Life Is Strange: Before the Storm – Complete Season

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm is a three-episode prequel set three years before the original game. Players step into the role of a rebellious sixteen-year-old Chloe Price in the town of Arcadia Bay. The story focuses on Chloe’s life after her friend Max Caulfield has moved away and centers on her forming an unlikely, intense friendship with the popular and seemingly perfect Rachel Amber. The gameplay retains the exploration, environmental puzzles, and consequential dialogue choices of the original, but replaces Max’s time-rewinding power with a new ‘backtalk’ mechanic—a verbal combat system where Chloe must use insults and comebacks to win arguments.

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm – Complete Season: Review

Introduction

In the wake of a modern classic, a storm was brewing. When Life Is Strange (2015) concluded its heart-wrenching tale of time travel and teenage turmoil, it left an indelible mark on the narrative adventure genre and a passionate fanbase hungry for more of Arcadia Bay. The announcement of a prequel, developed not by original creators Dontnod but by the relatively unknown Deck Nine, was met with cautious skepticism. Could a story that foregoes the original’s supernatural hook—the time-rewinding power that defined its gameplay and themes—capture the same magic? Life Is Strange: Before the Storm – Complete Season does not merely attempt to replicate its predecessor’s success; it daringly strips away its core mechanic to deliver a raw, intimate, and profoundly human character study. It is a testament to the strength of the series’ world-building and emotional core that this prequel, while flawed, stands as a worthy and often brilliant companion piece to a modern classic.

Development History & Context

Before the Storm emerged during a pivotal moment for both the Life Is Strange franchise and the gaming industry’s relationship with narrative-driven experiences. Developed by Deck Nine Games (known as Idol Minds prior to a rebranding focused on narrative games) and published by Square Enix, the project was a bold gamble. With Dontnod Entertainment moving forward with Life Is Strange 2, the stewardship of the beloved universe was passed to a new team.

Deck Nine faced a unique set of challenges and constraints. The most significant was the predetermined narrative fate of its protagonists. As a prequel set three years before the events of the first game, the fates of Chloe Price and Rachel Amber were already sealed, limiting the scope for earth-shattering, player-driven consequences. Furthermore, the studio opted to switch from the original’s Unreal Engine 3 to the Unity engine, a technical shift that risked altering the distinct visual identity fans cherished.

The gaming landscape in 2017 was increasingly welcoming to episodic, choice-driven narratives, but the bar had been set high by the original. Deck Nine’s vision, as articulated by leads like Narrative Director Zak Garriss, was not to outdo the original’s scale but to deepen it, to explore the formative tragedy of Chloe Price and the enigmatic allure of Rachel Amber. This vision also had to contend with a real-world complication: Ashly Burch, the iconic voice of Chloe, was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts (reportedly tied to her work on Horizon Zero Dawn), necessitating a recast with Rhianna DeVries.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Before the Storm is a masterclass in tragic dramatic irony. The game’s power derives from the player’s foreknowledge of the grim future awaiting its characters. We control a 16-year-old Chloe Price, reeling from the dual traumas of her father’s death and her best friend Max Caulfield’s move to Seattle. She is a raw nerve—angry, vulnerable, and desperately searching for an anchor in a world that has consistently failed her.

This anchor arrives in the form of Rachel Amber, the popular, seemingly perfect girl from Blackwell Academy whose own life is a meticulously constructed facade hiding profound familial dysfunction. Their unlikely friendship, which blossoms into a potent and ambiguous romantic possibility, is the pulsating heart of the season. The narrative is a three-act play charting their rebellion, from a fateful meeting at a rock concert to a literal Shakespearean performance (The Tempest serves as a clever thematic backdrop) and a final, devastating confrontation with the ugly truths of Rachel’s life.

The game excels in its quiet, character-driven moments. A scene where Chloe and Rachel break into a train car and playfully trash it is transformed into a sacred space of shared vulnerability. The dialogue, while occasionally leaning into teenage melodrama, is sharp, witty, and authentically captures the heightened emotions of youth. The themes of performance versus reality are ever-present. Rachel performs the role of the perfect daughter and student; Chloe performs the role of the rebellious punk. Their relationship becomes the one place where both can shed these performances and be their true, broken selves.

The narrative is not without its missteps. As some critics noted, the final episode, “Hell Is Empty,” feels rushed, particularly in its introduction and resolution of the conflict with Rachel’s father, a major character. The ultimate choice presented to players lacks the gut-wrenching weight of the original’s finale, a inevitable consequence of its prequel status. Furthermore, a post-credits scene, which directly ties into the original game’s mystery, was controversial; some found it a powerful, poignant gut-punch, while others deemed it an unnecessary and manipulative narrative intrusion.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

This is where Before the Storm diverges most significantly from its predecessor and where it receives its most pointed criticism. Gone is Max’s time-rewind mechanic, a feature that was both a brilliant puzzle-solving tool and a metaphor for regret and second chances. In its place, Deck Nine introduces two new systems that reflect Chloe’s character.

