Life is Strange: Before the Storm Bonus Episode: Farewell Xbox One X Review

The Life is Strange series has been a moving journey full of ups and downs. Relationships have grown, crumbled, built, and sometimes restored. In the final episode in Chloe and Max's tale Deck Nine beings their fanbase to the beginning, where everything that went wrong in Chloe Price's life. Life is Strange: Before the Storm Bonus Episode: Farewell gives the fans one final farewell before closing the book on Max and Chloe's long adventure.

Before the Storm is a prequel to the events of Life is Strange and Farewell takes place even further before Max left for Seattle. Here we see Chloe before her faith in the world was destroyed and Max happier than she's ever been. This isn't an episode full of difficult decisions or tough moments, instead, it's meant to showcase these characters what they were like before life happened.

It's strange seeing Max and Chloe in this way. Both of them are so happy and full of energy, goofing off and playing pretend. However, Max is moving and it's up to the player to decide how the events that follow will play out. While there are different dialogue options the end result is always the same. But that's okay, Farewell is meant to show Chloe and Max what they were children.

The stark contrast between their personalities is immediately apparent. Max smiles for most of the episode and Chloe is full of joy and wonder, comparing to their personas in both Before the Storm and Life is Strange added that more context of how much they changed. This is amplified with little details such as Chloe's grades, her desire to hold on to the past, and difficulty letting go.

You'll, of course, encounter simple puzzles and references to future events in Life of Strange. Blackwell Academy makes an appearance and new information regarding Chloe's mother is also made known.

Farewell doesn't attempt to establish new characters or create a lot of tension. It's meant for fans to have a starting point for when these best friends had their lives turned upside down. From the beginning, it's easy to predict how everything will end but it didn't devalue the emotional impact. It's a genuinely heartbreaking moment that made me generate more empathy for Chloe and better understand her.

Farewell is an outstanding tribute to fans of both Life is Strange and Before the Storm. It won't please everyone and doesn't offer the consequential decisions, powers, or backtalk ability found in the previous episodes. What it does show is what Chloe and Max were like before the events of both these games, happy children who lost a piece of themselves after one tragic day.

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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