Life is Strange: Before the Storm
Life is Strange: Before the Storm is a new three part standalone story adventure set three years before the events of the first game. This time play as Chloe Price, a rebel who forms an unlikely friendship with Rachel Amber in a dramatic new story in the BAFTA award winning franchise.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm is a story rich, choices matter and great soundtrack game
developed by Deck Nine and Feral Interactive (Linux)
and published by Feral interactive (Mac), Feral Interactive (Linux) and Square Enix.
Released on August 31st 2017 is available on Windows, MacOS and Linux
in 7 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Portuguese - Brazil and Simplified Chinese.
It has received 37,050 reviews of which 34,563 were positive and 2,487 were negative resulting in an impressive rating of 9.2 out of 10. π
The game is currently priced at 16.99β¬ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Life is Strange: Before the Storm into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Life is Strange: Before the Storm through various videos and screenshots.
Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows 7 or above (64-bit Operating System Required)
- Processor: Intel Core i3-2100 (3.1GHz) or AMD Phenom X4 945 (3.0GHz)
- Memory: 3 GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD Radeon R7 250 or NVIDIA Geforce GTX 650
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 14 GB available space
- Additional Notes: Please note that 32-bit operating systems will not be supported.
MacOS
- OS: macOS 10.13.5
- Processor: 2.0Ghz Intel Core i5
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: 1GB Nvidia 650M, 2GB AMD Radeon R9 M290, Intel Iris 5100 or better (see notes for more details).
- Storage: 28 GB available space
- Additional Notes: The game is supported on the following Macs. To check your Mac model and when it was released, select About This Mac from the Apple menu on your menu bar.
- * All Mac Minis since Late 2014
- * All 13β MacBook Pros released since 2013
- * All 15" MacBook Pros released since Mid 2012 with a 1GB graphics card or better (1)
- * All 21.5β iMacs released since Late 2013
- * All 27β iMacs released since Late 2013 (2)
- * All 27" iMac Pro's
- * All Mac Pros released since Late 2013
- 1. Mid 2015 models with an AMD Radeon R9 M370X are not supported.
- 2. Late 2012 models with Nvidia 675 or Nvidia 680 graphics are also supported.
- * All Mac Mini's since Late 2012
- * All Macbooks released since Early 2015
- * All Macbook Airs released since Mid 2012
- * All 13" Macbook Pros released since Mid 2012
- * All 21.5β iMacs released since Early 2013
Linux
- OS: Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit
- Processor: Intel Core i3-4130T @ 2.90GHz
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: 2GB Nvidia GTX 680, 2GB AMD R9 27
- Storage: 28 GB available space
- Additional Notes:
- * AMD GPUs require Mesa driver 18.1.6, Nvidia cards require driver 396.54 or better.
- * Intel GPUs are not supported at time of release.
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Life Is Strange Before The Storm was a fantastic game. The story was great. Graphics looks the same as Life Is Strange. This game is prequel and you play as Chloe Price. Max best friend. Well, she is being mean to anyone sometimes. I like her, tho. She is a great character, but I don't like she is being mean to anyone sometimes. Kinda shame that, Chloe doesn't any power. Only use argument with other people. I think it's her superpower. The writing is heartfelt, and every character feels complex and relatable, especially Chloe Price. Her rebellious attitude, grief, and pain are portrayed so authentically, making her journey with Rachel Amber both captivating and heartbreaking. The dialogue was fantastic. The relationship between Chloe and Rachel is the heart of Before the Storm, and itβs handled with incredible care. The game explores themes of loss, love, and self-discovery in a way that feels deeply personal. 8/10
Read more
Solid prequel to LIS. Nice engaging story and gameplay. Solid coming of age type stuff.
Read more
I witness the reenactment of a tragic fate. Knowing the ending makes my heart ache. How merciless the prequel, knowing its inevitable end. ν리νμ μ°¨κ°λ€.
