I would strongly advise you to play them in order of release. You will get more out of discovering the town when playing the original and the 2nd game is given weight by the first. In fact, in some places it is assumed that you have played the first one in some of the dialog.
As much as I agree that the games are clearly intended to be played in release order, I would love to hear what it is like to play them in chronological order.
I am actually really looking forward to replaying them both few years from now, in chronological order.
But for new player, definitely play in release one.
The problem with that is:
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If you play them for the first time in chronological order then you are really depriving the player of the emotional weight impacting the later game. I do not think this latest game would come off so well if we did not already know Chloe (and Rachel by reputation) and understand her struggle. She would come off like an entitled, rebellious brat (which she is). I would hate for someone to be turned off of the series because they played them out of order.
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If you play them a 2nd time in chronological order then you still will remember the basics anyway in which case it would not being a true test.
So while it would be interesting to hear, I fear that I would not like the answer and LiS is one of my all-time favorite (if that is the right term) games.
As would I. Though I agree with Granath substantially seeing the shift from one character to another in a different direction would really be interesting, and i think players would have a really different take on the events in LiS 1. Especially since BtS is an evolution on some of the themes that were only slightly touched on in LiS 1.
If it’s wrong to have one set of your children raised by wolves just to see what happens, i don’t wanna be right. Somebody’s gotta take one from the team and play them in chronological order and report back!
Hahahahahaha! For science!
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But seriously, someone do this.
If you were thinking about trying out Life Is Strange, the whole franchise is on sale over the weekend. Season 1 is 75% off ($5) and the prequel Before the Storm is 30% off ($12).
@Nightgaunt is it true that Square Enix will rehire the original voice acting cast from LiS to redo BtS, or is that just a rumour??? Not that I’m dissing the voice acting in the game already, it is just that a bit more continuity is always welcomed.
I thought the next Life Is Strange was going to have totally new characters and story.
Ashly Burch will be portraying Chloe in the Farewell bonus episode.
We love Rhianna DeVries’ performance in Before the Storm and neither Deck Nine nor Square Enix have seriously considered rerecording with Ashly (or any other performers). Performance aside, anyone who thinks that’s even a possibility doesn’t understand how cinematic timing and facial animations are tied to vocal performance… Replacing the main character’s voice would mean practically reshooting every cinematic sequence in the game.
Thanks for the clarification.
Just fyi for those interested, but Square Enix is offering a “Limited Edition” vinyl edition of Before the Storm only from their webstore… but it looks like all but the PC version are sold out.
It’s definitely a better deal than the original LiS’s special edition, which i got basically for the soundtrack CD. OTOH this is considerably more expensive than the LIS Special Edition version.
There’s also a weird bobble-head preorder bonus of Rachel and Chloe, which seems a bit tone deaf tbh; i think that would work for, say, Overwatch characters, but feels a bit too … commercial, maybe, for this franchise and the themes and issues the game(s) address. Like seeing a bit too much behind the curtain.
Which reminds me, at some point i’ll have to replay it and figure out this mixtape mode thing.
Final farewell “bonus” episode release is next week, March 5:
Available now! Forgot it was today.
I saw StrangeRebelGaming was playing it live today, it popped up on my phone.
I dunno… i have pretty mixed feelings about Before the Storm, emotionally speaking anyway. I expect a lot of people do, tbh. I’m not sure if i’m ready to clip some more heart strings. I’m pretty sure LiS knocked me into middle age, i’m afraid of how much older i’ll get if i play Farewell.
I’m looking forward to checking this out tonight. I have a number of issues with BtS (though unlike many people, I really liked the ending and stinger) but I enjoyed it enough that I can’t resist the opportunity to spend just a bit more time with the characters.
Yeah, plus it’s looking like season two will have all-new characters, so it will be nice to see one last go-around with Max and Chloe.
Liking something intellectually and emotionally can be different things :). I need to be in the right place and i’m super busy right now, and BtS’s whole “let’s pile more emotional baggage on” was hard to deal with for me in retrospect…
Two things: 1) Before the Storm might have my favorite menu music in a game (well, maybe tied with Wolfenstein: The New Order), and 2) oh man, I missed these characters together. I got a bit teary-eyed just in the first scene.
I’m glad you like the menu music, anonymgeist. If you’re curious, I wrote a bit about how the soundtrack for BTS came together: