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    The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit Review

    • Chris
    • October 30, 2021
    • 6:34 pm
    • No Comments
    • 1 Favourites
    Categories:
    Review
    Review Captain Spirit

    What defines a Life Is Strange game? Is it the relatable characters? The heavy social issues? The hints of the supernatural? The soft-focus cinematography and golden hour lighting? The soundtrack that perfectly captures a moment, creating an instantly nostalgic emotion every time a particular track plays? It is all of the above at any given time. But it is also, and can always be, so much more. Life, after all, is a kaleidoscope of moments, emotions, and people that enter and exit our lives, shaping or reshaping us. The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, Dontnod Entertainment’s mini-prequel to the forthcoming Life Is Strange 2, understands that so well.

    Much like the original game, before the game itself even starts you know you’re in for something special; the Unreal engine logo appearing with a papercraft aesthetic that hints at the unexpected choice of protagonist this time around. That protagonist is 10-year-old Chris, an (adorably) awkward kid with a vivid imagination. He lives with his single father in a one-level, log cabin-style house in Beaver Creek, Oregon, which trades the beaches and trucker-packed seaside diners of Arcadia Bay for the slightly-more rural, rugged surroundings of snow-blanketed woodlands.

    Despite the change of scenery, there’s a familiarity even as the main menu appears, once again showing an animated loop of the main environment, but instead of music we are treated to the sounds of nature one might expect to hear in a place like Beaver Creek; a soft whistling wind from the nearby mountains, chirping birdsong, and the occasional call of an unidentified rural animal. It eases you into a feeling that permeates throughout Captain Spirit: this is the same, but different. Most importantly, this is still Life Is Strange.

    Our first slice of gameplay takes places in Chris’ bedroom. This seems intentional. Bedrooms have become synonymous with Life Is Strange now in all its releases, almost as if it’s a trademark that we can expect to see it all its incarnations, much like another of Square Enix’s franchises; Final Fantasy has its victory music and Cid character. Life Is Strange has its protagonist bedrooms that are, make no mistake, characters in their own right.

    Environmental storytelling is one of my favourite things about narrative games and Dontnod are masters at saying so much with so little. Little in detail perhaps, but not in quantity: Chris’ room is positively packed with interactive elements, the wiggly arrows replaced this time with dashed-lines and the controller buttons hand-drawn in a style that only a 10-year-old (or a Dontnod artist impersonating one) could have drawn. The walls are scattered with images of heroes and villains, some as official posters of in-universe characters (Hawt Dawg Man included!) and some drawn by Chris himself. A ninja, dual-wielding katanas and riding a fire-breathing dragon is exactly the kind of thing we would expect to originate from a 10-year-old’s imagination, even if 32-year-old me finds it just as ridiculously cool. The rest of the bedroom sells the nostalgia players will feel as they are reminded of the bedrooms of their own youth: the stickers on the chest of drawers, the crates of mostly-forgotten toys, the quintessential cute stuffed animal that you refused to allow your parents to toss into the loft or another overflowing crate destined for a yard sale.

    Besides the usual interactivity to help with worldbuilding, the gameplay becomes more apparent once Chris reveals his ‘Awesome Things To Do’ list, which includes hand-drawn sketches representing each task that will be coloured in, 10-year-old crosshatching style, as you complete them. They range from something as simple as playing with your toys strewn around the bedroom floor, to discovering ‘treasure’ in a secret den outside –  a moment by the way that will tug at your heartstrings in a way that will make you think, ‘Oh Dontnod, you did it again.’

    Before Chris can set off on his personal quest, his first task is to go and have his breakfast – a task announced by his dad in increasingly angry tones. The longer you ignore him, the more pissed he will get. Once you actually head out to the kitchen to meet him, the game begins to play with your perceptions and the dad’s uneasy edge is offset with a – albeit short-lived – playful, empathetic charisma. This dual personality has a valid reason for existing. It’s quickly suggested, without spelling it out in neon letters, that the dad is an alcoholic and this narrative is built upon the more you explore the surroundings and investigate every scrap of paper and crumpled letter.

    The absence of the mother is clearly a cause for the somewhat broken household. The reason for her absence is also only revealed in as much detail as you discover, based on how much you choose to explore. This grief and trauma are perfect explanations for Chris disappearing into his own imagination to avoid dealing with them and this sometimes manifests itself as playable exaggerations of the truth – inanimate objects becoming villains that must be conquered in order to progress; the dreaded ‘basement heater monster’ for example.

    Chris is convincing as a 10-year-old because of all of this, but it would only truly work if everything else fell into place. Thankfully, Dontnod knocked it out of the park in this aspect – Chris’ dialogue feels like a 10-year-old would talk, not how a middle-aged adult would interpret it. Even his inner monologues are suitably not life-contemplating a la Max Caulfield, but endearing and trivial. He even makes audible ‘whooshing’ sounds during his idle animations, as if piloting an invisible toy spaceship. It’s all rather-heart-meltingly adorable.

    Another key factor is the voice acting. Chandler Mantione as Chris is a revelation. Children in videogames can often border on grating, either because the actor overplays it or it’s clearly an adult imitating a child. Using an actual child actor was the best choice, and interviews with one of the game’s two Directors, Michel Koch, revealed that Chandler came up with some of his own ideas too or adjusted lines based on how he, a real pre-teen, would say them. He has a likeability and infectious enthusiasm that you can’t help but smile at, and the game could have potentially lived or died on that being successful or not.

    The visuals are, as expected, sublime. The move to Unreal Engine 4 has allowed a subtle boost in realism, with physically-based textures and global illumination, yet without sacrificing the unique art direction. The lighting is just as atmospheric as the original game, but with a slightly colder hue to reflect the change in environment. There are plenty of direct references to the original game too; some that will make you smile, and others that will make you gasp in horror.

    The audio is once again, a central part of the experience, with licensed songs evoking emotions, to the point that one of them, with a strong connection to a particular character, is played within the world of Captain Spirit. Chris listens to it on a vinyl player as he lays down on his dad’s bed in a welcome return of one of the franchise’s iconic ‘moments of calm’.

    Despite all this familiarity, there is quite a radical gameplay change. There’s no Rewind feature of course, nor Before the Storm’s Backtalk option. Instead, Chris’ ‘power’ is his imagination. That means the choices you make reflect how he’s feeling in the moment, rather than them being huge life-altering decisions. You occasionally have the option to ‘supersize’ your actions, signified by a comic book style spiky bubble around the words. This might be as simple as turning on the TV using the remote, but with said remote behind your back initially, and Chris reaching out as if turning on the TV with the power of his mind. It might also mean choosing different components to make up your costume for Captain Spirit; Chris’ superhero alter-ego. Tasks can be completed in any order and you’ll get different outcomes based on those choices This sandbox approach, along with some actions being time-sensitive, adds a surprising amount of replay value to an otherwise short experience. Some choices are even said to carry over into the full-fat Life Is Strange 2, if you keep hold of your save file.

    Speaking of the forthcoming, long-awaited release of the sequel proper, there are plenty of hints as to the direction that game might be heading, including a shocking twist, right at the end, just before the excruciating but inevitable words, ‘TO BE CONTINUED’, flash up. It’s an exhilarating moment and the perfect final piece of the puzzle that makes Captain Spirit land the home run for Life Is Strange 2 hype we all hoped it would.

    Hyped? You have no idea…

    Life Is Strange 2’s first episode releases on September 27th.

    Our bodies are ready, but our hearts are not.

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    MORE FROM Chris
    Life Is Strange 2 – Episode 1: Roads Review
    Categories: Review
    ‘Did you choose to sacrifice Arcadia Bay?’ These are some of the very first words…
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    Life Is Strange 2 – Episode 1: Roads Review

    ‘Did you choose to sacrifice Arcadia Bay?’ These are some of the very first words you see when firing up Life Is Strange 2 for the first time. A palpable sense of dread sets in your bones, as if someone has just asked you a very personal, judgmental question. Well, did you? The answer to that question (at least in this first episode of five) will only grant you a minor change of scenery and dialogue in a much later scene. From the off though, what it does is let you know that this sequel, despite very publicly moving onto new characters and a brand-new story, is set in the same universe as Season 1. But just in case you thought that meant you’d be getting more of the same, you’re in for a shock.

    Life Is Strange 2 is a very different game to the original, and indeed Before the Storm, the prequel by Deck Nine Games. It’s in the art direction, it’s in the choice of characters, the choice of music, and in the overall darker tone.

    Before we’re even introduced to our main characters, we see a flashforward that will be familiar to anyone who watched the teaser trailer for Life Is Strange 2, although in a slightly-extended form. Not a moment after this sequence recalling found-footage movies like Chronicle plays out, we hear the opening riff of the toe-tapping ‘Lisztomania’ by Phoenix as we’re treated to an overhead shot of smalltown Seattle. A bus pulls up and our new protagonist, Sean Diaz, jumps off, skipping one step with an endearing confidence. He’s then teased on the walk home by his friend Lyla about his chances of hooking up with a girl called Jenn, shattering that confidence momentarily and drawing out a shyness that recalls previous protagonist, Max. This constant contrasting of Sean’s personality is relevant because it shows how adaptable he is; how he changes based on either preference, circumstance or expectations of others. As players in control of him, we will decide how he adapts in any given situation, whether it’s deciding who gets the last chocolate bar, or whether to fight or flee from a dangerous situation.

    Things escalate quickly once Sean gets home – although not as quickly as the 20-minute gameplay preview would have you expect. That preview was condensed somewhat and being able to play it for yourself and explore every room and interact with every item ensures that there’s enough breathing room before shit hits the fan that it doesn’t feel too rushed. After getting to know your younger brother Daniel, who you’ll be spending a lot of time with for the next few hours, a series of chance moments collide to culminate in a tragic event – the shooting of Sean’s father by a twitchy white cop. A person of color killed by a white cop in 2016 America? Is it subtle? Of course not. But with a limited amount of time and a big story to tell about brotherhood and survival on the road, it can be forgiven for painting in broad strokes in what would amount to the opening chapter of a novel. Any first chapter should introduce the characters, set the scene and set events in motion for the remaining story to come and Life Is Strange 2 does this very well. The tragic killing of Sean and Daniel’s father is a catalyst for the journey, but it’s the journey itself that matters. From both a story and gameplay perspective.

    Tragedy is at the heart of Life Is Strange but what would any game in the series be without a touch of the supernatural too? This comes in the form of a sudden and violent outburst from Daniel (not seen but heavily implied) moments after his father is shot, that seems to suggest he has some sort of telekinesis power which is brought on by shock or anger.

    Like Sean and Daniel, we’re suddenly thrust into this new situation with only the clothes on our back and a backpack full of whatever items happened to be in there at the time things went south. Some of those items will have been selected by you too, and even this choice has consequences. For example, pack beer for the party you’re never going to attend and it’s all you and Daniel will have to drink on the road. Hindsight (or second playthroughs) will surely have you reaching for the soda instead. And speaking of going south, that’s exactly where Sean and Daniel are headed, specifically to Mexico, and their dad’s hometown of Puerto Lobos.

    This road trip element is now a key part of the gameplay and mostly what sets it apart from the other games in the franchise. It allows for a greater variety of locations and a wider cast of characters, the latter of which will enter and exit the story, shaping Sean and Daniel’s journey and either helping or hindering them along the way.

    Being on the open road, it was important for Dontnod to give us a greater sense of freedom than the first game. That’s one of the first things that will strike you about Life Is Strange 2; the woodland environment that makes up the first post-prologue section of the game offers more than one path and there’s a density of detail to the forest that really highlights the shift to Unreal Engine 4. The lighting is also improved, not to mention character animations, including a much more accurate lip-synching method.

    Back to that environment though. There’s a wealth of things to interact with around you, but some interactions carry a noticeable difference. Denoted with a blue triangle, they represent interactions specific to Daniel. For example, highlight a trail blaze marked on a tree and you’ll get to option to teach Daniel about them. This sub-interaction becomes almost like an education mechanic. After all, as a younger brother, Daniel looks up to you and – even if he doesn’t know it yet – you’re all he has, and the closest thing now to a father figure and role model in one. He’ll be watching everything you do and say. He’ll potentially notice if you lie and this works as an underlying, albeit invisible, trust mechanic. There’s no ‘Trust’ meter so it won’t always be obvious how Daniel is developing, but thanks to some great facial animation and voice acting work, you can usually tell how something has gone down based solely on the way he looks at you or the way he says something.

    Interestingly, I found the way to be most successful with Daniel is to treat him like a real person, or more specifically, a real 9-year-old. When teaching him to skim stones on a river near where they stop to camp for the night, it’s important to be patient with him. Encouraging him and allowing him to keep trying eventually results in him successfully skimming a stone. Give up on him too early and his mood will become deflated, not to mention his confidence in you as a teacher shaken.

