OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Great Start
Rewarding Callbacks
Forced Emotions
Awake starts off the second chapter of Life is Strange right. It provides good story bits that callback to what came before while building something new. Some found the storytelling a bit hokey, but others were ready to take the ride.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm shows a lot of promise in its first few hours despite the same weaknesses in its script as the original Life is Strange series.
Chloe's enhanced angst might grate a little, but there's no denying Before the Storm is going to be another brilliant Life is Strange game.
An excellent start to a prequel series that taps into the same style of sincere storytelling as the original, making a previously unsympathetic character seem vulnerable and likeable.
Awake is at its best when it focuses on Chloe and Rachel's complicated lives, making you feel each character's struggle
That story stops in a beautiful place at Episode One's end: a cliffhanger that makes me want Episode Two, stat. I'm a little nervous about having to deal with more of Chloe's pop-punk-esque "I'm not OK" pontificating. But based on what I've seen from Before the Storm's premiere, I'm willing to tough it out alongside her, and Rachel, and the rest of Arcadia Bay.
Deck Nine's Life Is Strange prequel ditches time travel, but finds power of a different sort.
Episode One: Awake of Before the Storm is a surprisingly promising entry for the short three-episode series. There's the right amount of callbacks to the series that made so many fans fall in love with Chloe and Max in the first place. While I still wish the dialogue wasn't as teenager cringe-y in a not-realistic way, there's far more of it this time around that plain isn't. Hell, even Chloe's eventual over-usage of "hella" is explained in a tongue-in-cheek nod to the future. For everyone who was worried about Before the Storm's authenticity under the reigns of a new developer: don't be.
Before the Storm's first chapter has already deflected most of the pre-release concerns that "This doesn't need to exist." Maybe it doesn't because Life is Strange's story was self-contained. Then again, maybe Life is Strange is better off with this complementing it. After its debut, I'm fully willing to argue that Before the Storm deserves to exist because this story is important too. In true Chloe fashion, anyone who disagrees gets two one-finger salutes.