The first is the “Back Talk” challenge. This mechanic casts Chloe’s defiant, quick-witted nature into an interactive minigame. During certain conversations, players must listen to an opponent’s dialogue and choose responses that twist their words back against them, all under a time pressure. It is, as many noted, reminiscent of “insult swordfighting” from the Monkey Island series. While a clever idea that fits the character, its execution is often binary (succeed or fail) and lacks the nuanced, systemic depth of the rewind power. It feels more like a conversational quick-time event than a truly innovative mechanic.

The second addition is more successful in its subtlety: graffiti. Replacing Max’s photography quest, Chloe can tag specific locations with a marker. This small, optional act is a perfect expression of her desire to leave her mark on a world she feels alienated from.

Beyond these additions, the gameplay is pared back to the essentials of the genre: exploration, dialogue trees, and light environmental puzzles. The game leans even further into “interactive movie” territory. Choices often feel less impactful on a macro scale, focusing instead on shaping the tone and intimacy of Chloe and Rachel’s relationship. A standout exception is a delightful and surprisingly involved tabletop role-playing session, a moment of pure, escapist joy that stands as one of the season’s most memorable gameplay sequences.

World-Building, Art & Sound

It is in the preservation of atmosphere that Deck Nine’s achievement is most remarkable. Despite the switch to the Unity engine, the team meticulously recreated and even enhanced the distinct aesthetic of Arcadia Bay. The soft, painterly textures, the hazy Pacific Northwest light, and the Polaroid-inspired UI are all present and correct. The cinematic camera work feels more assured, and the character animation, particularly lip-syncing, is a significant improvement over the occasionally janky original.

The art direction successfully captures the contrasting worlds of its protagonists: the sterile, oppressive perfection of the Amber household versus the chaotic, lived-in warmth of the Price garage. Technical issues were noted, however, including a persistent micro-stutter on PC attributed to the game’s lack of a true fullscreen mode, forcing players to rely on uncapped frame rates for a smoother experience.

The sound design is equally crucial. While the original’s licensed indie folk soundtrack is missed, its replacement is a masterstroke. The game features an original score by the British indie folk band Daughter. Their ethereal, drone-based, and emotionally resonant music is not merely a backdrop; it is the game’s soul. Tracks like “Burn It Down” and “Flaws” perfectly underscore the narrative’s themes of anger, beauty, and decay. The score is more ambient and integrated than the first game’s, creating a cohesive and melancholic soundscape that is every bit as memorable, even if it lacks a singular, breakout hit like “Obstacles.”

Reception & Legacy

Upon release, Before the Storm was met with generally positive critical reception, holding a solid 78% aggregate score on MobyGames. Critics praised its emotional storytelling, strong character work, and faithful atmosphere, with outlets like GamesRadar awarding it 4.5/5 stars, calling it a “brilliantly crafted prequel.” The criticism largely centered on its simplified gameplay and the narrative constraints of being a prequel.

Its legacy is multifaceted. Commercially, it proved the Life Is Strange brand could thrive beyond its original creators, paving the way for Deck Nine to later develop the acclaimed Life Is Strange: True Colors. It deepened the fandom’s connection to Chloe Price, transforming her from a supporting character into a tragic heroine and cementing the relationship between Chloe and Rachel as a cornerstone of the series’ LGBTQ+ representation.

However, it also solidified a debate within the community about the value of prequels. For some, the game enriched the original by providing crucial context, making Chloe’s fate in the first game even more tragic. For others, demystifying Rachel Amber diminished the powerful, off-screen presence she held in the original story. Regardless of perspective, Before the Storm solidified the franchise’s status as a premier destination for mature, character-driven storytelling in games.

Conclusion

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm – Complete Season is a fascinating and successful experiment in narrative subtraction. By removing the supernatural element that defined the first game, Deck Nine forced both itself and the player to focus solely on the human drama at the series’ core. What remains is a raw, aching, and beautifully performed story of two girls finding solace in each other against a world of grief and hypocrisy.

While its gameplay innovations are slight and its conclusion stumbles under the weight of inevitability, its successes are profound. It captures the look and feel of Arcadia Bay with stunning fidelity, boasts a hauntingly perfect soundtrack, and, most importantly, treats its characters with unwavering empathy and respect. It does not surpass the original Life Is Strange, but it never needed to. It stands beside it as a crucial, heartbreaking footnote—a poignant reminder of the bright, beautiful fire that burned in Arcadia Bay before the storm finally hit. For fans of narrative games, it is not just a worthwhile addition to the genre; it is an essential chapter in one of its most beloved stories.