There are some aspects that still need balancing, and there are some extremely toxic players that might discourage you from having fun, but overall they've done a pretty good job so far.

Went in with expectations of minecraft and terraria, and while similar in concept, actually makes me want to play a lot more of it.

It's hard to judge this game as a standalone, because as a standalone game I really do think it is an amazing game. However, as it is part of the series, I was really disappointed in the cutscene simulator this game has become. Episode 1 uses it in decent and quite logical ways, a lot of them being optional(like the tabletop game) without making it feel like you're just looking at a cutscene. But episode 2 shows instantly that its not a game anymore, just a movie you can change the dialogue of. Which is fine on its own, but the world of life is strange is one you feel like you need to explore a little.
!!!!!(Spoilers for LiS1)!!!!! Like back in the diner as Max to get the keys from Frank you could decide how long you needed to walk around and talk to people to get your objective, but you could also get a lot of interesting information in general. When you had to collect items at the junkyard, you could explore Chloe's world a bit more if you wanted to.
!!!!!(Spoilers for this game ahead)!!!!!
Now here, even though it is hella fun to smash things in the junkyard, we know from Max's story that the junkyard meant a lot to both Rachel and Chloe. This story was supposed to show that, but I guess I missed out on that. I get that with altering time you can add a lot of puzzles to fix while being able to retry them when they fail, but it feels like they cared way more for story telling than actual gameplay. There were definitely amazing things, like the story on its own, the backtalking and some very unexpected events like Rachel getting stabbed. But that doesnt make up for the lazy decision to make nearly everything a cutscene. If you compare both games to each other, only the cutscenes, I am pretty sure Before the Storm has about 8 hours of cutscene of the average 9 hour playthrough. If they just added a bit more exploration or the options to skip texts of the texts you have already been through. I get that Max used her time altering abilities to do so, but why not let Chloe use snarky remarks to speed up the conversation? Why not use the junkyard more often as a place? Why make everything a cutscene? And most importantly: why make a choice based game if you clearly dont know what to do with the smaller choices? This game felt like it was rushed and published to keep a decent schedule, but I would have been willing to wait 1 more year for the final episode to make sure the cutscenes were less present. Before Chloe speaks with Sera, she arrives at the area she started this story in. An amazing time to explore what was once a partyplace, but now a burned down shack. But no, you can only comment on the couch Frank sat on and the random bong on the counter. The rest? Cutscenes.

It is a great game, but currently with quite some gamebreaking bugs.

There are minor balancing issues(some people say Jason is too strong, others say the counselors can escape too easily, the only balancing issue is mostly related on specific perks and versions of jason)

I suggest waiting untill after the next patch, but if you buy it before that, I wouldnt call it a waste.

Obviously for people without GMod, it is probably the best game with the most gamemodes ever.