>>719192235
to me, it absolutely is, because it provides an opportunity to learn more about Chloe and what her life was like while Max was in Seattle. she keeps a journal that you can read in the pause menu like Max did, except all her journal entries are addressed to Max, because she misses her. so those are a great, feel-inducing read. Rachel is also a pretty cool character, she's just... different than Max and Chloe. if you don't play anything else though, you should definitely consider playing the bonus episode from Before the Storm, because it's just a day-in-the-life of Max and Chloe as kids before Max moved away, and it's very wholesome.
i have a couple small gripes with it, most of which come down to the fact they're making up a prequel for a story that wasn't written with a prequel in mind, but it's definitely worth owning just for the bonus episode. you even get to see a room in Chloe's house that's not in the first game, and i found that very neat as someone who likes having a 3D mental image of houses. lol
as a side note, i'd like to take just a moment to point out that the Remasters still have EGREGIOUS vignette baked into them, and poorly implemented AA. here's what they look like by default–
