Life is Strange: Before the Storm: It was always you, Chloe Price

I wish I could’ve played BtS before the original Life is Strange. It actually makes me disappointed that I didn’t play the prequel first, because after playing BtS, it’s clear that the first iteration of the series was really about Chloe, not Max. It was somewhat apparent in the first game, what with Max such a blank slate and Chloe’s presence imbued in almost every decision you make. Though the storyline focuses on a variety of characters, the one that keeps popping up is Chloe, who *spoiler alert* also figures prominently in the finale. BtS thankfully expands on her character by giving her a prequel that delves into her relationship with Rachel Amber, the girl missing at the beginning of Life is Strange.

In BtS, Chloe isn’t the same spunky rebel from the first game. She’s shy and unsure of herself as a 16-year-old. You get to figure out how to interact with the characters that surrounds Chloe: her mom, her mom’s new boyfriend, kids at high school, and her new crush, Rachel. That pretty much sums up the game. There is an intricate plot, which involves Chloe and her relationship with Rachel, and while it drives the game forward, the game plays as so much more because it lets you develop something of your own kind of relationship between Chloe and those surrounding her. There are certain things which cannot be changed in the game, like the death of Chloe’s father and the drama surrounding Rachel’s family life. It’s really in how Chloe deals with everything that’s going on—or, more precisely, how you have her deal with it.

This time around, there’s no time rewinding function, so every choice you make is set in stone and immediate. I thought this would ruin the aesthetic of the game after how integral it was to the first LiS, especially how it was used to solve problems, but it was relieving not having to worry about it this time around. It made more sense following Chloe in real time, with all her personality and eccentricities, and having decisions that were permanent. It’s not like she can go back and try to save her dad like in the first LiS, so why go back at all? She has to face everything that’s thrown in front of her, from her mom shacking up with a guy she doesn’t like to getting kicked out of school. Her emotions are front and center in a way that LiS never really dealt with explicitly until BtS. They’re raw and insecure in ways that only a 16-year-old could experience, especially in the scenes that deal with the loss of her father. She has no idea how to approach life afterwards, relying on visions of her dead dad to help guide her, often leading to confusion, anger, and frustration. She doesn’t have a friend to rely on—Max had skipped town two years earlier—until she meets Rachel, who connects with her through the frustration of her own family life. The two lean on each other, growing as people as they navigate the story. That you control Chloe’s interactions to a certain degree lets their struggle flow through the player even more, boosting your own connection to these two. It’s just a great, engrossing way to tell Chloe’s story.

Part of the emotion that comes from playing the game is knowing that Chloe eventually loses Rachel somewhere between BtS and the first game. You knew her relationship with Rachel wouldn’t last and that she’d become lost in the time between when BtS ends and when she finally meets back up with Max. It really does coat the entire game in a cloud of sadness. Unfortunately, once you know what happens in both games, it’s impossible to go back and replay them with a different set of emotions (at least for me it is). It has me constantly wondering how I would’ve viewed the first game if I played them chronologically. A bit of a spoiler here, but the end of BtS doesn’t show what happens when Rachel goes missing, so at the end, the two are still together. I can’t imagine how I’d feel playing out the first game with Max, finding posters of Rachel Amber scattered throughout the school and then meeting Chloe in the washroom, knowing exactly who she is and what she’s been through. I can imagine a deeper sense of dread, knowing something is totally off, and I’d probably also get a bit nostalgic, watching Chloe temporarily get killed by Nathan, maybe even shocked. The hurricane barreling towards Arcadia Bay, though…that probably would’ve made more sense to me at the time. But just like that, time passes and you become exposed to all the little secrets everyone’s been holding on to, and there’s no turning back. For anyone who’s played through BtS, you know that was always the point.