    There are less drastic variations based on specific choices in dialogue too. For example, mentioning either Minecraft or Lord of the Rings will determine which pop culture references you drop occasionally to connect with Daniel. Other choices, however, you will surely agonize over, making you yearn for Max’s rewind power.

    Nowhere is this more evident than a scene set at a gas station/rest stop. A family sat at a picnic table outside the store might have food they could share with you, but you have to decide the best way to approach them. Firstly, cleaning yourselves up in a nearby restroom is one way to attract less attention, but actually asking them for free food is something you’ll have to either do yourself, force Daniel to do or completely abandon out of shame. Inside the store is where things get really interesting. New to Life Is Strange 2 is an inventory system of sorts and this includes your wallet with actual money you can spend. As you walk around the shop, useful and necessary items are labelled with either the price or an option to Steal. Considering your limited funds, the Steal option is incredibly tempting, but the consequences are obvious. You’ll have no choice but to decide between necessity (food) and practicality (a sleeping bag), or, if you can, a streamlined combination of both.

    Huddled over a laptop at the back of the store is Brody, one of the new side characters in Life Is Strange 2, and one of many new characters you’ll meet (and part ways with all too soon) on your journey. Brody is a big, lovable, bearded eccentric with an even bigger heart. Imagine Seth Rogen gave up acting and hit the road, blogging about nudists and other assorted oddities of 21st-Century Americana along the way. Brody is wise about the ways of living on the road and eager to share his knowledge. He’s optimistic but realistic, following up sage warnings with a good-natured chuckle. His outlook and resourcefulness are infectious and make him instantly likeable. When he rescues you in a tough spot later on, he rightfully earns his place in Sean’s sketchbook – no doubt the first of many colorful characters to find their way onto those pages. Oh, and Daniel gets to adopt a cute puppy, which he bizarrely, but adorably, names ‘Mushroom’.

    I won’t go into exactly what situation Brody has to rescue you from but, suffice to say, it’s the first dark fork in Sean and Daniel’s long road ahead. If you thought a game set in 2016 America was going to shy away from Trump-era xenophobia, you’re sorely mistaken. ‘ICE’ and ‘the wall’ are namedropped like firecrackers in a glass room, and I can only applaud Dontnod for daring to go there. This real-world parallel is the most obvious indication that Life Is Strange 2 is striving for realism over idealism this time. The lighting is less romantic and, together with the cinematography, more evocative of realist cinema and American realism art. While natural sunlight casting a golden hour hue was a major factor in the cinematography and atmosphere of the first game, artificial light, especially in night scenes, is used for atmosphere more often here, and makes for some of the most iconic scenes. Streetlights, neon signs and car lights all add to this no doubt deliberate art direction choice. Realist cinema is also paid homage to in the many long, lingering shots of nature and moments of silence, save for environmental ambience. If Gus Van Sant made a videogame, it would probably look something like this. The realism is extended to other details as well. For example, clock any license plate on the many vehicles in the game and you won’t have to look too long to realise you won’t find any pop culture references there, as they’re now more in line with actual real-world plates.

    If Life Is Strange was something of a love letter to Catcher in the Rye, then Life Is Strange 2 is a love letter to Kerouac’s On the Road. Because Brody is in possession of more than just anecdotes and a carefree attitude; he also owns a car, the ultimate ingredient for any story about a road trip of any kind. Besides the obvious comfort, it provides the boys with a means to travel greater distances over a short time. The late-night driving offers a quiet, calm respite from the endless daytime chitter of birdsong. A stop-off to stretch their legs at a certain familiar location is sure to instill nostalgia and tug at the heartstrings. Then it’s back on the road, before transitioning to a road near a beachside motel. Sean sits and watches Daniel play with Mushroom, painfully innocent and still entirely unaware of their father’s fate. The scene is framed by the glow of a streetlight that casts a harsh light over Sean, and Brody’s parked car, the only other light coming from a near-full moon. The lighting and cinematography here is some of my favourite in the series. It really is like an American realism painting come to life, perfectly capturing the smalltown ‘unseen America’ the team clearly heavily researched.

    The motel is one of the defining establishments of forgotten America, and the perfect place for two boys on the run to relax and wind down. The joy of comfy beds, a warm bubble bath for Daniel and the chance to watch cartoons on TV (an animated Hawt Dawg Man series, of course) is all too wonderful to possibly be true – like the ‘American dream’ Life Is Strange 2 seems to mourn, it is nothing but an illusion; a relic of a forgotten time, like the motel they currently inhabit.

    Inevitably, Daniel learns of his dad’s death via the TV, once the colorful, fictional cartoon gives way to an all-too-real news report. You don’t see the moment he finds out. You hear it and feel it first, as you’re outside grabbing Daniel a soda from a nearby vending machine on the upper walkway. Rushing in, Sean finds Daniel in full telekinesis mode, surely confirming the theory that trauma or emotional stress is what provokes Daniel’s powers.

    A touching scene follows, as Sean comforts an angry, confused Daniel, calming him down and essentially turning off the power. Daniel is understandably upset you kept your father’s death from him and in the final major choice, asks you promise you’ll never lie to him again. But saying that you’ll never lie to him again is probably as good as lying itself, because deep down you know the road ahead will be tough and you have a little brother to protect at all costs. It’s an interesting dilemma, and the consequences of either choice are not entirely clear yet.

    The final scene has our brothers leaving by coach (courtesy of Brody again) and Sean telling Daniel an allegorical tale about wolf brothers, forced to survive alone in the wild, until Daniel falls asleep. The camera pulls back from the coach, panning to a hopeful sunrise. As Jonathan Morali’s incredible music soars, your heart surely will too.

    Episode 1: Roads is a stunning introduction to the next chapter in the Life Is Strange franchise. There are improvements abound in graphics, UI and animation certainly, but there’s also a maturity in the writing too and in its tackling of thematic material. It should be recongised and applauded for grabbing the current political climate in America by the horns and putting two Latino brothers at the center of it all. Representation is important for the minorities who should be allowed to feel the joy of seeing themselves in more characters, but it is also important for everyone else to see them, to accept them and to want to be like them.

