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‘Life is Strange 2: Episode 1’ crafts a strong beginning to new story

Disclaimer: This review is based on the PC version of the game and was played on a PC with Intel Core i5-8250U, 8 GBs of RAM.

As an avid fan of Life is Strange, I was surprisingly  nervous to pick up the sequel. I wanted to be enthralled and drawn in  the way I was with the first game, and was terrified that the sequel  would be a half-hearted attempt to recreate everything that the first  one had done so wonderfully. However, Life is Strange 2 delivers for fans of the series and welcomes them back into the Life is Strange universe without becoming a recreation of the first game.

Bringing Max and Chloe’s world back to life with new characters

Image from Steam

The first point that must be brought up with this game is that Life is Strange 2  is really a misnomer. This game is not a direct sequel relating to the  first game; it features an entirely new plotline following the story of  new characters Sean and Daniel, two brothers who are forced to flee  their home when their dad is shot and killed by a police officer who  dies in a sudden explosion directly following the shooting. The  developers attempt a tie-in by having the player reveal before starting  the game what choice they made at a pivotal moment in the first one;  however, whatever the player selects only briefly affects one cutscene.  Fans who get this game looking for a follow-up to Max and Chloe’s story  will be disappointed. Life is Strange 2 is more of a new story set in the same universe than a true sequel.

However, the developers do a wonderful job of making players feel as  if they have been dropped right back in to the ‘Life is Strange’  universe. The graphics and mellow indie soundtrack instantly inform the  player, “Oh, this is a DONTNOD game.” The cinematic way the game’s  visuals are created also reminds players that this is Chloe and Max’s  universe, and they are home once again.

For any Life is Strange fan, re-entering this universe feels  like coming home because Chloe and Max feel like home. The first game  crafted these characters so well that the player has come to trust and  believe in them to the point where they feel like close family or  friends. Needless to say, this means that Life is Strange 2 had  a lot to live up to on the grounds of character development. Seeing new  characters in the world of Max and Chloe was perhaps what made fans the  most anxious about this sequel. However, Life is Strange 2  surpasses expectations in this element and created amazing characters  that are easy to get attached to. Players get to experience realistic  family and friend relationships that make the tragic storyline even more  heart-wrenching. They also see both the positive and negative aspects  of these new characters, making them believably flawed and intriguing to  learn more about. These well-crafted characters are supported by a  strong cast of voice actors who really bring them to life and make them  feel “real” to the player.

Simple gameplay and controls allow for focus on story

Image from Steam

Like other DONTNOD games, Life is Strange 2 resembles an interactive movie in terms of actual gameplay mechanics, much like Until Dawn or Detroit: Become Human.  It is very easy to pick up and offers little challenge in control. The  use of the mouse was moderately altered from the original game in a way  that ultimately seemed unnecessary (scrolling through answer choices  rather than clicking and dragging to select them), but it was a minor  adjustment to make and did not distract too much from the gameplay or  following the story.

One problem with narrative-driven but mechanically simple games that Life is Strange 2  avoids is that the ease of gameplay often makes it difficult to build  suspense or give the player a large sense of responsibility. Suspense is  very well-built in the more tense moments of the game using the element  of time; the script is structured in a way that implies the player only  has a certain amount of time to solve a problem or they will ultimately  fail. Additionally, the choice-based narrative and symbolic reminders  of consequences that appear on-screen give players constant reminders of  the responsibility and control they have over how the game plays out.

Telling the story

Ultimately, DONTNOD games are all about telling a story that is  interesting, gets players emotionally invested, and is complex enough to  make room for different player choices and their consequences  throughout gameplay. Life is Strange 2 does just that. Sean and  Daniel’s story is heartbreaking and full of tough choices where the  player really has to think about the possible repercussions (unlike in Before the Storm, where most consequences were too obvious for the choices to be truly difficult).

Image from Steam

The main problem with the storyline is that it included several  moments of political commentary that were so obvious and emphasized that  they took the player out of the game’s universe. While subliminal or  subtle political commentary can add to a game, the explicitness and  overall amount of commentary made the player feel as if they are having  the writer’s opinions forced on them rather than experiencing the  political environment of the game’s world.

The plotline of the story moves at a good pace for the most part.  Most cutscenes and gameplay sequences are well-paced, and the game  offers enough interactable objects to allow for exploration without  including so much that a completionist would go crazy. The one part  where the pacing iss rather lacking, however, is when Sean and Daniel  first enter the woods. There is a lot of walking around in the woods  with no meaningful character interactions or particularly exciting  gameplay, and it starts to feel boring until things pick back up again  at the cave. It would have been nice to see some more interesting  dialogue in this section or at least some intriguing tasks for the  player to take on.





Images: Steam

Featured image: GameSpot

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