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June 15, 2017 12:37 PM   Subscribe

Life is Strange: Before the Storm: Life sucks when you’re a teenager, man [Ars Technica] “Following the surprise success of 2015's Life Is Strange—Dontnod's episodic tale of teenage rebellion—we expected publisher Square Enix to return with a sequel. Less expected, though, was the E3 2017 reveal of Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, a prequel that tells the story of series star Chloe Price during her formative years. Dontnod isn't behind the prequel, with development duties instead handed off to Deck Nine Games. While the cynics out there may call this a cash-in, Before the Storm has its moments—at least if the E3 demo is anything to go by. The biggest change—aside from a range of new locations alongside familiar ones—is that Before the Storm ditches the time travel mechanic of the original and lays the teenage melodrama on thick. The strength of Life Is Strange was always in its writing, where it masterfully touched on complex topics like addiction, cyberbullying, and suicide. Before the Storm deals with its own difficult themes.”

• Ashly Burch 'Heartbroken' She Won't Play Chloe In Life Is Strange Prequel [Kotaku]
“As the longest strike in Screen Actors Guild history chugs on [Previously], video game voice actors are making painful career sacrifices to show solidarity with their union. 234 days into the strike, after Microsoft announced Life Is Strange: Before The Storm, fans immediately sussed out that award-winning voice actress and SAG-AFTRA member Ashly Burch will not reprise her original role as the rebellious teen Chloe. Shortly after Microsoft’s E3 presentation, Burch, who has voiced Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn and Tiny Tina in Borderlands 2, said that Square Enix had decided to go with a non-union actress. “I’m pretty heartbroken,” Burch told Kotaku. “It feels sort of like you were forced to put your kid up for adoption.” Burch’s performance as Chloe in the original Life Is Strange earned her the “Best Gaming Performance” award at 2015’s Golden Joystick Awards. She will stay on the prequel project as a writer and consultant.”
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm got a lot of help from exiting voice actor Ashly Burch [Polygon]
“Deck Nine then hired Burch on as story consultant, a role she briefly spoke to on Twitter earlier this week. She’s one of several women helping out on the writing side of Before the Storm, but Burch has a special relationship to Chloe. She voiced her for all five episodes of the original Life is Strange, and her performance is a big reason why fans connected so much with Chloe. Burch is so incredibly tied up in Chloe that Deck Nine briefly considered putting Before the Storm on the backburner once they heard the actress couldn’t perform the role. “We from a high level contemplated all sorts of paths to advocate the complexity of the [SAG-AFTRA strike] story, including not even making Before the Storm,” Garris explained. But Deck Nine felt that telling the origin story of Chloe and Rachel Amber, a close friend of hers who plays a crucial off-screen role in the original Life is Strange, was too enticing to pass up. Burch felt the same way. Garris said that Burch’s involvement includes giving notes on “everything from dialogue to high-level story ideation.” The hope is that the actress can help provide consistency — and authenticity — to the younger version of Chloe that Before the Storm is focused around.”
• Chloe Makes a Great Star in Life is Strange: Before the Storm [Game Revolution]
“This time, it's a prologue starring Chloe Price, a secondary character in the first game. Her first on-screen presence was surprising, showing that once upon a time she wasn't necessarily a hardcore punk-rocker who wouldn't go anywhere without a beanie and studded bracelets. While her personality and appearance are much more modest than in the original game, we do see her transition, occasionally smoking cigarettes and rocking out at a concert. In this prologue, Rachel Amber is once again a prominent figure in the story, but this time you aren't looking for her. Rather, you're able to see what her relationship with Chloe was like before the cataclysmic events of the previous release. This relationship is tumultuous. At one point, we saw Chloe freak out on Rachel before admitting that her temper has been a source of frustration. She's clearly aware of her shortcomings, but the interactions we saw indicate that she can't help herself.”
posted by Fizz (19 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
Square-Enix hired a scab voice actor for this game. Don't buy it.
posted by Space Coyote at 12:40 PM on June 15, 2017 [14 favorites]


Ew, yeah, I loved Life Is Strange but I will not be buying this. I can't support strike-breaking.
posted by Automocar at 12:58 PM on June 15, 2017 [6 favorites]


The strike started in October(?) 2016. Given that there's a delay between when VAs record their work and when the final game is released to audiences, similar to animated films, you may be looking at a long boycott period starting soonish.

Is there a list anywhere of which projects/studios have reached agreements with the union, vs which are using scabs?
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 1:03 PM on June 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


I'm not a fan of the strike-breaking but Ashly Burch is still involved with the game. Though, how much and how accurate that is, I'm not too sure. Just going by the articles I've read that indicate she's still a part of the creative process and working with the team behind the game.
posted by Fizz at 1:04 PM on June 15, 2017


What really sucks is that there aren't nearly enough games like this. To be honest, I can't actually bring myself to play the first game because I'm worried it'll be too upsetting -- my girlfriend was pretty upset when she played it through, and I'm way more sensitive than she is. But that's a great thing! It was a powerful experience, and everyone I've ever talked to about it has said the same thing.

