gaming

It doesn’t seem like too long ago since Life is Strange Before the Storm was first announced. Now here I am writing up my thoughts on it’s heart-felt, bittersweet conclusion.

In this final episode we follow Chloe as she works to uncover the truth, and whereabouts, of Rachel Amber’s birth mother. As she does so, she manages to uncover some dark truths about certain characters. As we’ve learnt from previous events in this game, most things can’t simply come down to just good or bad; right or wrong. It tends to be dependant on a given character’s perspective.

I’m a little sad that this game has come to its end. However, we do still have the bonus episode with Max and Chloe to look forward to early in the new year.

Everyone has good and bad

Life Is Strange Before the Storm is a game that is great at showing how all people have both good and bad sides. All the characters here are as fully fleshed out as we have come to expect in Arcadia Bay. We’ve seen Chloe do bad things and let people get hurt – but for her love of Rachel. We’ve seen David and his militarist approach to parenting – but then in episode 3 we actually see him soften somewhat to meet Chloe on a middle ground.

But the characters I found perhaps most interesting in forms of their actions and moral compasses, are Rachel’s (birth) mother and father.

Rachel’s father goes through many different guises through Chloe’s eyes as the more she uncovers, the more she learns of his actions and motives – motives that are perhaps ill-advised at times. Meanwhile her Mother, who is initially painted as the bad guy, gets a chance to speak for herself later on. She is a woman who has made mistakes, sure, but who is now willing to give up everything for what she feels is right.

You will have a hard choice to make at the end of this episode, which will hinge on whether you want to do what’s right, or what’s good.

The world of Life Is Strange is well known now for its ability to show us fully fleshed-out characters. People who at first appear one way, but later – after the peeling back of layers – show us that there is so much more beneath. In good ways and bad. Before the Storm has continued this tradition with flying colours.

So much more than a prequel

Life Is Strange Before The Storm is just as good, sometimes even better in my opinion, than its predecessor. The focus in on Chloe and Rachel’s blossoming relationship has been an absolute joy to watch. I think now, after seeing their meeting and subsequent story together, that playing through the original game will be a fresh experience. Rachel is no longer just a face on a missing persons poster. Rachel is a complex young woman whose very presence seemed to bring out the best in people – not least of all Chloe Price.

What impressed me also about the developer’s approach to this story, is that it is not just a prequel that is heading towards what we know comes later. These three episodes are completely self-contained and serve their own narrative, which is done extremely well. I love how there is still enough time between the end of this game and the beginning of the original. Maybe we will see some more stories in the near future?

P.S. Stick around till after the credits

Make sure you stick around till the end of the credits on this one. Where in previous episodes there would have been the next trailer, we are instead shown something entirely different. Something that still makes my skin crawl now, just thinking about it.

Damn you Deck Nine!

What is a “Battle Royale” game?

Battle Royale refers to a particular style of game where every player is trying to kill all other players. It is a last person standing all-out war. Typically, all players will land on different places across a large island and hurry to find weapons and survive longer than all other players.

Battle Royale style games have become popular recently with H1Z1 and more recently Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds. And now we have Fortnite Battle Royale, which has enough of its own unique selling points to warrant it being accepted amongst the others.

What makes Fortnite Battle Royale stand out amongst similar games?

Firstly, pretty much the whole of the map is destructible, except for the ground you walk on. You start each game with a huge pickaxe, with which you are able to break things down to their base parts. For example, buildings and trees can be chopped away into blocks of wood, walls can be smashed into bricks, and storage containers can be broken into metal. But what to do with these materials? Well, that leads me on to my next unique point.

Anywhere across the island, you are able to use any building materials you gather to build your own structures. These structures can give you an edge in a firefight, shielding you from enemy fire. They can also help you get up to higher places, such as building lofts, where higher grade weapons could be hiding.

A welcome difference for me with this game was its ease of learning. All weapons that are scattered across the map are standalone, meaning you don’t need to faff around finding addons. The weapons increase in power as their colours go from weakest to strongest: Gray, Green, Blue, Purple and Orange. So if you spot a weapon that is a higher grade color to your own, grab it! Also there is no scavenging for different tiers of armour – you can find armour potions that will give extra protection once drank, but that’s about it.

Fortnite looks beautiful

Fortnite is such an attractive game to watch. It’s bubbly, colourful characters and surroundings act as a gorgeous veneer to hide what is still a brutal and intense game. When I first saw its visual style I couldn’t help but think that Disney had made a game.

