Before the Storm

So I've Finally Played…
Life is Strange Before the Storm.

That's probably not what most people were expecting me to first clear off the list after rewriting myself into Oblivion with Rollerdrome, the prequel to Time Travel Lesbian Tragedy Simulator doesn't exactly scream RAYCEVICK like Black Lagoon or Spec Ops does, but that was part of my curiosity in "playing" Before the Storm.

Back when I finished Life is Strange I was in University, far closure to the life experiences and struggles of its main characters than I am now. I've also listened, read, watched, and played way more art than when I first saw Life is Strange, making me both more critical of faults and more willing to comply with them.

I was curious to see if my perception of this series would've changed so much after I've changed so much as a person compared to 10+ years ago.

My answer was no.

The irony of this claim in the prequel that doesn't have Time Travel isn't lost on me, but playing Before the Storm felt like going through a wormhole. Everything I recalled feeling about the original Life is Strange came back to me with the subtly of its dialogue.

All the conversations no matter how many characters involved or seriousness of the subject matter are equally awkward in delivery, pacing, animations, and editing, the music choices range from decent to bordering on CW Teen Drama Parody, and the game is bafflingly limited in its relevant options for the player even by the standards of Walking Sims.

I never loved it, yet I finished it in basically one run. I was annoyed but never angry enough to close the game. I was nostalgic, but also divorced from the game's call backs.

It's the calmest form of cognitive dissonance I've felt in years, and quite a lot of that had to do with something that got confirmed the moment I talked to a friend (coincidentally, someone I met at University) about Before the Storm.

I wouldn't call this game infamous, but primarily known for what I mentioned earlier, that its status as a prequel staring Chloe Price, the original game's tragic partner in crime to protagonist Max Caulfield, means that none of its gameplay or core-narrative involves the supernatural, with the only unique mechanic being the "Backtalk" system, that's really just another form dialogue trees.

Other than that, the whole game's narrative, character plights, and story beats are all completely grounded in reality, detailing everything that was implied in the original game about Chloe and her "Friend" Rachel. It's a bit like a Terminator Movie that's just Saving Private Ryan… I don't mean, a straight forward War Movie in Terminator's future, I mean, World War II, Normandy Beach and Iwo Jima but with the Radio's carrying an old "Skynet" label.

And while I was envision every scene with live-actors with better dialogue and a complete absence of load-times or cuts to the main-menu to read text-messages (like I did with the original game), I thought about what would happen if you made Life is Strange a show, and began with Before the Storm as Season 1…

Would it find an audience?

Okay, the answer's obviously yes, the existing fan base would gather around the TV to judge away, and probably spark curiosity from all their friends bugged to watch it, lemme try again.

If Life is Strange started with Before the Storm…

Would it have found an audience?

I'm not saying it wouldn't, but in all forms of Entertainment, many works with initial success build that initial interest with a hook. One of the reasons things like The Wire, Blade Runner, Spec Ops, Fight Club, Scott Pilgrim, are all "cult" works I think stems from how long it took for people discover them, because the initial hook for them isn't really defined, and you can see it in their marketing. How much the marketing team is struggling to how to sell a shooter that's about the unquestioned violence of shooters, or a video-game movie that isn't attached to any video-game about two assholes in their twenties learning through each other's assholishness, how to stop being an asshole.

Compare those to "Time Travel Lesbians" and you can see how Life is Strange found success after a couple viral Tumblr posts. These other works don't have a three word elevator pitch that perks up the ears of an eager audience… and neither does Before the Storm.

This game is so much like Life is Strange, but without the initial hook, which is fine in this world, because it's released after Life is Strange and primarily for the people who enjoyed Life is Strange, but were it to be the first Life is Strange, it might not have led to a Life is Strange franchise in the first place.

Or if it did, it would've set completely different expectations.

Imagine watching a show that starts off with a Protagonist named Chloe, an isolated angsty loner teen suffering from the death of her loving Father, and the absence of her best and last friend Max, finding a new love taking them on an explosive but Down to Earth journey involving local forest fires, a corrupt District Attorney, and deranged Gang members…

And then Season 2 opens with Max reaching out her hand to rewind time.

The shark wouldn't jump, but go FTL!

But, start your franchise with Time Travel, and sure, it'll sometimes get mocked by reviewers for its inexplicable appearance, but generally, audiences were given it in the first 20 minutes where they're receptive, so… they received it, and made this a pillar for the franchise whether they loved or hated it.

I don't have a neat bow to tie this together in the ending, other conclusions I've written come across as too vindictive against the audience, or too defensive of the artist. Really, all that's happened here is me playing a simple Prequel to a game I wouldn't put higher than C+ still gave me a lot to chew on, if not about its own universe, then about ours.

How much expectations affect us despite being prone to so many variables, any of which can be dropped consciously or disappear by themselves at any moment… and I'm reminded how much something can change with just one change.

There's a challenge I saw years ago about "What's a game that goes from E to an M rating with one change."

My answer was…

Put people in the Civilian cars of a Burnout game.

I'm not sure that version of Takedown would've started with "Lazy Generation" in the opening FMV… or maybe, it would be a Metalcore Cover.