Life is Strange: Before The Storm

£25.99/$29.99

Requirements macos 10.13.4 or later • 20.02GB Learn more Available from feralinteractive.com Mac App Store

It’s a risky strategy to release a prequel that chronicles the events leading up to the events in the original Life Is Strange game. Sometimes stories benefit from our own imaginations filling in the blanks and the back story, so to have them laid bare, casting aside all shadow of doubt, could end up clouding our good memories.

Before The Storm takes characters from the popular third-person teen drama and focuses on their lives a few years prior to Life Is Strange. The main character here is Chloe, truant-happy sidekick to the original game’s main protagonist, Mac Caulfield. While we became aware of Chloe’s hellraiser tendencies before, this game plays out the key encounters and decisions that shaped her. Remarkably, the format ditches the ability to rewind time, instead the player is encouraged to play on Chloe’s perceptual strengths and ability to shape social encounters in her favour. But the game benefits as a result, focusing more on the conversations instead of the puzzle solving. This may not sit right with fans of the original game but the result is a much more unique experience that’ll live longer in the memory than an off-the-bat sequel featuring more of the same.

With its intriguing cast of characters, what

Before The Storm quashes in intrigue it more than compensates for with its brave originality.