Life is Strange: Before the Storm does a pretty good job of calming our fears about the voice actor change
Life is Strange: Before the Storm follows on from a game that's very, very dear to your heart. And you know what? It looks like it's not going to be awful!
Not everything needs a sequel, prequel or tie-in transmedia, and Life is Strange, Dontnod's gorgeous, traumatising, adolescent time travel adventure felt like one of them.
Nevertheless its getting all of that, but in defiance of the traditions of video games as a medium it almost looks like that might be a good thing.
In the developer diary below, we hear from Ashly Burch, Chloe's original voice actor, who couldn't return lend her pipes this time due to union action but did sign on as a story consultant.
She's joined by Rhianna DeVries, who was the motion capture artist for Chloe in the first Life is Strange, and whose voice - well, just listen to her. She really does sound like a younger, less self-assured Chloe, doesn't she?
What really gets me about this developer diary is that it managed to convince me that the story of Chloe and Rachel might be able to live up to the picture painted by the original series. It's something about the way they all talk about imperfect people and get really cagey about the nature of Chloe and Rachel's relationship that makes me feel like yes, I do actually want to go back to Life is Strange.
Given how powerful and wonderful Life is Strange was I don't know why I doubted the team, but it's probably something to do with years of unnecessary prequels and sequels. Video games!
Life is Strange: Before the Storm - Episode 1 releases at the end of August for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. It's a three parter, although there's a bonus episode if you pick up the Deluxe Edition.
The prequel series is being developed in partnership with Deck Nine, and is a separate project from Life is Strange 2. We don't have many details on the sequel yet as it seems to be some way off, but we do know it will have a new setting and characters.