    Life Is Strange: Before The Storm – Episode 1: Awake…
    Categories: Review
    They say lightning doesn’t strike twice. Except sometimes it does; sometimes more than twice; sometimes…
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    Life Is Strange: Before The Storm – Episode 1: Awake Review

    They say lightning doesn’t strike twice. Except sometimes it does; sometimes more than twice; sometimes even in the same place. The odds of it happening are rare of course, and become increasingly so when said lightning is in a bottle. Life is Strange was that rare thing; an indie game that went the full distance, eschewing expectations and selling upwards of 3 million copies. An indie game that, if it were a movie (and some may argue it almost is), would be a fitting scheduled movie at Sundance. An ‘indie darling’, widely loved and revered by the public and press alike. No one could have really expected that it would become the cultural zeitgeist it has (Where were you when that person was revealed as Rachel Amber’s killer? Everyone who played it or even watched it remembers that moment and who they were with, and in this socially-connected world of Retweets and Reaction Videos, our shock was shared and re-shared within seconds around the world). It has defined the past 2 years of millions of fan’s lives and spawned a plethora of fan content that continues to be created and shared daily, not to mention a host of merchandise and a forthcoming digital TV series. Its fandom is so passionate that it would be easy for Square Enix to boldly expect another 3 million sales of Before the Storm and then some, but that same fandom has the power to destroy as well grow a franchise. Get it wrong, and a hundred thousand Retweets later, the world and its grandmother will know about it. So how exactly does one top or even equal Season 1? And who would dare attempt to do so?

    That double-edged blessing and curse has fallen to newly-formed studio Deck Nine Games (formerly Idol Minds) – who were handpicked by publisher Square Enix – landing the gig primarily for impressing with an in-house narrative game toolkit dubbed StoryForge, but not before passing a practical exam of sorts that tasked them with recreating keys scenes from the first game. Self-confessed fans of the first game, who must already be tired of wheeling out the phrase ‘made by fans for fans’ during every promotional interview, you would be forgiven for thinking that Deck Nine were in the questionable position of churning out a very expensive piece of interactive fan fiction.

    Thankfully, based on having played Episode 1: Awake, that’s not the case at all. While there are undoubtedly plenty of references to the first game and many returning characters, Before the Storm is being positioned as a largely standalone story, to which even fans won’t know the ending of. This is achieved by setting the game a full 3 years before Season 1. Yes, Before the Storm is a prequel to DONTNOD Entertainment’s episodic hit, rather than a sequel or follow-up (that honour lies with DONTNOD themselves, who are already confirmed to be working on a fully-fledged Season 2 – though that’s expected to feature an entirely new story and cast of characters).

    The first game followed main character Max (Maxine) Caulfield, a shy teenage girl who has recently returned to the fictional seaside town of Arcadia Bay, Oregon to study Photography at the prestigious art school, Blackwell Academy. She reconnects with her childhood friend Chloe Price, and together they get tangled up in all manner of things; from missing girls to suicide attempts to apocalyptic weather. Yes, heavy stuff, the game having much more in common with Twin Peaks than High School Musical. (Lynch’s seminal TV work is even referenced in both games).

    Before the Storm places fan-favourite Chloe Price as the main character this time around, setting its story within the timeframe that Max was away from Arcadia Bay and bigging it up (or not) in Seattle. Fans of the first game will be presented with a very different Chloe than the one they know and love – the one that the more creative fans could sketch with their eyes closed. Gone is her elaborate sleeve tattoo, along with her blue hair and punk clothing. This 16-year-old version of Chloe not only looks different – trapped somewhere between a Nirvana-loving grunge phase and a latte-sipping hoodie-wearing half-punk – she is also stripped of much of the confidence and swagger she so eloquently displayed in Season 1 too. This is a girl still trying to find her identity, and that theme is represented in some wonderful ways throughout Before the Storm.

    The game begins with Chloe inviting herself to a gig at an old logging mill, where fictional indie rock band Firewalk (there’s Lynch again) are playing. Chloe, decked out in a grey hoodie, lights up a cigarette, then turns to face an oncoming train in a shot that’s sure to become as iconic as the railroad scene in Season 1. It’s a bold way to introduce the game and indeed, our main character, Chloe. It directly juxtaposes the train scene from the original game, in which Chloe was trapped as a train approached her and was frantically trying to avoid it with Max’s help. Here, as the train screams its way towards her, Chloe just casually steps off the track just in time, so that it only narrowly misses her.

    What’s immediately evident is that, despite a move from Unreal Engine to Unity, Deck Nine have nailed the look and feel of the first game. Start engaging in conversation and it soon becomes clear that they went one further. Character animation, and especially lip-synching (almost non-existent in Season 1), are vastly improved.

    Talk to the would-be bouncer barring your entry into the makeshift music venue, and you’ll be presented with the first of Before the Storm’s new gameplay additions to the franchise; a feature dubbed ‘Backtalk’. This conversational minigame is an interesting substitute for Max’s time-bending power in the first game. Chloe doesn’t have an equivalent supernatural power, but what she does have is a bayload of wit and sass, which she can use to steer a conversation or situation in her favour. A brief tutorial makes your first Backtalk session impossible to fail, highlighting the correct answers in a larger font, but essentially it involves listening for keywords as characters talk to you, and selecting the appropriate answer containing the keyword from a few different choices. It’s an interesting mechanic, forcing you to listen carefully to the conversations in order to progress. A timer adds extra pressure so it doesn’t become too easy. After all, Before the Storm is about being reactive and instinctive, as Chloe would be, with no option to rewind time and make a different choice. When you commit to a choice here, you’re committed for good. I didn’t actually fail any of my Backtalk sessions so I don’t know what the consequences are there, but presumably it impedes or slows your progress.

    There is one other aspect to the Backtalk feature. As with the first game, explore the environment enough or talk to enough people, and you’ll get additional knowledge which will then become a new dialogue option. In Before the Storm’s case, these options are like shortcuts to winning the Backtalk sessions. For example, clocking that the surly bouncer has floral patterns on his motorbike parked nearby gives you the option to tease him about it. Rather than be overtly offended, he digs your ‘tude and allows you to pass.

    This is the first real chance you get to see the script, the animation and the voice acting in action. All three are on-point and reflect, or exceed, the quality of Season 1. Though there is one major change, namely in the voice actors. Due to an ongoing union strike, none of the voice cast of returning characters could take part. While not really a problem for the minor characters, having a different voice actress for Chloe, who is the main character after all and centre-stage throughout, will be a little hard to swallow for some fans. Rhianna DeVries, who takes over from Ashly Burch, does sound different, but she does a great job of capturing the spirit and attitude of Chloe, and even if was a happy accident, the different voice actually fits nicely with the fact that she is 3 years younger here.

