Life is Strange: Before the Storm - Episode 1: Awake Reviews
The first episode of Life is Strange: Before the Storm provides a lesson in interactive story-type adventure games. Instead of silly QTEs and simplistic puzzle-solving, its only focus seems to be the story - or, to be more precise, the characters involved in it. It's the first tiny step of what seems to be a small journey, and it kind of feels like an intro rather than a full chapter, but it's so emotive and deeply immersive that it won't really matter.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm: Episode 1 has got off to a little bit of a stuttering start for me. I was very disappointed by the art style of choice, but the story that is unfolding will certainly be the most impactful feature of the game, much like the first. If the franchise is something you are in love with, then it will be a no brainer as I can’t really see them messing up the story.
Life is Strange is a special kind of video game. The story is so engrossing and the characters are so relatable. The whole package is so much better than the sum of its parts. As such I don't feel justified in ranking a single episode and will defer until the whole story unfolds. For now all I can say is this episode has the same magical quality as the first game.
Not for moi, and that's final.
Episode 1 of Beyond the Storm builds a few lines of dialogue from the original series and a character that we didn't previously meet into a riveting expansion of the Life is Strange universe. The writing. The visuals. The soundtrack. The story. The mechanics. They're all superb with only a handful of niggles and bum lines. All of my caution and concern was totally unfounded as Deck Nine are obviously very safe hands to carry the series forward. Awake is as good as much of the original Life Is Strange and there's not a single "hella" in sight.
Chloe is me. She’s you. She’s so many other teens of today and throughout time. She is one of the most fully-realized characters in modern video games, and I can’t wait to see what the next episode has in store for her and Rachel.
This was a solid first episode and if the quality keeps up, the entire prequel will be a nice companion pieces to the original game. Hopefully not taken anything away from it, but only adding more.
Although this game is better than most of the games being made these days still, you can not compare it to the original Life is Strange. We've only seen just one-third of the whole game and the decent thing to do is to wait for the other parts to judge the game. Of course, if you have played the first game you will enjoy this one. One thing that is clear is that the developers are still sticking with the first game's standards. But the question is can they do this to the end of the game or not...
Review in Persian | Read full review
The story is pretty good so far and seems to kind of set up the first Life is Strange game. The graphics seem to be awesome as well. I do have to say that I enjoy Chloe's "I don't give two F's" attitude better than Max's quiet attitude, though its good, it could had been better.
A quietly compelling return to Oregon, which substitutes sci-fi gimmickry for an earnest look at growing up.
While you can't accurately judge an episodic game off just the first episode, Life is Strange: Before the Storm is shaping up to be an excellent experience.
Depending on how much you like surprises, familiarity and prior knowledge from Life Is Strange can be either a blessing or a boon, but regardless of this, Chloe's new (old?) adventure looks to be a fascinating storyline to follow into the remaining two episodes.
The writing so far is every bit as corny as an independent film crossed with a CW drama is, and it’s this writing style that has made the series so endearing, so it’s hard to not be excited to see what new developer Deck Nine has store for the next couple episodes.
The first episode of Life is Strange: Before the Storm doesn't contain a lot of exciting events or game-changing decisions, but it seems like a good start for a story filled with tense and touching moments. It sets up the spotlight on Chloe and her relationship with Rachel as well as it offering a tutorial of sorts for the new power Backtalk which helps our heroin talk other characters into doing whatever she wants.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Before The Storm suits perfectly with its new protagonist Chloe about the way she sees and feels life. The fact that Deck Nine was able to make something completly different but familiar, at the same time, just makes us want to play the rest of its episodes. The one, big problem we were able to find about it, technically, is that despite changing its graphic engine from Unreal to Unity, the game still struggles to be cohesive.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Yes it has some serious pacing issues and the long conversations where you don’t seem to be doing much can grate. But the gameplay is solid, with some interesting extras and it still looks very pretty indeed.
As I played through the game, I found myself profoundly moved by Chloe, by Rachel, by loss and pain and the wondrous beauty of a newfound love. Excellence in writing evokes emotion and memory. Awake has it in spades. Deck Nine has done what most didn’t think they could: It took a beloved series by another developer (DontNod Entertainment) and made it even better. There simply isn’t a better way to honor another game than that.
An entertaining origin story that raises some questions I would love to see answered while also telling the tale of Chloe's origin story.
The original Life is Strange kind of came out of nowhere and surprised us all with just how good it was. As a result, there is a lot for Life is Strange: Before the Storm to live up to. Only one episode of three main episodes has released thus far, but so far it looks to be maintaining the quality of the original while presenting some new mechanics and building onto the backstory that we didn’t even know we needed so badly.
Although Before the Storm is not developed by Dontnod, it feels exactly like Life is Strange; specially in terms of story-telling. Deck Nine did a great job in picking up all of the great things about LIS and if you are a fan of the original game, you'll feel right at home here.
Review in Persian | Read full review