Life is Strange 2 Review
- Originally written for a video review on YouTube, between December 17th, 2019 to January 3rd, 2020
- Light spoilers for Life is Strange 2: Episodes 1 to 3
I played Life is Strange (2015) in the summer of 2017. I fell in love with Life is Strange (2015); the characters, the world of Arcadia Bay, and the gameplay. The ability to rewind time and see both sides of most of the choices is pretty neat. Life is Strange: Before the Storm was a neat prequel game but suffers from being a prequel. The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit was a nice hold over until the full release of Life is Strange 2.
Leading up to the release of Life is Strange 2, it was taking a different approach. Moving away from the previous characters and introducing new ones in Sean and Daniel Diaz, latino-american brothers living in Seattle with their father. It was the logical move to switch to new characters to make this game new and interesting. Throughout these five episodes, you follow the two brothers on their journey to Mexico. The first episode is honestly a pretty strong start. It still had the Life is Strange vibe and did a good job introducing to the Diaz brothers and their objective for the whole season. There were definitely a lot more politics sprinkled throughout this episode and the season in general. The second episode was okay but did show signs of repetition that could be a problem and we’re only on episode two out of five. Also, Captain Spirit makes an appearance in episode two but he plays such a minor role. Playing The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit isn’t required to get the full picture. It honestly feels like a lost of potential but I guess there was only so much to be crammed into one episode. Episode three does something a little interesting where they time jump to the future which makes it fun for the player to sort of rediscover what’s going on in the game. They did a great job of setting up this new environment for the Diaz brothers and the side characters surrounding them. The episode sadly ends with them ditching the place to continue their journey to Mexico. The fourth and fifth episodes also do time jumps to keep things moving and somewhat interesting for the player.
The problem with Life is Strange 2’s plot is the constantly moving environment. Because the Diaz brothers need to get to Mexico from Seattle, they are constantly moving and never have a real chance to soak in their surroundings. Arcadia Bay was a living, breathing character in the Life is Strange (2015). Also, it doesn’t help the Diaz brothers don’t have a stronger connection than Chloe and Max did. I still like these brothers but Chloe and Max are just such an iconic duo and they’re still the face of the Life is Strange franchise even after Life is Strange 2’s release. In addition, the story suffers from predictability from the direction to begin with. The brothers are on the move, settle in a spot for a good portion of the episode, then move again. Even the time skips got a bit old and adds to the predictability aspect. The gaps between episode releases did get a bit long. Having to wait about three months for another episode to drop did get tiring. I forgot the Diaz brothers’ names at the start of episode three when I initially played it. While Life is Strange (2015)’s story relied on mental health, politics takes the forefront of Life is Strange 2. DONTNOD Entertainment actually do a good job portraying the racism and bigotry in America today. Some can say it’s a little extreme but I think it was just right. Overall, Life is Strange 2’s story just didn’t hit the mark for me. The Diaz brother constantly being on the move made it hard to form a connection with them. The predictability of the story moving forward, I was just never sold on this game’s plot. The premise and ideas were good, it was just sloppily executed.
Gameplay is very similar to Life is Strange (2015) but with no rewind power. The in-game engine is slightly improved; you got to preview it in The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit but it’s still through and through an interactive graphic adventure game. While there is no rewind power, you’ll instead be guiding Daniel in his use of the telekinetic powers. And this is where the game struggles as well. You’ll be playing as Sean throughout all five episodes and it’s up to you, the player, how you want to teach Daniel in using his powers. It’s just no where close to as interesting as rewinding time to see the other outcome of a given situation. The telekinetic powers are just super basic from a gameplay perspective. Even if this power was given to Sean or you controlled Daniel, this wouldn’t fix the gameplay all that much. Again, the rewind mechanic from Life is Strange (2015) just made gameplay so much more dynamic and interesting. The telekinetic powers don’t do much from a gameplay perspective and I think DONTNOD Entertainment knew this going in. They probably thought the brotherly connection and guiding a younger sibling in using his powers would carry Life is Strange 2’s story but it didn’t. It’s super hard for me to not compare this game to its predecessor because this is a sequel after all. The gameplay sadly falls flats and doesn’t do much to stand out from the rest of the games in this genre. I will say one positive aspect is the fact that your choices do contribute to one of the seven endings which is better than two endings in Life is Strange (2015). The gameplay is just meh.
In conclusion, Life is Strange 2 unfortunately failed to meet my expectations for a Life is Strange sequel. The story doesn’t hit the same marks due to the constant change in location and the Diaz brothers not being as compelling compared to Chloe and Max. The long gaps between episode releases didn’t help this games’ story at all. The gameplay is like most other graphic adventure games since the power is on Daniel, the non playable character. And the power itself doesn’t change up the gameplay all that much compared to rewinding time. The only real positive about Life is Strange 2 is the upgrade in the presentation department. The voices are properly synced up this time around and the game is still fairly nice to look at. Life is Strange 2 failed to meet my own expectations but it’s still a good game. The game functions and all but it doesn’t really hit the same notes compared to its predecessor. The story is coherent and somewhat easy to follow, the gameplay works all things considered, and the presentation isn’t too shabby either. If you’re like me, and want more of Max and Chloe, check out the Life is Strange comic book by Titan Comics. The first arc for the comic is about the ending where Max sacrifices Arcadia Bay to save Chloe. It’s a little story to show what would’ve happened if the game kept going in that direction. It’s a very good story and really faithful to the Life is Strange world and its characters.
Travis “tvsonic” Vuong
Business e-mail: travisvuong56@gmail.com
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