Read more
Life is Strange: Before the storm is one of the best adventure game I ever played. You have so many choices and each choices have consequenses. The story, the characters are are so well written. The graphics and the sountrack is very good. It litteraly change my way of life... It would be a shame to miss out such a beautiful game like this one.... I recommend it a lot!!!! π
Read more
A simple premise can be a difficult one. For Before the Storm, Deck Nine were tasked with simply explaining how Chloe Price had become so enamored with Rachel Amber before the events of the original Life is Strange. Many were skeptical of this angle, since in the original Life is Strange, Rachel is little more than a plot device that allows Max and Chloe to rekindle their friendship. The entire point of her character in that game was that she wasn't actually a character. So Deck Nine had the unenviable task of proving a passionate fanbase wrong by delivering a character that lived up to her almost mythological status. And boy, did they knock it out of the park. After a brief prologue during which Chloe first runs into Rachel at a DIY rock show, we are immersed in Chloe's troubled existence. Before the Storm takes place several years before the events of the original game, and about 2 years after Chloe's father died in a car accident, shortly after which her best friend Max moved to a different state. The initial hour of the game establishes Chloe's state of mind in this period of her life. From the unprocessed trauma of her father's death to her enduring frustrations about losing touch with Max, Chloe struggles to keep herself afloat in a world that has already moved on. The game is intentionally confrontational in its exposition; through the eyes of Chloe, you get into conflict with nearly every adult you encounter in these early stages of the game, and some of your schoolmates aren't any nicer. There's additional background information delivered through Chloe's journal and text messages, which makes it all the easier for the player to empathize with her. Not only does this help us get on board with a character that was, in the first game, oft seen as petty and selfish; it also sets the stage for Rachel Amber to swoop in as a savior. The first scenes with Rachel are the opposite of most of Chloe's interactions up until that point: she's on your side, she's sympathetic to you, and she's interesting to talk to. In this first act, the writers make it so that Rachel not only overwhelms Chloe, but also the player. Of course, Rachel and Chloe's relationship soon becomes more complex, not just because conflict makes for a better story, but also because this prequel is by its nature required to conclude in a way that corresponds with the not-so-rosy events of the main game. More on that in a bit. Though the main story thread in Before the Storm is the friendship between Chloe and Rachel, there are more plotlines at play. These involve mature themes such as drug dealing, dark family secrets, stalking and PTSD, but these story elements are handled with much more subtlety than in Life is Strange. In that game, we got on-the-nose, at times charicatural depictions of bullying, suicide, euthanasia, murder, and a bunch of other unsavory topics. While it made for an exciting game, it was so over-the-top that it could fatigue the player. In Before the Storm, there is much more focus on character development. Primarily between Chloe and Rachel, but also between Chloe and other people, like Joyce, David and even Frank. This is a double-edged sword, as the first 2 Episodes revolve so heavily around Chloe and Rachel that the other plot threads seem like red herrings, until they're suddenly not. Deck Nine fulfills its initial promise by the end of the second episode, when the relationship between Chloe and Rachel reaches its zenith during and shortly after a school play. The school play - an unconventional adaptation of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' - features the absolute peak of Deck Nine's writing, and I would argue the best writing in the entire series. Shakespeare's play becomes a metaphorical commentary on the relationship between our main characters; a thought-provoking, multi-layered commentary that is by itself seldom seen in video games. This is elevated all the more by Deck Nine disarming the player right before the climatic scene by distracting them with 'gamey' gimmicks, allowing for maximum emotional impact. If you want a perfect example of ludonarration - using gameplay mechanics to enhance and enrich the story - then look no further. Yet, therein also lies the issue with Before the Storm. After this highest of highs, the game still has one episode and a bit to go. At this point in the story, though, the initial 'thesis' has already been completed: we now understand why Chloe was so smitten with the enigmatic Rachel Amber. So, out of necessity, the story then shifts focus to a subplot concerning the Amber family history, which takes up most of the third episode. While there are plenty of touching, emotional moments and memorable scenes in this final act, it does feel like a downgrade from the initial premise of the game. This shift in focus may in part be motivated by Before the Storm's secondary obligation: it needs to tie in to the main game, which, for all its focus on chaos theory, has a lot of events that are set in stone. There are more consequences to said approach. Some of the character development feels out of tune with what we see in the original Life is Strange. This may sound like a complaint, but it is not that simple: in Life is Strange, many of the characters are, even by the admission of its creators, stereotypes, at least in the beginning of the story. Characters like David, Nathan and Victoria start out as one-dimensional, and only gradually develop some depth as the plot evolves. The success of the character development in that game is a different discussion. What this means for Before the Storm is that, depending on your choices, the character development is at times too good to be connected to the original game. Stereotypes can still be found, but the initial character depth is already a league above what we saw in Life is Strange, let alone the development some of the characters go through across the three episodes. To name an example, the David we see at the beginning of Life is Strange is a downgrade from the David we (may) see at the end of Before the Storm, even though the latter game takes place years prior. It is, however, tough to call this an error in judgment when it is in many ways the result of Deck Nine frankly having a much better writing staff than Dontnod (a fact that becomes even more clear when you compare any dialogue between both games.) The 'incompatibility' between both games even extends to a more meta level. Life is Strange taught us that minor changes in a timeline may have large, unforeseen consequences - the butterfly effect. And yet we are to believe that the choices we make in Before the Storm - some of which cause dramatic shifts in the psychology of certain characters and/or their relation to other characters - have absolutely no bearing on the events leading up to Life is Strange. As you can see, Life is Strange: Before the Storm leaves a lot of room for contemplation, which is a testament to the depth of the story. I have little hesitation calling Before the Storm the best game in the series and one of the best stories told in gaming. It is not perfect, but it is a fine example of how to properly use a video game as a mature storytelling medium without ending up as a laughable QTE circus like Heavy Rain. The game's biggest weakness is that it is a prequel, and you might be better off forgetting about Life is Strange proper during your time playing. It will still leave you with plenty to ponder over as it is easy to relate certain parts of the story and characters to your own life, leading to a unique perspective that may even evolve over time as you gain more life experience. If you are receptive to this type of storytelling, Before the Storm will stay with you for years after the final credits roll.
Read more
Similar games
View all
Data sources
The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.
Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates
| Steam data | 15 November 2024 21:12 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 17 December 2024 20:41 |
| Steam price | 23 December 2024 12:43 |
| Steam reviews | 22 December 2024 15:56 |
Online players
43
Developer
Deck Nine,
Feral Interactive (Linux)
Publisher
Feral interactive (Mac),
Feral Interactive (Linux),
Square Enix
Release
31 Aug 2017
Platforms