Not sure how I feel about Max coming back. I feel like Life is Strange works better as an anthology series. Before the Storm was a nice expansion of the first game, but now the series consists of 3 directly linked titles and only 2 standalone ones.
Not to mention the confusion of it now for new players getting into the series.
“Okay, so start with just Life is Strange, right?”
“Yeah”
“And then after that is Life is Strange 2?”
“No, then there’s Before the Storm”
“That’s the sequel?”
“No it’s a prequel, but it kinda spoils the main twist of the first game if you play it first, so you should do it second.”
“Okay got it, so then after that is Life is Strange 2?”
“Depends on if you want to play release order or if you want to stick with the Max and Chloe timeline.”
“Wait what’s that supposed to mean?”
“So Double Exposure is the actual sequel to Life is Strange.”
“Ok, so then what is Life is Strange 2?”
“Oh it’s completely unrelated. You can play it if you want but not if you’re just looking for the Max and Chloe story.”
“Well I kinda want to see what the whole series has in store, so I guess I’ll still give Life is Strange 2 a try.”
“Well, make sure you play Captain Spirit first.”
“What the hell is Captain Spirit?”
“It’s the prequel to Life is Strange 2. Well, not prequel actually…more like an interquel? It’s also not really its own game per se, more a standalone episode.”
“Does it spoil the twist of the game?”
“No it’s almost completely unrelated. And you should try True Colors in there sometime too. But make sure you play it after Before the Storm.”
“Oh what the fuck…”
I have been considering playing these… is there an actual recommendation on play order listed somewhere? I’m sure I could reverse engineer it from your tongue-in-cheek comment, but figured I’d ask since you seem familiar :)
If you wanna play them all, I’d just go release order:
- Life is Strange
- Life is Strange: Before the Storm
- Life is Strange 2
- Life is Strange: True Colors
- Life is Strange: Double Exposure
Life is Strange 2 and True Colors are essentially standalone titles, you can do either of those at any time. There are minor characters from LiS 1 in LiS 2, and there is 1 major character from Before the Storm in True Colors, but knowledge of those characters’ backstories in the other games isn’t critical to knowing what is going on in those respective titles at all.
If you want just the Max and Chloe story, you can play LiS 1 and then Before the Storm, and apparently Double Exposure once that comes out.
Thank you very much!
I’ve only ever played the original so I’m super excited about this. Although I’m also worried with the red flags surrounding this game. The $30 ‘early access’ and the ‘Collectors Edititon’ for $60 that doesn’t even include the game, which is sold separate.
