Life is Strange: Before the Storm
Today I had a whole day off work without any scheduled plans. Save one, finally, spend some time with a distant friend who is on a completely opposite schedule from me. Used to be she and I could make time for a chat on Discord pretty regularly, but that hasn't happened in a long time. And since she works third shift even in the time we have off, finding more than an hour to actually chat is difficult. Both of us having the day free -- and a workday for most everyone else -- meant we could get together.
Today, we picked up a game to play that we'd both been putting off so we could play it together. I bought Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the prequel game to 2015's Life is Strange by Square Enix and Dontnod Entertainment, during the Winter Steam Sale with a day just like today in mind. All three episodes of the game had been released, meaning if I wanted to spend a day on it, I could pick it up and finish it that same day.
So I did, with a friend on the other end of a Discord Chat and Steam broadcast. All hail the power of technology to bring people together.
Before the Storm picks up the story of Chloe Price some time before the events of the first game, before her friend Max returns from another school, to their hometown of Arcadia Bay. Instead, we meet the friend we'd only seen in pictures and spoken of in the past tense, Rachel Amber. Rachel and Chloe meet out of the blue at a concert one night and a very fast friendship, relationship, forms between them.
We learn more about Chloe's stepfather, before he married her mother and we meet Rachel Amber's parents. There are a few return names and faces in the students at Blackwell Academy as well, in addition to some new ones.
Overall, the game is compelling, as I expected it to be having played the first one. The original however has a very specific power/control set that pulls you through the story and helps you achieve Max's goals. This one doesn't have that. And... I don't think it's a worse game for it, but I'm definitely not a fan of the mechanic they choose (i.e. Chloe's "superpower", the Backtalk challenges). Aside from that however, the choices are meaningful, the story is wonderful and while the dialogue is very often clunky, it makes an impression.
For instance:
In episode two, "Hell is Empty", we see the consequences of Chloe and Rachel's actions from episode one culminate in the expulsion of Chloe from Blackwell. From that moment, there's several really difficult scenes between Chloe and her mother, Joyce. These also include Joyce's boyfriend, David.
I had a very difficult time with these scenes for two reasons. One, having come from a set of broken home where both parents remarried to different levels of success, I'm familiar with what it's like having a new parent introduced into your life. Two, as a trained foster parent and adoptive mother, I know what it's like to try and be a parent to a teenager you've only just met. Both are difficult for a variety of reasons. I don't know there's a way to do it "right" but in as much as the game makes it all feel like it's done "wrong", then I think they did it well.
To be honest, I repeatedly said how much I hated it as I made the choices the game presented me with to get through those conversations. None of the choices felt like good ones. And while we only see the choices presented from Chloe's perspective... if there were a different game where you had to make the choices from Joyce's, or even David's perspectives, I have no doubt they should feel much the same. There's no right or perfect way to change the make-up of your family in a way that's going to feel good to everyone involved.
Now I wouldn't want to sell the game on those conversations, they're uncomfortable and frustrating. However, given how clunky and sometimes performative some of the dialogue can be in other parts of the game, this is one of the times when it absolutely feels real.
Today, we picked up a game to play that we'd both been putting off so we could play it together. I bought Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the prequel game to 2015's Life is Strange by Square Enix and Dontnod Entertainment, during the Winter Steam Sale with a day just like today in mind. All three episodes of the game had been released, meaning if I wanted to spend a day on it, I could pick it up and finish it that same day.
So I did, with a friend on the other end of a Discord Chat and Steam broadcast. All hail the power of technology to bring people together.
Before the Storm picks up the story of Chloe Price some time before the events of the first game, before her friend Max returns from another school, to their hometown of Arcadia Bay. Instead, we meet the friend we'd only seen in pictures and spoken of in the past tense, Rachel Amber. Rachel and Chloe meet out of the blue at a concert one night and a very fast friendship, relationship, forms between them.
We learn more about Chloe's stepfather, before he married her mother and we meet Rachel Amber's parents. There are a few return names and faces in the students at Blackwell Academy as well, in addition to some new ones.
Overall, the game is compelling, as I expected it to be having played the first one. The original however has a very specific power/control set that pulls you through the story and helps you achieve Max's goals. This one doesn't have that. And... I don't think it's a worse game for it, but I'm definitely not a fan of the mechanic they choose (i.e. Chloe's "superpower", the Backtalk challenges). Aside from that however, the choices are meaningful, the story is wonderful and while the dialogue is very often clunky, it makes an impression.
For instance:
In episode two, "Hell is Empty", we see the consequences of Chloe and Rachel's actions from episode one culminate in the expulsion of Chloe from Blackwell. From that moment, there's several really difficult scenes between Chloe and her mother, Joyce. These also include Joyce's boyfriend, David.
I had a very difficult time with these scenes for two reasons. One, having come from a set of broken home where both parents remarried to different levels of success, I'm familiar with what it's like having a new parent introduced into your life. Two, as a trained foster parent and adoptive mother, I know what it's like to try and be a parent to a teenager you've only just met. Both are difficult for a variety of reasons. I don't know there's a way to do it "right" but in as much as the game makes it all feel like it's done "wrong", then I think they did it well.
To be honest, I repeatedly said how much I hated it as I made the choices the game presented me with to get through those conversations. None of the choices felt like good ones. And while we only see the choices presented from Chloe's perspective... if there were a different game where you had to make the choices from Joyce's, or even David's perspectives, I have no doubt they should feel much the same. There's no right or perfect way to change the make-up of your family in a way that's going to feel good to everyone involved.
Now I wouldn't want to sell the game on those conversations, they're uncomfortable and frustrating. However, given how clunky and sometimes performative some of the dialogue can be in other parts of the game, this is one of the times when it absolutely feels real.
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