Life Is Strange: Before The Storm-Episode One

THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN

- Kimberley Ballard

There’s a girl in Arcadia Bay called Chloe Price, and Chloe doesn’t like herself very much. When we first meet her in 2015’s Life Is Strange, she is abrasive and rude—an acid-spitting cherry bomb with the power to alienate everyone around her, including those who love her most. Even for players she was a divisive character; some couldn’t crack Chloe’s tough exterior, while others acknowledged her vulnerability.

Before The Storm takes the opportunity to explore Chloe further. Set three years before the events of Life Is Strange, 16-year-old Chloe has been stripped of her iconic blue hair, but none of her anger, or her need to cause mischief. The start of the first episode, for example, sees her trying to sneak into a seedy backwater bar where a thrash-metal band is playing. Players familiar with Chloe will roll their eyes fondly at this sequence of events, as she seethes at the bouncer who dismisses her fake ID and tries to dodge a weed dealer.

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