Life is Strange: Before the Storm - Episode 1: Awake Reviews
Life is Strange: Before the Storm is a relatable and gripping tale of dealing with loss and emotionally ambiguous friendships.
As an introductory episode to a three-part series, Awake absolutely nails it.
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.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm shows that it understands what pulled people into the nostalgia-fuelled Arcadia Bay, and creates an emotionally-charged intriguing opening chapter to a story that we'll be keeping an eye on.
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.
Chloe have an outstanding character and Deck Nine did a great job replacing Max supernatural power with the backtalk ability which fits very well with Chloe as the main character. In the first episode Awake we witness Chloe and Rachel relationship develop but in general it's still missing exciting events. Life is strange still offers one of the best video game soundtracks you could ever find, it really reflects on the characters emotions making it easier for the players to connect with them. The game has a unique art style but unfortunately I didn't notice any improvement in graphics.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
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.
Episode 1 embarks on a new path with it's new gameplay mechanism while filling the plot holes from the original series. Despite some cheesy dialogues throughout the first episode, Before the Storm shows it has the potential to seize everything it wishes for.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Not for moi, and that's final.
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.
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.
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
From the tremendous soundtrack to the details of the side characters and story crumbs, Before the Storm is like a carbon copy of the first game.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
The most important features of the game are providing a very lively and varied characters and all the different colors of the spectrum, and it has been able to provide a new world full of details that encourage you and reward you to explore, you throughout the game will not be bored of the exploration, the story remains a little vague and not clear enough Which is the most important defects and of course we will wait to see if the choices we have made will benefit us and change the game world or not.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
A solid and long episode with great characters and story. Must play for Life is Strange fans.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Despite being a story prior to the original, Life is Strange: Before the Storm is best enjoyed if you consider it as a sequel. By far, the heart of the episode is the Chloe and Rachel encounter and we can finally learn more about this character that all Arcadia Bay loves. In the end, the story is interesting and prepares us for a second episode that will possibly bring strong feelings. The biggest problem of the episode are some graphics bugs and the control.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
It will give you and your friends a lot to talk about, and that's all you really want from a Life Is Strange game. And trust, you will have raging emotions about your life decisions in Life Is Strange: Before The Storm.
For a mini series, Before the Storm is a worthy prequel, the drama around Chloe, attractive and lovely characters, just like the first season and the all-new gameplay system consisting of the Backtalk option which is amazing, makes this episode a satisfactory one and a "Must" for the fans. If you're missing the Arcadia bay and its people, do not miss Before the Storm
Review in Persian | Read full review
Since the game deals more with character development and how they cope rather than temporal philosophy, it may or maybe not divide its audience. Even though this is a prequel, I felt that this game should be played after the original for the way it is presented, think of it as bonus content rather than a standalone game.