Life is Strange: Before the Storm picks up at a tumultuous time in the life of Chloe Price. We know from the original Life is Strange that she lost her father in a car accident, and lost her best friend Max to a family move in a short about of time from each other, two losses that she never recovered from. Even when Max returned to Arcadia Bay to attend Blackwell Academy, it took Chloe some time to warm back up to her in her life.
(As a reminder, the Starbuck Review Scale is HERE)
The first episode of the three-episode series, ‘Awake,’ opens with our favorite rebel before the blue hair, out of her house after curfew and on a quest to see her favorite band. The bouncer at the concert tells her to scram, essentially, leading to the first opportunity to try out the new Backtalk mechanic. Max had rewinding time in the first series, but Chloe has biting sarcasm she can use to get people to see her way. It’s a fun sequence, and it makes sure you pay attention to what is being said, and things around you in the scene.
The bouncer lets Chloe in, then after a chat with her dealer and an encounter with some drunk guys who are also at the concert, finds a perch to view the show. The drunk guys, though, decide to find her, and continue to be drunk jerks, and that’s when we come across Rachel Amber. Chloe seems surprised to see the straight-A, presumably straight-edged student at the concert, and after finding an escape from the drunk guys, they spend the rest of the night partying at the concert.
Consequences are always a large part of Life is Strange, and the consequences for Chloe the next morning are having to face her mother, and David. Joyce is disappointed in her daughter, again, and Chloe knows it. Chloe’s also not happy that David seems to be spending more and more time at their home, but, depending on your choices, she tells her mother that she will try harder.
Blackwell, ‘Blackhell,’ as Chloe so succinctly puts it, is still the same picturesque institution. Victoria Chase makes an appearance, and I know I was all too happy to potentially make her have a bad day. But, the highlight of the episode was coming across a pick-up Dungeons and Dragons game outside. It’s like Deck Nine knows what I’m into.
Mere hours after pledging to Joyce that she’ll try harder, Chloe finds herself being tugged into a Drama-class debate about The Tempest, and, after a dressing room scene with Rachel, they decide to make like Ferris Bueller and play hooky. You learn a great deal about Rachel in these scenes; she enjoys games, people watching, acting, and her desire to leave Arcadia Bay rivals Chloe. Her father is the District Attorney, among other things.
After a game of people watching at the park, the girls spy a man with a suit who’s having an affectionate reunion with someone. This darkens Rachel’s mood, so Chloe helps her steal a bottle of wine and they take off down the railroad tracks, coming upon American Rust. Rachel’s quiet, Chloe can either press the issue or leave her alone. The outcome for each ends up being the same; Rachel leaves American Rust after saying they probably should be friends or anything else for that matter, and Chloe, hurt that someone else is walking out of her life, takes a baseball bat to get out her frustrations.
It’s here she’s directly confronted by one of the demons in her past, in a scene that’s well done by Deck Nine and Chloe’s voice actress, Rhianna DeVries, in one of the most powerful moments to me in all of Life is Strange. The dream sequence that follows is another moment into Chloe’s psyche, and the feelings that surface from it lead her to seek out Rachel again.
There, Rachel reveals why the encounter they witnessed in the park affected her so much; the man in question was her father, and the tattooed woman in the dress was definitely not her mother. With the help of Chloe’s lighter, Rachel burns a picture of her and her father in a trash bin, and with a final scream of anguish, kicks over the bin and a nearby tree catches on fire.
It looks like another storm is coming for Chloe Price.
I will admit, my drive to replay this episode wasn’t as high as say, Chaos Theory or Dark Room from the original series. Which isn’t to say I won’t, but I probably won’t until all the episodes of Before the Storm are out. I do love the addition of the Collector Mode to the game, letting one go back and find missed opportunities for graffiti and try out different choices without changing your save file.
