Life is Strange: Before the Storm – Awake Review – Waking Back Up

<p class&equals;"western">&&num;8230&semi;Aaaahhh&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">&&num;8230&semi;Sorry&excl; I was just thinking of back in 2015&period; Back when it seemed Telltale had locked down the episodic choose-your-own-adventure genre by riffing off established IPs to tell new tales within the universe&period; Then Dontnod Entertainment swaggered in&comma; thumbs in its trouser&&num;8217&semi;s belt loops and stormed the scene with<em> Life is Strange<&sol;em>&period; Sure&comma; it ended disappointingly&comma; but it still came out the blue to dominate the genre with its humanistic writing&comma; quirky choice mechanics and thoughtful discussions of complex subjects&period; I really do adore it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">So&comma; when a prequel was announced&comma; I was cautiously excited &lpar;I mean&comma; could they <i>really<&sol;i> do it again&quest;&rpar;&period; When I found out it was another developer&comma; and that an episode was only in a deluxe version&comma; I was upset&period; I mean&comma; <em>Life is Strange<&sol;em> was a pretty surprising achievement&comma; could a developer whose most noteable recent work was a PS3 port of <em>Ratchet &amp&semi; Clank Collection<&sol;em> and<em> Ratchet&colon; Deadlocked<&sol;em> write to the same standard&quest; While perhaps not precisely to the same high standard&comma; <em>Life is Strange&colon; Before the Storm <&sol;em>does come close with its unique interpretation of the <em>Life is Strange<&sol;em> IP that leaves me raring for more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129427" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129427" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-129427" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;06025230&sol;20170903211040&lowbar;1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Life is Strange&colon; Before the Storm&comma; Square Enix" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129427" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Life is Strange&colon; Before the Storm&comma; Square Enix<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><em>Life is Strange&colon; Before the Storm<&sol;em> is an episodic choose-your-own-adventure walk-n-prod title&comma; where choices come with consequences&period; Set before <em>Life is Strange<&sol;em> &lpar;last chance before minor spoilers&&num;8230&semi;Coming&&num;8230&semi;Coming&&num;8230&semi;&rpar;&comma; you play as 16-year-old Chloe two years before the events of <em>Life is Strange<&sol;em> as she befriends the currently-not-missing-or-dead Rachel Amber&period; The change in protagonist and time is not the only new folk around here&comma; as Deck Nine is the developer this time around &lpar;replacing DONTNOD who did the original <em>Life is Strange<&sol;em>&rpar; and Chloe has been recast &lpar;due to a voice actor strike&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">A new developer and new protagonist comes bearing the gift of a new mechanic&period; Gone are the days of playing with time&semi; that&&num;8217&semi;s old-hat and only came in after the storm&period; Instead&comma; Chloe&&num;8217&semi;s &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;special power” is being a gobshite&period; Sometimes she may be able to force people to back down by throwing what they&&num;8217&semi;re saying back into their face&comma; cherry picking their response depending on keywords by the opposition&period; It feels like it is a form of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;verbal combat” that characterizes Chloe&comma; offers time-pressure that isn&&num;8217&semi;t just a QTE and fits within the conversation-dialogue format&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">That said&comma; I do have a little nit picking to do&period; Unfortunately&comma; the difficulty for the backtalk feels a little easy&period; It always presents three options with one that feels clearly the right one&period; Maybe by fortune&comma; I never failed once&period; Before the Storm&&num;8217&semi;s version of difficulty was to make it less forgiving&comma; giving the opposition less successes needed to win&comma; rather than making the correct retort more obscure&period; Something that didn&&num;8217&semi;t make things harder&comma; but instead more potentially frustrating&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">There is also a danger in presenting multiple choices and one requiring a backtalk challenge&period; I swear&comma; if a game required me to work for my bad ending I&&num;8217&semi;d go for it first&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m hard-wired to travel the harder road&comma; just because the fallacy that more effort automatically equates to a better pay off&period; So I picked options that usually I&&num;8217&semi;d say no to just because of the backtalk attachment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129428" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129428" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-129428" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;06025323&sol;20170903223047&lowbar;1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Life is Strange&colon; Before the Storm&comma; Square Enix" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129428" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Life is Strange&colon; Before the Storm&comma; Square Enix<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Speaking of choices&comma; let&&num;8217&semi;s talk of agency&period; Unfortunately&comma; your choices seem to affect little&period; On one hand&comma; <em>Life is Strange&colon; Before the Storm<&sol;em> is a prequel&semi; most of it is predetermined due to the events of <em>Life is Strange<&sol;em>&period; However&comma; it is weird just how little your choices matter&period; Apologizing or telling someone to play in traffic still leads to a fight&period; Trying to show respect or trying to be honest leads to similar rabbit holes&period; Even wanting to be friends or something more leads to the same emotional moment&period; While there are two more episodes to go to show consequence &lpar;something an after-ending scene hints of&rpar;&comma; it is a shame I don&&num;8217&semi;t feel much agency in this episode of <em>Life is Strange&colon; Before the Storm<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">That said&comma; let&&num;8217&semi;s get into where the meat of the marks lie&colon; Writing&period; Fortunately&comma; this is the episode&&num;8217&semi;s strongest part by a long shot&period; Without spoiling what happens&comma; episode 1 of <em>Life is Strange&colon; Before the Storm<&sol;em> manages to flesh out and bounce off the original series&period; It nails the heart-felt <em>Garden State<&sol;em> feeling of the original&comma; delivering the quaint charm people know-and-love&comma; while also realizing it is about a very angry and upset 16 year old girl who finds a friend&sol;partner&period; The episode not only expands on some parts of Chloe&&num;8217&semi;s life the original <em>Life is Strange<&sol;em> glossed over&comma; but also lends more depth to a frustrated teenager dealing with the loss of her father&period; This is also a three hour long episode&comma; which in episodic circles is rather chunky&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">My only grumble with the narrative is Rachel Amber feels a little too perfect&period; The popular girl with the rebel spirit who seemingly selflessly reaches out to the school outcast&period; I have a theory or two about Rachel having an ulterior motive&comma; but as shown it feels like Deck Nine risks creating a character who is flawless and idealised almost to the point of being two-dimensional&period; If Rachel will begin to become as deep as Chloe is&comma; even just in this episode&comma; is something that&&num;8217&semi;ll have to be seen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129429" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129429" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-129429" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;06025358&sol;20170903232124&lowbar;1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Life is Strange&colon; Before the Storm&comma; Square Enix" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129429" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Life is Strange&colon; Before the Storm&comma; Square Enix<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The final score for <em>Awake<&sol;em>&comma; the first episode of Deck Nine&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Life is Strange&colon; Before the Storm<&sol;em>&comma; is an 8&sol;10&period; If the backtalk mechanic was a little more polished&comma; the choices holding more agency and Rachel Amber a little less two-dimensional&comma; this episode would have been looking at an easy 9&period; After all&comma; writing wise&comma; it delivers what I wanted &lpar;i&period;e&period; a heart-felt tale about a frustrated female teenager finding a friend&rpar; and then goes beyond with plenty of charm&comma; a lovely episode length and as a cherry on top has a mechanic that personalizes its protagonist&period; I hope episode two and three&comma; <em>Brave New World<&sol;em> and <em>Hell is Empty<&sol;em>&comma; escalate things and end up just as good as <em>Life is Strange<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s episodes three or four &lpar;maybe with some commentary akin to those episodes&rpar;&period; Perhaps unlikely considering how good those episodes were &lpar;and the topics those episodes handled&rpar;&comma; but then again life is strange&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;