LIS Before The Storm - Chloe and David
Oh yes we have another gameplay video! Although Square Enix and Deck Nine have released quite a few videos to do with LIS Before The Storm but I'm only watching and doing write ups for a few of them because I don't want to know everything about the game and if there's anything I do want to know, I will think about it and theorize before going to any videos.
The latest gameplay video from the Life Is Strange youtube channel concerns Chloe and David if you haven't seen the video I recommend watching it before reading this blog -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8aCiiTG33k
The thing that immediately strikes you in the opening cutscene is that Chloe is very much in a 'crossover stage', it seems as though the game is set in a time when she is caught between two very different versions of herself, one being the Chloe we come to know in the original Life Is Strange and the other is a younger Chloe that we see in pictures and hear about but haven't got the chance to meet and really understand. We know that Chloe and Max's favourite theme of play as children was pirates and you can see a pirate hat on Chloe's mirror; however, as the cutscene unfolds we see Chloe light a cigarette. A very obvious contrast.
Before I watched the gameplay footage I was considering how new to Chloe's life David will be in the game, I assumed that the video will showcase when they first met but the actual game is set a lot later than I thought. Chloe makes remarks about how often David is staying over and some of his belongings are scattered about the house (more detail on that later) which makes me think that Joyce and David are quite far into their relationship.
Although Joyce has clearly started to move on after William, Chloe is struggling a bit more. She is very closed off from David and very defensive, this could be one of two things, either Chloe is trying to protect Joyce or she is still very raw emotionally after her father's death. Lots of items of William's are still there in the house and Chloe is turning this grief over William into anger and attitude towards David and her life in general.
There are several points in the video where the difference in Chloe's voice actress is blindingly clear, at 4:33 for example. However, overall I thought Rhianna Devries sounded very similar to Ashly Burch who of course played Chloe in the first game.
In the footage, we get a glimpse at Chloe's contact list which includes familiar names such as Max and Frank but also some new names. We receive a message from someone named Steph regarding a DVD and a boy called Eliot can be seen on the contact list. Are these perhaps Blackwell students from Chloe's time there?
Another interesting thing about Chloe's contact list is the picture beside Max's name. In the picture, Max looks a lot younger than Chloe and I think this maybe to remind the player of how long it has been since the two last saw each other as Chloe doesn't even have an up-to-date picture of Max.
Now onto the main focus of this blog which is Chloe and David's relationship. As I said earlier, the game is set further forwards than I anticipated so Chloe and David's relationship has already developed beyond the players control. It's clear that even early on in their relationship, there is friction. This friction is mainly caused by Chloe, yes David doesn't help but it is mainly Chloe. She is very indignant and tends to become annoyed at David's attempts to be friendly. Fortunately, the player is able to set out their feelings for David early on in the game when you have the choice whether or not to fistbump David.
As we know the LIS developers do like to provoke emotion and this is definitely intended when they show a shot of William's and David's toolboxes side by side, with David making a sutble comment about how his is superior.
The video ends on a cliffhanger with David wanting to talk to Chloe about something important, Chloe's reaction is priceless
Thanks For Reading
And
Goodbye
