Rachel's character was noted as an important theme in the original game and her portrayal in Before the Storm was generally received positively by critics and attracted fans.

Commentators noted and criticized the eventual reveal of her being kidnapped and subsequently murdered in the original Life Is Strange as an LGBT variation of the "women in refrigerators" trope.

Michel Koch, the co-director and art director, stated in a January 2016 interview with Shacknews: "We really wanted to push [Rachel Amber as] this mysterious character that you never see.

"[4] In a March 2018 interview with Game Informer, Deck Nine lead writer Zak Garriss stated that the development of Rachel was "one of the biggest challenges in Before the Storm as a whole.

[9][6][11] Although many within the town initially dismiss concern about her situation, believing that she ran away from her parents to Los Angeles,[9][12] it is gradually revealed through the investigation of Max Caulfield and Price that her disappearance was the result of malicious activity.

[13][14][15] The character is expanded upon in the prequel Life Is Strange: Before The Storm which is set three years before the original game, where she forms a relationship with Chloe, which is optionally romantic.

[21][4] Paste named her one of the best video game characters of 2017 for her portrayal in Before the Storm, calling it a strange but sentimental experience, and stating that "beautiful moments spent with her feel all the more precious, almost solemn, for the knowledge of what’s to come.

"[22] Scholar of English Renee Ann Drouin notes the devotion of numerous characters in Life is Strange to missing queer Rachel Amber.

When it becomes clear that she "has been kidnapped, murdered, and potentially raped", Rachel appears as "the subject of a queer trauma archive [an in-game collection of notes and artefacts], possesses a dual role of spectre and centrepiece.

"[25] Dramatics researcher Jonathan Partecke characterizes Rachel Amber as "confident, exciting, tantalizing", a "charismatic allrounder", and assigns her the type of fille fatale.

He calls her a "hyper ideal" of rebellious "independent young women, who "truely life their live"", which may be designed to instill a last-minute panic of "never having rebelled as "well"" in the viewer.

[26] The conclusion of Rachel's storyline in Life Is Strange, which it is revealed that she had been kidnapped and subsequently murdered, received negative response from critics and scholars; with Rock Paper Shotgun's Jessica Castello citing it as an LGBT variation of the "women in refrigerators" trope.