    Once inside the old mill, you can interact with a whole host of items and talk to quite a few characters, including returning beans-aficionado Frank Bowers. You can pet a dog (Game of the Ever), steal a Firewalk t-shirt as well as 200 bucks, and even tag certain areas with graffiti – a feature which essentially replaces the collectible Polaroid photos from Season 1. One of the ways in which Before the Storm extends the replay value of a game that does away with its predecessor’s core Rewind feature, is having multiple variations of scenes, depending on people you’ve spoken to, things you’ve seen or objects you’re acquired. If you happen to have picked up a sneaky beer as you make your way through the venue, the bottle can become a weapon later when you’re jumped by two ‘Skeevy Guys’ (as the game labels them). Choose to ‘Fight’ when presented with a classic ‘Oh shit’ moment that, in this case, asks you to either ‘Fight’ or ‘Run’, and you’ll be sucker-punched by one of those guys. This results in Chloe waking up with a nice shiner the next day, which multiple characters, including her mother Joyce, will question her about. Decide to wear that snazzy new Firewalk t-shirt when you go downstairs for breakfast the next day and expect Joyce to quiz you about that too. Every choice, big or small, matters in Before the Storm and that’s the kind of thing other narrative games could learn a thing or two from as well.

    After being rescued by the mysterious Rachel Amber (the missing girl that was an integral part of the plot of Season 1), and flipping the skeevy guys off in a cute animation that has already been immortalised in GIF form across the Tumblrverse, you both get to do what teenagers do best: rock out and dance like no one’s watching. Chloe’s childlike enthusiasm throughout this whole sequence, exemplified through great voice work by DeVries, is infectious and helps to further sell the idea that this is not the Chloe we know from Season 1. Not yet.

    The loud and grungy din of the old mill gig is juxtaposed in the next scene with something far more familiar; Chloe smoking on her bed in her iconic bedroom in a trademark golden hour lighting setup, while listening to music. The music this time around is more indie rock than indie folk, which fits Chloe’s character, even in this earlier phase of her life. So, expect a little more grunge and use of electric guitars over the more acoustic tones of Season 1. That said, the score itself is composed by British indie band, Daughter, who also lend two of their existing tracks to the licenced songs among the soundtrack. From what I’ve heard, the score is every bit as memorable as Jonathan Morali’s, but with a distinctly different feel. This ‘same, but different’ adage extends beyond the music to every aspect of the game. Fans will feel like they’re in familiar territory – quite literally in some locations – but everything from the style of Chloe’s journal, the use of graffiti tagging instead of Polaroid taking, and the array of salty, touchy and witty dialogue options, keeps reminding us that we are not playing as Max Caulfield anymore.

    We may not quite be playing as the Chloe Price from Season 1 either, and that’s unlikely to change over the 3 episodes, as the game has been confirmed to take place over just 3 days, but this is a good thing. Giving us full control over the Chloe we already knew would be total fan service. Instead, showing us what we don’t know, besides the obvious – how Chloe became the way she is in Season 1 – is far more interesting, for both fans and newcomers alike. Square Enix and Deck Nine couldn’t resist dropping in plenty of callbacks to the first game however. Chloe’s old pirate hat from the iconic picture of Max and Chloe as pirates, rests on top of her standing mirror. The wooden board they painted together that rests discarded against the backyard fence in Season 1, is similarly placed like a forgotten relic here, but in the garage instead.

    We even get to define Chloe’s style and mould her identity somewhat by picking out what clothes she will wear. These range from trendy printed t-shirts to the more fan-servicing inclusions such as Hawt Dawg Man and ‘Punk Doe’ tees – the latter being a more punk, black and neon-pink version of Max’s ‘Jane Doe’ tee from Season 1. Besides Joyce’s disapproval of your Firewalk merch, other characters may comment on your fashion choices too. There it is again. Every choice is underlined by additional characterisation; it’s not just aesthetic eye-candy.

    The rest of Chloe’s morning is taken up by performing some fairly menial tasks; find your phone, which in classic modern teen style is haphazardly discarded next to the toilet in the bathroom; fetch your Mom’s purse from her own bedroom, grimacing at the chick-lit on one bedside table and poorly-concealed condoms in the other; and most embarrassingly of all, hand soon-to-be stepdouche David his car keys outside so he can take you the last place you want to go right now: school. This is all really just a way to encourage you to explore the house and absorb the environmental storytelling. DONTNOD were masters of this craft in the first game, and Deck Nine step up to the challenge, infusing the world, oft familiar yet equally refreshing, with morsels of narrative goodness to digest in every corner. Overdue scholarship payments, displaced photos tucked away in drawers, a valuation slip for Joyce’s engagement ring. Old narrative hints return too where appropriate: Bongo the cat’s grave is marked with a solitary stone in one corner of the backyard, and you can’t miss the stubborn wine stain on the living room carpet that Max and Chloe caused as kids. Perhaps we’ll get to live out that very moment in the ‘Farewell’ Episode, a bonus 4th Episode that will only be available to those who purchased the Deluxe Edition of the game. There are easter eggs abound this first episode and fans will no doubt find them all as they scramble to secure the award for coming up with most outlandish theory. And there are already a few notable contenders. No time-travelling Homeless Lady’s this time around, but Rachel is a Level 10 Dovahkiin with some serious ‘Fus Ro Dah’ skills if you believe one particular theory.

    At the beginning of the game, if you look around the old mill exterior you’ll notice that, as with the first game, vehicle licence plates are pop culture references. It was TV shows such as The X Files and Twin Peaks in Season 1. Here, it’s classic movies. I spotted Spartacus and Bonnie and Clyde, and was told that these are not just throwaway references but tied to the game’s plot or themes. I think it’s highly unlikely we’ll see Chloe and Rachel traversing across America on the run, killing people in cold blood as they go, but perhaps a road trip of sorts is on the cards and, if you chose to play it this way, a rebellious romantic partnership. There’s also no signs of a scene of characters stepping forward one by one and proudly declaring “I’m Chloe Price!” a la Stanley Kubrick’s Kirk Douglas-starring roman epic, but that statement does ring true for many fans who identified with her in Season 1.

    I’m Chloe Price. She’s just like me when I was growing up. I understand her.

    Even for those players that didn’t identify with Chloe in Season 1, Before the Storm may go some way in helping those people understand her at least. Not everyone is an angry teen who wants to torch their hometown, but everyone has experienced grief in some way. Focusing on Chloe’s loss of her father William, and the feeling of abandonment from everyone else in her life including Max, makes it easy for us to finally see first-hand how, unchecked and untethered, grief can manifest itself as rage.

