Luckily, like with the original game, the prequel has some more immediate mini-stakes to keep me invested as I go, like the play or the drug money or whatever; but you're right about the long-term stakes being a bit hard to grasp, which I remember being my problem with the first game around Episode 3. However, because this is a prequel, my current theory is that -- while the heroes and goal are obvious (two friends/lovers want to run away together) -- the obstacle is undefined. There are the seeds of obstacles being planted in the first and second episodes (the drug-lord, the mysterious woman, emotional turmoil, broken homes, etc.) but which obstacle(s) actually stops the heroes from running away is unknown. So you might be right about that being a flaw in the storytelling. I have a theory, though.



That's right, it's time for WHACKY TOM'S WEIRD UNFOUNDED THEORY CORNER (patent pending)!



Most stories can be boiled down to "a hero's struggle against an obstacle to reach a goal". In many stories that follow this formula, you could say that there are four big questions in the plot:

1. Who are the HEROES? Who are we rooting for?

2. What is their GOAL? What are they trying to accomplish?

3. What is the OBSTACLE? What is trying to stop them?

4. What is the RESULT? Do they succeed or fail?



Now, you can't answer all the questions at once, or else there's no uncertainty, and hence, no reason to continue with the story to find out what happens. Usually, 1-3 are answered by the halfway point, and 4 is left to the end. In "Before the Storm", however, the writer's know that the audience already knows the answer to 4, at least in broad terms. The result is failure. So instead of pretending to let that question go unanswered until the end, maybe the writers decided to count 1, 2, and 4 as answered, and leave 3 as the unanswered question. We know who the heroes are, and that they want to run away, and that they fail in the end, but we DON'T know what stops them yet, despite several possibilities being introduced so far. Anyway, maybe that's what the writers are going for, but hey, that's JUST A THEORY. A LAME THEORY! Thanks for watching!



The voice-acting is hit-or-miss. I think they do a good job for the most part, and when they don't, I like it when the lines sound a little off, because it adds to the charming flawed-ness that I love in the series. That's just me, of course. Also, the DnD and the play are two of the best things in videogames. Hands down. We can definitely agree on that.