Chloe's Backstory
Just finished watching the gameplay of Life is Strange Before the Storm which was made by Deck Nine, and in my opinion, it did a very good job of showing more of what happened with Chloe before the events of the first game Life is Strange that was produced by DontNod. I will acknowledge right now, that no game is perfect, it has its flaws, but for me, the writers did a very good job adding more layers to the story, and the people who live in Arcadia Bay, making the town feel even more real, more lived in.
The game Life is Strange: Before the Storm showed Chloe's pain, her grieving with her father who passed away, the fact that her mom moved on, having her stepdad David move in, and on top of that, her friend Max, moving away shortly after her father William passed away. Throughout the game, it shows Chloe's journal, writing letters to Max, at one point it also shows a few text messages between Chloe and Mx, it shows Max drifting apart from Chloe adding to the feeling of Chloe being abandoned. The three episodes of the game, show Chloe having flashback-like visions of her father, them talking briefly before it shows him getting killed in the car accident, symbolizing her grieving, and her not being able to let go of her father's death.
A Chance Encounter: The Night Chloe Found Rachel
One of the main events in the game Life is Strange: Before the Storm is Chloe meeting Rachel Amber, the night she went to the Firewalk concert, basically like a chance encounter, showing how they became very close within a few days of knowing each other. The day after the concert, Chloe bumps into Rachel again, after Rachel changes out of her theater costume, she asks Chloe to join her in ditching school, they leave school together, and head for the park after hitching a ride on a train. After they get to the park, they look through the binoculars, looking around the park, soon they see Rachel's dad with an unknown woman, starting a catalyst event for Rachel.
The next day after Chloe ditches school with Rachel, it shows them getting in trouble with the Principal, Chloe taking the fall for what happened, and as a result, the Principal expels Chloe from the school, afterwards, it shows Chloe's stepdad moving in permanently, Chloe decides to run off to the junkyard, while thinking and walking around she finds an old truck that she decides to fix, showing another thing that Chloe is good at and enjoys doing.
By the end of the 3rd episode, it shows how much Rachel affected Chloe, and how fast they bonded with each other, bringing to light why in Life is Strange when Rachel disappeared, why it affected Chloe so much, and why she went to such lengths to find Rachel again. It also shows the pain Rachel was going through with her own father, that she felt like he wasn't listening to her, or even being her father, plus not knowing who her birth mother was, added onto the pain that Rachel was feeling. When we see Rachel's bedroom, it shows her personality, her hopes and dreams, and what she's interested in, the fact that she wanted to travel, liked the stars, astrology, and was a high achiever with her grades, and liked acting in theater.
Going back to when Chloe got expelled, it shows how the Principal already doesn't see Chloe in a very good light, with rumors of drug use, her record of being tardy to class, and also Chloe's mother Joyce and her stepdad having a hard time trusting Chloe, with her smoking weed, and staying out late and not coming home a lot of the time. This shows how shortly after Chloe's father passed away, things just got worse and worse for Chloe, obviously her falling into depression and still grieving her father passing away, and with comments of people saying to her, "You have so much potential but.. you're wasting it", along with Max moving away and not staying in contact with Chloe, and grieving her father's death, it shows how she stopped even trying in Chemistry class, that used to be one of her favorite subjects. By the time she gets expelled, Chloe pretty much gives up on even caring about school altogether, leaving the only place Chloe can escape to is the junkyard, the junkyard that Chloe and Rachel found together, the day that they skipped school and went to the park. Before the Storm, did a very good job showing Chloe's backstory, and more of what shaped her into the person you meet in Life is Strange, which takes place after the events of Life is Strange: Before the Storm.
Realism of Life is Strange
game Life is Strange, in Before the Storm, and even in the flashback episode, Farewell, showing the last time Max and Chloe played together as children, not only her room but the house itself, it looks like it's been lived in like it holds real memories people would have from living in it throughout the years. I've played games and watched plenty of gameplays but very few games have affected me like Life is Strange has, regardless if you play it or watch the gameplay, especially if you keep coming back to it through the years, it feels more real each time you visit Arcadia Bay, Blackwell Academy, the junkyard, Chloe's house, and even the dorms that the students live in, slowly you start to feel more and more attached to the town and all the characters in it, soon it feels as though your walking through the halls of Blackwell Academy yourself, alongside Max and Chloe. That itself shows you that, Dontnod Entertainment created something very unique and special, that even after all these years later, people still love Life is Strange.
For me personally, the town of Arcadia Bay, Blackwell Academy, Two Whales Diner, and all the characters feel real, because I've watched the gameplay of the game a good few times, and the game originally came out around 2015, only a few years after I graduated high school, so it stuck with me and felt very personal to me. Who would have thought, that a nostalgic-themed game, would eventually become nostalgic itself.