    Before you leave in David’s car, you have to engage in a little fetch quest, securing his socket wrench set from the open garage so he can fix it. This alone would be too easy, so you also have to verbally spar with him as Chloe tries to comprehend the possibility of him one day becoming her stepdad. The script is a little off-base here and David’s new voice actor undercooks some of his lines, but overall it does the job of providing us a window into Chloe’s disdain for him and authority figures in general. Once again, it’s hard not to allow Season 1 knowledge to inform our decisions here. Fans will know that David essentially redeems himself, even if he still has flaws and his methods are questionable. The question is whether you play with that future knowledge tucked away like a reserve card in a role-playing game, or you play it as you think Chloe would in that particular moment in time. During the car journey, Chloe drifts off and we suddenly find ourselves in her dad William’s car, on the day of his fatal accident. What appears to initially be a flashback soon turns into an unnerving dream/nightmare sequence. Chloe speaks to William but he remains stoic and almost robotic. When you regain control of the game, you can look around the car and everything feels off, in a very deliberate way. This scene and the car’s contents will also vary somewhat depending on choices you made or objects you interacted with previously. Joyce’s purse is there, overflowing with bills – representing anxiety over financial woes – or unused condoms if you found them earlier – representing, well… you get the picture.

    The next location we get to explore is another familiar one: the exterior of Blackwell Academy. While much of the environment is the same, except for a large stage set up on the west side of the courtyard, it’s the characters you meet that reminds you yet again that things are different. You’ll get to meet new character Elliott, who is possibly being positioned as a potential love interest, though in a ‘trying too hard’ context much like Warren in the first game. Elliott is a little more confident than cult movie enthusiast Warren G, but when he asks Chloe to come to an amateur production of a Shakespeare play of all things, you know his chances are uncomfortably slim.

    Then there’s Steph and Mikey, two geeks who, on the face of it, are more likely to be friends with Max than Chloe. One of your first objectives is to get your Blade Runner DVD (another nice nod to Season 1) from Steph. Steph and Mikey can be found at the far east corner of the courtyard and after picking up your DVD, you’re given the option to take part in one of my favourite sections of the game: a tabletop RPG. Don’t expect a complex UI overlay, invisible 10-sided dice rolls, or colourful stats floating above Chloe’s head. This game-within-a-game is purely driven by dialogue options, but has a surprising amount of depth nonetheless. You can choose everything from your character’s name, to their primary skills and how they might attack the endgame boss. As with everything else in Before the Storm, there are multiple variations and outcomes and it’s a lot of fun to play around with the options. You can tell from playing the scene that there are some tabletop RPG fans at Deck Nine and the enthusiasm of sharing their love of that hobby shines through.

    You also get to meet a few returning characters from Season 1, some of which we’ve never seen Chloe interact with before. Skateboarding pothead Justin is around, but we’ve already seen Chloe interact with him in Season 1. Speak to him early enough though and he does give Chloe some spray to hide the potent smell of weed clinging to her clothes. You can also meet Principal Wells, who will give you crap for the aforementioned aroma of Arcadia Bay’s finest herb if you didn’t speak to Justin first, but you can wriggle your way out of that with another Backtalk showdown. Miss Grant provides some interesting setup for Blackwell Academy’s changes to come, academically speaking. And then there’s Victoria and Nathan, and here’s where things get interesting. Much like Chloe, neither of them are quite the same characters we know from Season 1. Victoria still has bitch mode engaged but hasn’t turned it all the way up to 11 just yet. She’s clearly clinging to the bottom rungs of the social ladder here, and makes her jealousy of Rachel Amber a little more than obvious. Nathan on the other hand, is almost completely different. Far from the cocky ‘I own you’ ticking bomb of Season 1, this Nathan is clumsy, lacking confidence and even seemingly bullied by another jock character. Season 1 was subtle in getting us to sympathise with Nathan, much of our understanding of his situation discovered through a final voicemail left on Max’s phone after we discover his fate. It does feel a little on the nose here because he’s so drastically different and it will be hard for Deck Nine’s writers to explain that transition over a 3-day period, but they do have a chance to at least suggest what might have triggered that change in character, so it’ll be interesting to see where they go with that.

    You do have a chance to stick up for Nathan and it’s hard not to allow Season 1 knowledge bias to filter your choice. New character Sam even jumps in to encourage you to do so and considering she’s the soft-voiced ‘cinnamon bun’ of Before then Storm, taking up that mantle from Kate Marsh, it’s an interesting way to remind us that expectations can be defied. The bullies were once the bullied, and the wallflowers have a voice, which they will be inspired to use if they witness an injustice that prods at their heart and stirs their soul.

    When you’ve explored everything you can outside, you can enter Blackwell Academy proper. You’re met at the door by none other than Rachel Amber herself, who practically runs you down in her enthusiasm, pulling you by the hand for the second time in two days, and whisking you away like an unpredictable wind. Perhaps surprisingly so, it’s not to vandalise the girl’s restroom mirrors with makeup, or ‘medicate’ in the janitor’s cupboard, but something far more scandalous to Chloe Price: an amateur theatre rehearsal session for Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Forgetting for a moment about the not-so-subtle storm metaphor, this is a fun scene that marks the moment Chloe (and potentially we) will begin to fall in love with Rachel. The choices we’re asked to make are less about what Chloe thinks about the subject in question, and more about what she thinks of Rachel. Chloe’s awkwardness at being thrust into these uncomfortable situations, all while juggling a concoction of conflicting feelings, is frankly adorable. Her eyes widen, her mouth falters, her voice stumbles and her hand wanders to scratch non-existent itches, as if to distract everyone else in the room form the unrelenting embarrassment she feels at being exposed for the perfectly normal human being she really is. The facial animations in particular here really help sell what Chloe’s feeling more than any words, whether chosen or hard-wired into cutscenes, ever could. Deck Nine’s propriety StoryForge engine includes a tool that allows them to control expressions and emotions through sliders, which means they can turn up, or down, sadness or surprise or blend any combination of emotions together. It’s impressive stuff, and crucially, it never feels like you’re watching the visual results of slider percentages playing an invisible tug-of-war.

    Not content with stealing glances at you and (potentially) stealing your heart, Rachel then steals you away from school too for an impromptu session of afternoon hooky – that’s a very dated American way of saying they’re ditching school by the way, not a thinly-disguised euphemism. The scene cuts to the two girls racing a train along a familiar railroad. Not just an excuse for Deck Nine to throw in another callback to Season 1, this time you actually get to ride the train. Aside from taking in the nice Oregonian scenery as it rolls by, this scene becomes yet another mini-game of character-building, as we get to know Rachel Amber a little bit better. She suggests you play a game of ‘Two Truths and a Lie’; a veritable recipe for excruciating embarrassment, trust gauging and inevitable flirting that’s just short of a bottle to spin. Ah, bottles. The true unspoken villain of Season 1. Don’t worry, you get to exact your revenge on at least one of them later. Interestingly, you not only get to choose from a selection of truths and lies, but you also get to choose whether you cheat at the game or not. It’s a brilliant way to build characterisation, and is filled with funny (“Nice Rachel we’re having”), touching and fan-pleasing moments – the latter hinting at the origin of Chloe’s use of the word ‘hella’ in a way that’s a lot less cringey than you might expect.

    You eventually arrive at one of the new locations in Before the Storm: a park/lookout spot. After a little playfulness or flirting depending on how you choose to play things, Rachel insists you play a new game; one that involves using a viewfinder telescope to spy on the park’s residents below, and improvising what they might be saying to each other or thinking to themselves. Once again, you’re in control of what Chloe decides to say, and the responses are usually very different from one another, some of them teetering on the edge of cruel but never tipping fully over into the blackest recesses of dark humour. The whole scene has a feeling of childlike wonder, the girls giggling and acting perhaps a few years younger than they actually are. As if to counterbalance this, Rachel suddenly suggests getting wasted on cheap wine, but not before stealing it from two parkgoers nearby. Her sudden shift is as confusing to Chloe as it might be for the player – although it’s fairly easy for most to guess that she saw something she didn’t like in the viewfinder during their improv game.

    Her mood carries over to the next scene, as they arrive in the last familiar location of the episode: American Rust, the iconic junkyard from Season 1. How you approach Rachel’s bizarre shutting out of Chloe is again up to you. Do you let her brood a little longer, while you try your best to act cool and casual, scuffing the ground with your worn-out sneakers and glancing over at the forlorn Rachel, who is clasping the almost empty wine bottle like it’s the only thing that matters? Or do you call her out, and challenge her, demanding answers as to why she suddenly went cold on you? Either choice makes Rachel bristle like a startled animal and she goes on the defensive, shutting Chloe out even more. I think this is something a lot of people can identify with. When you’re trying to get a friend to open up and your persistence – however well-intentioned – causes them to close up instead, it can be as upsetting as it is frustrating. Chloe makes one final attempt to connect with Rachel by suggesting something she most likely does when she feels down: smash the living shit out of something. Whether you choose to ‘give Rachel a show’ or offer her the bat, she tosses it aside and tells you to leave her alone.

    As she attempts to leave herself, Chloe begs her not to. When questioned why she should stay, you can choose to tell her that what you have is a ‘Friendship’ or ‘Something More’. She leaves regardless, but by committing to either choice, you are helping to define a crucial turning point in Chloe’s life, whether that’s realising how much she needs a friend, or whether it’s coming to terms with her sexuality. The fact Before the Storm is a prequel and we already know Rachel’s fate might be a sticking point for some fans, rendering the whole game redundant in their eyes, but the foreknowledge actually adds a twinge of sadness to the preceding events. Whether as friends or romantic partners, we know their relationship is doomed. This feeling of impending tragedy, of shattered dreams, not only adds pathos to Before the Storm, but also has the potential to enrich Season 1 on subsequent playthroughs, without sacrificing canon.

    The burgeoning relationship between Chloe and Rachel can’t escape the sense of feeling a little rushed. It’s definitely true that infatuation and crushes can happen rapidly, but with only three days to explore of the course of the three episodes, there’s a danger that there won’t be enough breathing room to sell how integral this period in both girl’s lives was. With that said, perhaps realism is not the point of Life is Strange. Let’s not forget Season 1 included an array of apocalyptic weather and freak occurrences, but the tornado was always acknowledged by directors Michel Koch and Raoul Barbet as a metaphor. The question is whether we would rather have pure realism or something that sacrifices some realism for a scattershot of thematically-heavy scenes, in order to get its point across effectively. Catherine Hardwicke’s movie, Thirteen, which also deals with one young girl leading another astray and causing her to alter her whole identity to fit in, utilises a similar technique. Though taking place over a few months as opposed to days, it throws every possible worst-case scenario into the movie and in close proximity. It shows all the terrible things that could possibly happen to teenage girls going off the rails, except it shows them all happening to a single girl. That in itself isn’t necessarily believable, but it does this in order to prove a point, and loses none of its power for sacrificing a little realism. Chloe’s sudden infatuation with Rachel isn’t unfounded either. She’s obviously aware of who Rachel is even before Rachel barrels her way into her life – she’s the most popular girl at Blackwell by all accounts – so of course when that person starts to notice her when no one else bothers to give her a second glance or attacks her for the way she looks or for every little thing she does, she’s going to feel an attachment to that person, and she’s not going to let go of that new and exciting feeling easily.

    Once Rachel leaves and Chloe is standing alone, the episode trades teen drama for powerful melancholy. In a highlight of the whole franchise for me, Chloe boils over with rage, the bass picking up on the soundtrack, as if thumping in sync with her increased heartrate. She takes her anger out on a variety of items scattered around the junkyard; paint cans, a toolbox, an old sign, and even the aforementioned villainous beer bottle. In a stroke of genius, the four options you’re presented with when approaching said objects are all the same: ‘Smash’. It’s a brilliant visual representation of Chloe’s current mindset, her brain whirring like a clockwork bomb, begging for the next thing to dare light her fuse. Smash everything in sight, it taunts. And you will. Her rage is yours in that moment and it genuinely feels like a euphoric release to unleash that rage. She glares at a mannequin, calling out its falseness and comparing it to Rachel before she takes its head clean off. She smashes an old camera to pieces, as she lambasts the friend who left her behind to pick up the pieces of her own broken life.

    Chloe finally stops short when she catches sight of something off screen. The first notes of the powerful ‘Dreams of William’ theme begin to play. She drops the bat, swaying as the realisation defeats her. She approaches what turns out to be the wreck of William’s car. This time your target is the crumpled bonnet of the car and more ‘Smash’ prompts appear to encourage Chloe to thump it with her fists in a final pitiful display of anger, before she crumbles to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.

