Life is Strange: Before the Storm - Episode 3: Hell is Empty

 PlayStation 4
User Score
7.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 87 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 61 out of 87
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 87
  3. Negative: 16 out of 87

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. ElGuapo
    Dec 23, 2017
    6
    I was expecting better considering the first two episodes were pretty good, but I was rather disappointed and underwhelmed. The last 30 seconds of the episode gave me chills, however, and it may have been the best part, sadly.
  2. Mistermovies91
    Dec 21, 2017
    6
    Unfortunately, not the best way to finish the prequel. Despite the as usually great musics and colours, the anti climatic and full of holes and contradictions plot of this episode is for me the worst of all the eight episodes of Life is Strange published until now. I'm sorry because i really liked the first two episodes, not so much this one.
  3. Below_Average
    Dec 20, 2017
    6
    Tl;dr at end
    While I am impressed that they were able to tie up the storylines fairly well in this episode, it did leave a bit to be desired. This finale episode felt like watching a daytime soap opera, and not much more. Simply put, it was missing a real hook that I've come to expect from Life is Strange. It also felt as if the episode was rather rushed. While the opening cinematic was    Tl;dr at end
    While I am impressed that they were able to tie up the storylines fairly well in this episode, it did leave a bit to be desired. This finale episode felt like watching a daytime soap opera, and not much more. Simply put, it was missing a real hook that I've come to expect from Life is Strange. It also felt as if the episode was rather rushed. While the opening cinematic was an interesting change of pace, there were more and more graphical glitches and shortcuts taken later in the episode. Adding to that that the episode won't download correctly for most people on PS4, and I'm very surprised that they didn't take the extra 24 hours to try and add some polish, rather than releasing the episode a day early.

    The story in this episode is, as I mentioned earlier, essentially a mixture of a soap opera and teenage drama. If you're at all familiar with those genres, then most of the plot will be easily predictable. Thankfully, however, the angst has been dialed back, and there were even fewer cringe inducing lines, in fact there was only one. This is thanks to the fact that they seemed to give their characters some care, and there were few "this is obviously a 30 year old trying to imitate a teenager" lines. This episode did have one inexplicable plot point, however, and it is a real head scratcher for me. After 2 episodes as a very minor background character, they decided to give Elliot some time in the spotlight, and...well... Suffice it to say, it was an extremely odd choice. It could have been entirely cut from the episode, and nothing would have been lost. Which is usually a pretty good sign that the scene should be left in the writer's notebook. I would have much preferred that we spent more time resolving the main plot threads, rather than randomly introducing a new one for Elliot, and then chopping it off just as abruptly 20 minutes later. That 20 minutes should have been used for the climax/epilogue. For some reason, during what is potentially the most important endgame scene, there are no voices, just music. At first I thought it was a glitch, however, I now believe it was a design choice. I'm not sure if it was artistic, budgetary, or time constraint related; but for me, being unable to hear what's being said during the entire descending action and epilogue didn't sit well.

    One more thing that really didn't sit well with me was the audio mixing. This really surprised me, as this series has always had masterful audio work. However, there were several times in this episode in which I had to rely upon subtitles, as I simply couldn't hear the voice actors over the background noise or music. Speaking of voice acting, while Rachel's father thankfully gave a much better performance in this episode, her mother gave a performance that was flatter than any I've ever heard in a major release, which is a shame.

    The graphics are nothing to right home about. The intro to the episode was an interesting change with good camera work and solid visual cues and references to past episodes, with a great art style. But afterwords, things started going downhill. Namely, I experienced numerous small graphical glitches, mostly in the latter parts of the episode.

    I know in this review I seemed to do nothing but complain, but this episode didn't really live up to its potential, which is a shame. I do believe the studio gave its best, but it really needed some more time to polish and edit this episode.

    Ratings:
    Story: 6/10
    Graphics: 5/10
    Audio: 6/10
    Replay Value: 8/10
    Angstiness: 5/10
    Overall: 6.5/10    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

99
#99 Best PS4 Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 26 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 26
  3. Negative: 1 out of 26
  1. PlayGround.ru
    Jan 15, 2018
    40
    Before the Storm is just an example of badly written teen fiction. Dull story and unmotivated characters will definitely disappoint many fans of the original Life is Strange.
    Read full review
  2. DarkStation
    Jan 12, 2018
    60
    Life Is Strange: Before The Storm has its moments but on the whole, it just didn’t do enough to capture my attention the way Life Is Strange did. Though easily a tumultuous period in her life, Chloe wasn’t as interesting as she was in the original game. The whole back talk mechanic isn’t an adequate replacement for Max’s time travel ability because I feel the consequences weren’t nearly as substantial.
    Read full review
  3. We Got This Covered
    Jan 6, 2018
    70
    A fitting finale to this prequel miniseries that lays the foundations to Max and Chloe’s future escapades, and while it doesn’t quite hit the heady heights of the mainline series, it holds its own as a unique, self-contained teen-drama, with a gritty bite of realism thrown in for good measure.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »