Ashly Burch’s Role in the Game
To the dismay of fans of the original Life Is Strange, Before the Storm will unfortunately not feature Ashly Burch in any sort of voice acting capacity. However, Burch was consulted during the writing of Chloe’s story and dialogue, so she has some input on the character’s motivations in the new series. Most of her mannerisms and lines were looked over by Burch, so fans can rest assured knowing that Chloe’s presentation in Before the Storm will remain faithful to how she was in the original series.
Chloe will be voiced by a new actress, but the good news is, she sounds almost exactly like Burch, so unsuspecting fans probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
It’s an Entirely New Story
The events of Before the Storm are set three whole years before the story of Life Is Strange. During this time period, Chloe is still dealing with the loss of her father, as well as Max’s move to Seattle. 16 year-old Chloe is in a rough spot in her life, but everything changes once she meets Rachel Amber.
Most fans already know what happens to Rachel by the end of Life Is Strange, but Before the Storm won’t be focusing on her disappearance or the events that lead up to her depressing fate. Instead, the game will be focusing on the relationship between Chloe and Rachel, giving us more insight into their dynamics and the kind of person Rachel really was – a genius idea, especially considering the fact that Rachel is such a mysterious enigma during the original series.
No Time Travel Powers
The main hook of Life Is Strange was the ability to rewind time with Max’s superpowers. However, that time rewind power won’t be available in Before the Storm at all, for the simple reason that it just won’t make any sense in terms of plot and story progression. Chloe will have to make snap decisions and live with the consequences. That kind of play style definitely suits her impulsive personality. From what I could tell, there weren’t any time restrictions when it came to choosing dialogue options either, unlike the Telltale games.
Even without time travel powers, Before the Storm will still have some supernatural and sci-fi elements. We don’t know all that much about it yet, but we can be sure that the game will certainly be strange (wink).
No Max Caulfield
As mentioned previously, Before the Storm is a completely new story, which means that protagonist Max Caulfield won’t be featured in the game this time around. However, that doesn’t mean that Max won’t be referenced throughout the story. Chloe and Max were best friends after all, and her sudden move to Seattle without letting Chloe know at all means that her absence will be keenly felt.
It’ll be interesting to see how Chloe deals with the sudden disappearance of her best friend, and how she slowly moves on from that after meeting Rachel.
New Developer, Three Episodes
Before the Storm won’t be developed by Dontnod Entertainment. Instead, it’ll be handled by Deck Nine Games, previously known as Idol Minds. The folks at Deck Nine are self-proclaimed fans of Life Is Strange, though, and they’ve stated that that they’re dedicated to crafting a new story that remains faithful to the established universe of the original series.
Unlike Life Is Strange, which had a story that spanned over five episodes, Before the Storm will only have three story episodes, bringing about nine hours of play time.
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm episode 1 is set to be released for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC on Aug. 31.
