Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2018-01-09 12:19 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2018-01-09 12:19 pm
Entry tags:
Is There Nothing You Can Say?
I'm watching a playthrough of the Life Is Strange prequel Before the Storm, rather than playing it myself; my housemate is reluctant to support a game that went behind the union's back during the voice actors' strike, and, although I am an unprincipled cad myself, I do care enough about my friends' principles not to buy something they're denying themselves and wave it in their face. I'm towards the end of the second episode, just after The Tempest.
(WAIT. Are they performing The Tempest because the original game was about a literal tempest? That's awful. There's so much stupid symbolism in these games and I love it.)
Rather to my sorrow, Before the Storm is great. If it had the decency to be bad, I wouldn't care that I can't play it! It's got the same distinctive style as the original Life Is Strange, the same warm colours and nostalgic tone, with dialogue that manages to feel a little more natural than the WE'RE HIP COOL TEENS of the original series.
Before the Storm has more of what Life Is Strange does best, i.e. intense, slightly unhealthy relationships between psychologically damaged teenage girls. It's interesting that Rachel, in episode one, is leading Chloe into trouble in much the same way Chloe will lead Max into trouble a couple of years later; does Chloe end up taking on some of Rachel's characteristics, either consciously or unconsciously?
Here is a tiny clip from the first episode that absolutely delighted me. Chloe, you're hopeless.
I also really loved the bathroom graffiti scene from episode two. CHLOE JUST HAS A LOT OF FEELINGS AND NO HEALTHY WAY TO EXPRESS THEM. She's such a wreck of a person. I feel I don't often get to see female characters being absolute human disasters in the way Chloe Price is, if that makes sense. She's selfish and thoughtless and obnoxious, she's eternally furious with the world, she hasn't made a good decision in her life. I sort of love her.
I laughed aloud at the big weird love story of Chloe and Rachel hijacking the performance of The Tempest. And Mr Keaton's reaction! But the small moments are also great: listening to music on the train together, Rachel pretending to be Chloe's therapist. This is something Life Is Strange does very well: small, intimate, beautiful moments in time. Chloe and Max walking along the railroad tracks, hand in hand. Lying in bed the morning after their illicit swim, trying to put off the moment of getting up.
(Chloe often thinks of Max in Before the Storm. She feels so abandoned. It's a little heartbreaking, and is even more so in the light of the ending I got for the original Life Is Strange.)
It's strange that I'm not missing the time travel of the original game at all. I suppose Life Is Strange was never really about the time travel.
(WAIT. Are they performing The Tempest because the original game was about a literal tempest? That's awful. There's so much stupid symbolism in these games and I love it.)
Rather to my sorrow, Before the Storm is great. If it had the decency to be bad, I wouldn't care that I can't play it! It's got the same distinctive style as the original Life Is Strange, the same warm colours and nostalgic tone, with dialogue that manages to feel a little more natural than the WE'RE HIP COOL TEENS of the original series.
Before the Storm has more of what Life Is Strange does best, i.e. intense, slightly unhealthy relationships between psychologically damaged teenage girls. It's interesting that Rachel, in episode one, is leading Chloe into trouble in much the same way Chloe will lead Max into trouble a couple of years later; does Chloe end up taking on some of Rachel's characteristics, either consciously or unconsciously?
Here is a tiny clip from the first episode that absolutely delighted me. Chloe, you're hopeless.
I also really loved the bathroom graffiti scene from episode two. CHLOE JUST HAS A LOT OF FEELINGS AND NO HEALTHY WAY TO EXPRESS THEM. She's such a wreck of a person. I feel I don't often get to see female characters being absolute human disasters in the way Chloe Price is, if that makes sense. She's selfish and thoughtless and obnoxious, she's eternally furious with the world, she hasn't made a good decision in her life. I sort of love her.
I laughed aloud at the big weird love story of Chloe and Rachel hijacking the performance of The Tempest. And Mr Keaton's reaction! But the small moments are also great: listening to music on the train together, Rachel pretending to be Chloe's therapist. This is something Life Is Strange does very well: small, intimate, beautiful moments in time. Chloe and Max walking along the railroad tracks, hand in hand. Lying in bed the morning after their illicit swim, trying to put off the moment of getting up.
(Chloe often thinks of Max in Before the Storm. She feels so abandoned. It's a little heartbreaking, and is even more so in the light of the ending I got for the original Life Is Strange.)
It's strange that I'm not missing the time travel of the original game at all. I suppose Life Is Strange was never really about the time travel.