    We cut to a second dream sequence, once again taking place in William’s car, pre-accident. You get more time to look around this time, and the car is littered with remnants of your recent bout of rage, including the dislodged mannequin head. A raven rests on the dashboard. The scene flickers and glitches purposefully, like the jarring cuts in a horror movie trailer. Things take a darker turn as the car pulls up to a decidedly creepy-looking Rachel. She presses her hand against the window, and Chloe lines hers up on the other side. Rachel suddenly bursts into flames, in a sequence that has a spectacularly eerie Twin Peaks/Silent Hill vibe. It’s a classic case of foreshadowing and part of it is followed up almost immediately after in the final scene of the game.

    After waking up in the dark, having spent all day curled up in the wreck of her dad’s car, Chloe follows in Rachel’s departed footsteps, eventually finding her standing alone by an equally lonely tree. Instead of sending Chloe away, Rachel seems almost glad to see her, time having bridged some of the emotional distance between them. Rachel finally confesses that she knew one of the people they spotted during their improv game back at the lookout; none other than her own father. And that the woman he was seen kissing was not her mother. Confirmation of her father’s affair, one she already suspected, has damaged Rachel beyond repair, tarnishing the picture-perfect father-daughter relationship encapsulated in the photo she had been carrying around in her backpack. But telling someone about it isn’t enough, she needs a bigger release. More closure. More finality. She holds up the picture of her and her dad and in a single act of defiance, lights it on fire, watching it smoulder, as if burning away her innocence. She tosses the still-burning photo into a nearby bin, then kicks it over and lets out a harrowing scream. A rush of wind magnifies the scream and spreads the fire, from the dry grass, to the whole tree and eventually nearby trees too. Chloe watches by helplessly until soon, the whole forest is in flames.

    The game ends with a final montage that’s reminiscent of the Obstacles-accompanied finale in the first episode of Season 1, showing what various characters are doing at one particular moment and that they are all connected by one thing: in this case, the now-enormous wildfire they can see in the distance, framed by billowing towers of thick black smoke.

    All in all, Before the Storm’s first episode is a strong addition to the franchise, effortlessly blending the old with the new. Deck Nine have proven themselves worthy of carrying the torch while we await DONTNOD’s Season 2, and may very well help the franchise discover new fans who were on the fence first time around. Hardcore fans will naturally be upset at the initially jarring change in voice actors, but once they actually play the game, like this reviewer, they will be so engrossed in the story and the warm nostalgia of returning to Arcadia Bay with new insights, that they will quickly forget about that. Besides a few iffy side characters, the new voice actors are brilliant, rightfully making the performances their own, instead of resorting to half-baked imitations – something which would have undoubtedly made fans far more vocal. Special mention must go to Rhianna DeVries as Chloe and Kylie Brown as Rachel. They both turn in performances that are equal parts funny, endearing and moving.

    The score by Daughter is beautiful, but in a very different way to Season 1. It is absolutely tailor-made from the ground up for Chloe’s character, perfectly reflecting her varying states of mind. From the dreamy pondering of ‘Glass’ to the angrier grunge of ‘Burn It Down’, to the hopeful ethereal tones of ‘Voices’ and the quietly devastating melancholy of ‘Dreams of William’.

    On a technical level the game is very well made. Modelling, textures and lighting are consistently good. As explained earlier, there’s some great work on the facial animations and lip synching in particular. There are a few awkward animation quirks, particularly in the way Chloe walks, especially when traversing stairs, but they’re not significant enough to take you out of the game. Playing on Xbox One, I did encounter a few visual and audio glitches. There was some stutter in cutscenes, with characters juddering as if their animations were interrupted, and some lines of dialogue were cut short at the end as it transitioned to the next scene. It helped that I always have Subtitles on anyway, but it could be very annoying for those who don’t, if they miss out on a potentially crucial word. There are also a few unusually long pauses between some lines of dialogue which can make some scenes feel a little stilted when they should have a greater sense of urgency and immediacy. But again, not game-breaking, just mildly frustrating in the very few instances it happens.

    Life is Strange: Before the Storm has so far defied expectations. Those expectations were rightfully full of scepticism, from both the community and the press. Is it perfect? Certainly not. But how many games are? It may have some inconsistences, it may have notes of awkward dialogue and a few technical glitches, but it also has tons of heart. It has clearly been made by a passionate team – not just passionate about the series they have briefly inherited, but passionate about its commitment to strong thematical material that the average audience isn’t used to seeing in video games. Directors Chris Floyd and Webb Pickersgill and the game’s writers, led by Zak Garriss, wisely chose to focus heavily on character. While the plot itself will no doubt pick up over the next two episodes with some inevitable twists and turns, everything in the game so far is driven by the characters: where they go, what they do, and how they do it. Every awkward situation and every sideways glance means something. Life is strange, and it’s not the supernatural or the unusual that makes it so, it’s the everyday. The chance encounters, the impromptu train rides, the crushing grief of losing someone close to you so suddenly. These are the things that connect us all, that define us, that change us. And change is a theme at the heart of Before the Storm. It is a coming-of-age story, about a young girl going through a dramatic transitional period in her life. Deck Nine had a lot to prove in showing everyone that they understood this, and in my opinion, they knocked it out of the bay. Hella home run.

    I cannot recommend Life is Strange: Before the Storm enough. Newcomers will be as intrigued as everyone else was when Season 1 quietly nudged the industry almost three years ago, snowballing into one of the most important new IP’s of the decade. Fans will be in for a treat too if they can focus less on what this game isn’t and more on what it is. And what it is, is a heartfelt and powerful tribute to grief and the unbridled chaos of teenage life. And we need more games like it.

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    LIFE IS STRANGE © 2015-2021 Square Enix Ltd. All rights reserved. Developed by Dontnod Entertainment. LIFE IS STRANGE, LIFE IS STRANGE 2, LIFE IS STRANGE: TRUE COLORS, SQUARE ENIX and the SQUARE ENIX logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Square Enix group of companies. DECK NINE and DECK NINE GAMES are registered trademarks of Idol Minds, LLC. DONTNOD and DONTNOD Entertainment are registered trademarks of DONTNOD Entertainment, S.A. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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    Introducing The Pride Collection!

    To celebrate Pride Month, these special Cards are now available in Limited Edition Card Packs. With rainbow background, gold elements AND including 5 rare Motion Cards!

    Become a Superfan and join our Patreon today to increase your chances of receiving Pride Cards in the Limited Edition Packs!

    BUY A CARD PACK NOW
    BECOME A SUPERFAN

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