The rare opportunity for a good game like this, and they're union busters. Lousy.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 1:09 PM on June 15, 2017


I hope this is a small, contained story that doesn't feel the need to fill in all the "gaps" in the storyline.

I think given what happens in the first game, it would be neat if the three episodes were actually three different possibilities of Chloe's life post that one morning breakfast.
posted by selfnoise at 1:13 PM on June 15, 2017


Just going by the articles I've read that indicate she's still a part of the creative process and working with the team behind the game.

She has a writing credit, IIRC.

BTW, the SAG-AFTRA site has an FAQ that lists all the companies covered by the strike. Companies not mentioned and games that started production before February 2015 are not covered.

As a consumer who wants to boycott in solidarity with the the strikers, it's unfortunate that finding production start dates for most games is not so easy. I think most of the bigger titles coming out this year will have started production before the cutoff date for the strike? So the most reliable way to hear about games that hired scabs, unfortunately, is through VAs like Burch who got replaced.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:52 PM on June 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


Yeah, the relationship between Chloe and Max was pretty much key for me. A different Chloe voice, a different dev team, no Max... Hmm.
posted by running order squabble fest at 2:44 PM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


Like, it could be good, but would it be Life is Strange?
posted by running order squabble fest at 2:47 PM on June 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


Yeah, I can't support hiring a scab, which is unfortunate because it's otherwise a product I'd buy asap.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 2:54 PM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]


Yeah, the relationship between Chloe and Max was pretty much key for me.

Agreed. This time around we get to see/play out the relationship between Chloe and Rachel. Which is definitely a space that would be fun to explore.

But as has been mentioned. The voice acting strike, the fact that it's Deck Nine instead of Dontnot, it's going to be a fundamentally different game.
posted by Fizz at 3:19 PM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


If I understand correctly, the truly shittiest thing is that Square Enix isn't even one of the struck studios* involved in the labor dispute; SE just decided to use a non-union actress anyway. Why??

*"WHAT WORK IS STRUCK? All video games, including work such as DLC and trailers under the Interactive Contract, that went into production after February 17, 2015 for the following employers: Activision Publishing Inc.; Blindlight, LLC; Corps of Discovery Films; Disney Character Voices, Inc.; Electronic Arts Productions, Inc.; Formosa Interactive, LLC; Insomniac Games, Inc.; Interactive Associates, Inc.; Take 2 Interactive Software; VoiceWorks Productions, Inc.; and WB Games, Inc." List of struck game titles here.
posted by nicebookrack at 5:08 PM on June 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


Several of the companies on the list on not game developers/publishers but production services companies. So S-E most likely contracts with them for voice work rather than retaining their own audio engineers and recording facilities and whatnot.
posted by tobascodagama at 5:27 PM on June 15, 2017


List of struck game titles here.

Holy shit there is a lot of extruded marketing tie-in crap aimed at children.

I mean I guess I knew that but it seems so much more obvious in a graphics-free list.
posted by asperity at 7:06 PM on June 15, 2017


I'm surprised at the people advocating that we shouldn't buy the title because the developer decided to use non-union workers. Toyota and Honda choose to use non-union autoworkers which get paid significantly less than the UAW union workers employed by Ford and GM, but we don't see people advocating that we should boycott Toyota and Honda and only Ford and GM...
posted by xdvesper at 7:50 PM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


The point is that there’s an active strike in progress xdevsper. People who want to support the strike can't in good conscience buy this game.

On the game itself: I'd love this to be good, but I’m not holding out a great deal of hope. The LiS characters feel mined out to me.
posted by pharm at 4:30 AM on June 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm surprised at the people advocating that we shouldn't buy the title because the developer decided to use non-union workers. Toyota and Honda choose to use non-union autoworkers which get paid significantly less than the UAW union workers employed by Ford and GM, but we don't see people advocating that we should boycott Toyota and Honda and only Ford and GM...

If workers at Toyota voted to form a union and Toyota fired them all and hired scabs, you're damn right I'd be boycotting Toyota. As it stands, Toyota has never been unionized, to my knowledge.
posted by Automocar at 6:28 AM on June 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


Wow. That's really disappointing. Ashly IS Chloe, as far as I'm concerned. For a game so closely tied to human relationships and emotions, it'll really break the connection to have someone else voice that character. Not to mention the shittiness of hiring a scab.
posted by rachaelfaith at 6:55 AM on June 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


Since this post is still open: Innuendo Studios (Ian Danskin) on Life Is Strange
posted by pharm at 2:48 AM on July 9, 2017 [1 favorite]


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