![]() Life is Strange has always been about story-first play, but there’s a fine line between telling a compelling tale while someone plays, and just dictating the narrative to them. Sure, it’s obvious there are more thrilling moments to come, but this first episode feels very much in love with the idea of scene setting and exposition, rather than being an actual game. One poignant scene, for example, has the older brother teaching his sibling to skip stones on a lake - but there’s actually very little to actually do during these 4-5 hours besides watching the story unfold and making a few choices. Some moments of interactivity work really well: there are micro-scenes where the boys interact with each other. Yes, Life is Strange is meant to be slow-paced, but the sketching is mind-numbing. You observe your surroundings by pushing a button, then draw the scene by randomly wiggling the left analog stick on your controller. Sadly, the sketching mini-game is a wreck. You can find collectables, Sean can sketch a handful of environments… and that’s about it, beyond looking at stuff and interacting with it. Let’s just say LiS2 is far slower to start. ![]() The original game had Max snapping photos, exploring college, rewinding time, and experiencing flashbacks. As a consistent narrative that flows from start to finish, it’s very scrappy.Īnd there’s another thing that doesn’t count in Episode 1’s favor: it’s lack of playability. It just feels like this first episode is a collection of vignettes, each one designed to give the player a handful of choices and make a comment on society, family, or American culture. There’s too much space in between scenes where players are left to guess what might've happened, which erodes the believability of some key scenes later on. In fact, Episode 1’s biggest shortcoming is in the way it fails to really link its scenarios properly. ![]() The creators seemingly wanted to make a comment on rural America, and its attitudes towards immigration and race relations - an admirable goal, and one that’s written exceedingly near the mark here - but the way the game gets you there feels a little artificial. Whatever you choose, the outcome is the same. Accused of stealing, Sean is never given the option to prove his innocence quietly - you can either aggressively confront your accuser or guiltily attempt to avoid the confrontation. There’s one encounter at a gas station that feels excessive to the point of parody, and it’s here where LiS2’s system of choice falls apart most noticeably. The supporting cast are a varied bunch, with some more realistically written than others. At one point, for example, Daniel asks to eat some random berries from a bush - do you choose to let him go hungry, or do you deny him the food because it could upset his stomach? And what will then happen when the pair go to sleep, either hungry, sick, or satisfied? Life is Strange 2’s decisions are among the best in the series, with a nice blend of obviously big choices, right through to smaller ones that have either major or minor consequences later in the story. The real splits in opinion seem to stem from some genuinely knotty moral choices you’re forced to make. Judging by the stats at the end of my playthrough, it seems that the majority of people are trying to play the game in as narratively consistent a way as possible. In fact, it’s only when the creators are forced to give control of the story to players that the narrative shows any sign of cracking. Dontnod deserves massive credit for the raw human emotions on display here.
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