Life Is Strange: Before The Storm Episode 1 Review - 7 Ups & 2 Downs
Who says prequels are always bad?
Life Is Strange, Dontnod's 2015 episodic graphic adventure game, has become a true modern cult classic in rather short order. So much so, that a continuation of the series was almost inevitable.
However, before any sequel news was released, it was announced at E3 this year that developer Deck Nine would be releasing a prequel to Life Is Strange, called Before the Storm. Following the troublesome Chloe Price - one of the first game's main characters - on a destructive path that led to her to such a precarious point to begin with, the first episode of this new, three-part game, entitled Awake, has just been released. And it's pretty safe to say that Deck Nine has done a solid job with their very first crack at the episodic adventure genre, which bodes well for the remaining episodes.
Finally, in spite of a couple of drawbacks, Awake is an introductory episode that accomplishes its goal of laying viable foundations for the rest of the story, which will also satisfy fans of the original Life Is Strange based on how well it captures that game's spirit, alongside bringing a unique flavor of its own to the table.
That said, let's start things off with the aforementioned drawbacks...
9. Wonky Prompts
At times, the button prompts to interact with certain characters and environmental objects in Before the Storm can be rather finicky.
For starters, you have to get awkwardly close to most NPCs to be able to initiate dialogue. It's incredibly easy to underestimate just how close you need to be and having to get right up in their faces, as opposed to the respectable distance that should be kept in a real-life conversation, can be a bit immersion-breaking.
Also, when exploring a room, it sometimes seems as though certain prompts don't appear the first time you walk by, so you may have to do a few sweeps to make sure you've seen everything there is to see.
Finally, the game really should have included a cursor that the player can move freely (preferably with the right analog stick) while exploring for the sake of accuracy, as when two objects you can interact with are close together, it can be a bit annoying to make sure you're actually about to click on the one you want to.