Played through Episode 1: Awoke yesterday of Life is Strange: Before The Storm, since I bought the Deluxe Edition yesterday. Loved it. Took me about 3.3 hours to get through it.
Max is not here in the Main Episodes (she will be in Bonus Episode "Farewell"), as this is a Prequel and deals w/ Chloe (lead character, who you play as) and Rachel Amber's friendship, 3 years before the original Life Is Strange (from DontNod). Deck Nine, at least w/ this episode, seems like they have done a really good job w/ the dialogue, writing, and maintaining consistently w/ the game-world. Seems to really tie-in extremely well w/ details here, as things that are done and said (which they do hint at and/or allude to) can feel impactful as can be b/c of what you know from the original LiS, if you played it. Sometimes, emotionally, this game can really hit you with a ton of bricks, with the way it does these things - and does them very well.
Since Chloe doesn't have Max's Time Manipulation powers, she has her own skill. Chloe can "Backtalk" in certain instances and cases - which is when you can use their words against them, often laced with tons of insults, to change the outcome & situation that you might've got yourself stuck in. It also seems that without the storm here and looming impending supernatural doom that could occur (at least not yet anyways), this feel much more grounded than DontNod's LiS.
The character development & story here is really good and some choices (which you can see after you finish an episode, seeing what choices you made and compare w/ percentage the world of players & those on your friends list made); some choices that seem throw-away choices and I am not sure if they will matter much later - were listed after the Episode ended. Hopefully, some of these choices: they do matter. Like the original LIS - you will run into situations of bullying, theft, criminal activities, drinking, and other moral things that you can decide to do something about (or not to anything about). But hopefully, in the long-run, they will matter more than the original LIS's decisions did; we'll have to wait and see.
This game ran just fine at 1440p at High settings. No problem at all, 60fps with on my desktop equipped w/ GTX 970. Art design seems consistent with the original LiS & its unique art design, often looking and feeling like it's doing its own cool & artistic take on high school teen-dramas. Game-world and character design might have lots of details here and there, but often it feels like object in the game-world (like posters, your journal, etc) have their own distinct artistic look.
Don't expect tough puzzles or anything, especially when compared to the original LiS. That one here feels even less of a factor here this time on puzzles, as it feels more focused on the decision-making and narrative - not that the original LiS was ever super-heavy on the puzzle elements often found in (older) adventure games.
But so far, Episode 1 was great. And I'm really looking forward to starting Episode 2 already. Hopefully, Ep 2 & 3 are as great as Ep 1. Only time will tell, I suppose.
mid-high end gaming cards until some sanity comes back into the pricing. For something that is a relatively disposable purchase (2-4 years on average) I don't see the justification in such major price increases outside of exploiting the mining craze and 'scarcity' (which itself is partially manufactured).