All of the locations are gorgeous to walk around and explore too. The areas aren’t too big or too small, they feel just right with a comfortable distance between them. From the dark and gloomy ‘Wailing Woods’ to the open space ‘Loot Lake’ in the centre of the map, each area has it’s own feel to it. My personal favourite is the ‘Lonely Lodge’ on the east coast and its nearby watch tower – a great sniping position.

Everything down to the finer details impressed me in this game. Like even how the health points pop up on an enemy to display how much damage you’ve done. Or the animations when someone is killed and their loot bounces out of them. It’s just all so playful and fun.

Anatomy of each game

Once the game’s home screen is loaded up, it has been taking me an average of around thirty seconds to a minute to begin a match. Sometimes even quicker. After the few moments in the holding area while the server fills with players, you are immediately taken to the hot-air balloon powered battle bus over the island. This flying bus is everyone’s starting position as it flies over the battleground island from one side to the other. At any point whilst going over the island you are able to jump out and free-fall down to the surface.

Once you land on the surface you must first find a weapon to defend yourself with. Weapons come in a variety of classes, which are grouped together by colour. Not only weapons, but you can also collect armour potions, traps and medikits for self-healing. But that’s about it. One of the beauties of this game, as mentioned before, is it’s simplicity. It makes the whole concept of surviving really enjoyable.

After a few moments of landing on the ground, a white circle appears on the game map to designate the next safe zone. You then have three minutes to get within that zone as the deep purple, violent storm approaches. If you remain in the storm clouds they will quickly zap down your health and you will soon die. The deadly storm continues to push all surviving players into the same ever-decreasing safe zone until there is only one player left standing.

In Summary

Fortnite is a super fun and addictive game to play. Each match is pretty quick, lasting a maximum of around fifteen minutes (if you last until the final few). This was also a lot more simple for me to get up to speed with than other Battle Royale games.

This game makes for a very enjoyable and attractive experience of survival. Fortnite Battle Royale is no less intense than similar games of its kind but in my honest opinion, its the one that is the most fun.

Here’s some of my own recorded gameplay to give you an idea of how it looks and feels:

Going back to the coastal Pacific Northwestern town of Arcadia Bay has been a joy. So many familiar places and people made it welcoming once again. As to did the game’s visual style and character development.

One of the central points of Life is Strange was Max Caulfield’s new power – the ability to rewind time, allowing the player to pick an alternate choice to their original. I was interested to know how a new game, a prequel in the case of Before the Storm, would hold up without this huge key component.

As it turns out there is so much more to these games than just the ability to rewind time. In fact the more I played Before the Storm, the more I realised that – although it is key to the original’s plot – Max’s ability isn’t the most memorable thing about her and Chloe’s adventure. The most memorable things for me were the characters, their relationships and the world they all live in.

Chloe’s special ‘gift’

Although Chloe doesn’t have Max’s power, she does possess the gift of ‘Backtalk’.

Stay with me.

Backtalk is when you engage in a battle of words with another character, with each of your responses having to be chosen before the timer runs out. It feels great to win an argument in this game and a lot of Chloe’s comebacks had me genuinely laughing out loud.

More of a coming of age story

Where a lot of the plot of the original was a mystery / detective story, Before the Storm is more of a coming of age story. There is no mystery to solve here. You, as Chloe Price, are going about your business and quickly befriend Rachel Amber. Their relationship advances nicely given the relatively short time frame and number of locations they have. By the end of the episode I could feel the strength of their friendship quickly becoming love.

I also loved how we got to experience life as Chloe, seeing her subconscious and how she’s coping with the loss of her father. We also see the early stages of David, her mom’s new boyfriend, moving into her life. I have to say that I couldn’t dislike David at all since I knew how heroic he became in the climax of the first game. Saying that, her comebacks to him when engaging him in backtalk are golden.

Still a game of exploration

Before the Storm is just as fun to explore too, as with it’s predecessor. You should talk to everyone and walk everywhere, because you never know what cool little conversations you will have. Each scene also has areas where Chloe can tag with her black marker pen. These are rewarded with achievements too so make sure you find them all.

On the whole I really enjoyed this game. I didn’t miss Max or feel the game needed anything else like another magic power or anything like that. Before the Storm felt smaller in scale to Life is Strange, but the characters and situations still helped to flesh out the world of Arcadia bay much more in my mind.