without significant spoilers, and I do think that Before the Storm is best experienced pure for anyone that happens to enjoy grounded coming-of-age stories. If you're so inclined however, definitely stick with the original build of the game. Like I said, Before the Storm Remastered is pretty rough in several places. Not only do its revamped graphics not look that great in too many scenes (assuming you can even notice them at all), but the fact that I experienced loading and performance glitches when playing on both PC and Xbox feels downright baffling. This is a three-episode expandalone designed on the Unity Engine! How is it running so poorly in a supposedly remastered build?!
I did encounter less bugs in Before the Storm Remastered compared to the original Life is Strange Remastered, but I still nonetheless ran into a few unique glitches that weren't present in Before the Storm's original build at all. There were once again instances in the Xbox version of Before the Storm Remastered where the music didn't appear to load for some reason, plus the mouse-and-keyboard controls in the PC version remained fussy and unreliable. Before the Storm may have fared a bit better than the original Life is Strange did in its own remastered rendition, but it's still inexcusable that Before the Storm's remastered build was released in this state, or that it even exists at all, frankly, if it was just going to be dumped on the same consoles, or made to complement a PC build that already offers a superior visual experience.
Still, rediscovering Before the Storm's surprisingly good storytelling, chasing 'collectibles' that come from scribbling graffiti at various points in each episode (another clever twist that feels effectively linked to Chloe's character), and seeing how my choices changed when I chose opposite story paths on my PC and Xbox playthroughs, was still fairly fun to do during my time with Before the Storm Remastered. Truly, for fans of narrative adventure games, Before the Storm is one of the best Life is Strange games you can play at this point, even with its eliminated emphasis on powered characters.
Just do yourself a favour and stick with the original build of Before the Storm. It's on all the same platforms, it's cheaper, and you're not missing anything worthwhile in the game's vanilla build.
IF I HAD TO SCORE IT: 6/10
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