Life is Strange

I'm still not feeling this season all that much. It's not bad, don't get me wrong, but it hasn't grabbed me like season one did. I felt episode 4 was particularly by-the-numbers.

I don't know about you, but I liked Season 1 more because it had a tighter focus and greater sense of urgency. Season 2 feels like it jumps from place to place with little cohesion, and that's partly because the "main plot" takes a backseat to episodic shenanigans.

And because this cannot be stressed enough, the wait between episodes is hype-killing.

Episode One came out on September 27, 2018; Episode Two was released on January 24 2019, Episode Three on May 9, Episode Four on August 22 and Episode Five is scheduled for December 3. 15 months between the start and finish.

Compare this to Season 1; Episode One on January 29-February 3 2015, Episode Two March 25 2015, Episode 3 May 19 2015, Episode Four July 28 2015, Episode 5 October 20 2015. 9 months.

Edited by VeryMelon on Sep 6th 2019 at 10:40:43 AM

I've said it before, but the best part about Season 1 to me was the mystery, both figuring out why Max's powers are a thing and figuring out what happened to Rachel. This season has done practically none of that.

Bluntly, I think that there's very little in common between the two games aside from format.

I feel like I'd enjoy this game more if it was called Brothers or Road Trip.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 6th 2019 at 1:50:27 AM

The lack of a supporting cast is also a huge negative. In Life is Strange 1, we had the fantastic relationship to Chloe, but also side characters like Kate, Warren, the other Blackwell students, and Chloe's problematic family. Even the more villainous characters like Nathan and David were interesting so much in that I hated or at least disliked them. Max and Chloe had consistent relationships to other characters.

The characters in Life is Strange 2 all disappear right after we start learning about them. No one aside from Sean and Daniel are developed, and it is hard to form attachments to the story because of it.

I had a similar problem with The Walking Dead: Season Two. It'd dedicate an episode to developing a character, and then kill them at the end. And introduce new characters rather than develop the ones it had.

Edited by SilentColossus on Sep 6th 2019 at 2:30:22 AM

I do find that a valid criticism, but personally I don't mind the rotating side-characters. They all have their place, don't overstay their welcome, and progress the brother's character development. My issue is that the story feels like a Random Events Plot, with every episode having lose connections to what's supposed to be the actual narrative.

Edited by VeryMelon on Sep 6th 2019 at 3:56:30 AM

Yeah, I agree with all of the above. The new location and new characters every episode is a big part of what's killing it. Not only are the side characters not given time to develop, unlike in season one they're usually nothing more than what they appear to be. Characters in season one often appeared to be conforming to some stereotype or trope, but when you get to dig deeper you find out more about why they are the way they are, and that there's more to them than just the archetype. There's none of that in season two.

And I hadn't really realised this, but yeah, there's no mystery. Daniel's powers don't even seem to have much plot relevance.

Thread hop. There's a big sale for LiS 2 on Steam, but I'm seeing lots of mixed reviews. How does this compare to the first game?

I should also note that I still haven't finished Captain Spirit. I saw an abusive parent and kinda ran away.

I'm enjoying it but I'm also watching a let's play rather than playing it myself. That said, if your favorite thing is the mystery/plot season one is better. If you're in it for the characters I'd probably say they're about equal though season one has a more stable cast so if that matters to you it's probably better in that aspect as well.

Captain Spirit is a glorified demo for the updated engine Life is Strange 2 uses, and nothing from it is plot relevant. Including the abusive dad, whose abuse is never followed up on.

I haven't played LIS2 yet, I'm waiting for the last episode to come out. But I'd like to steer the attention to Before the Storm. Both LIS1 and BTS are awesome, and I have mixed feelings about which one is better.

On one hand, the Time Rewind Mechanic in LIS1 makes it a unique experience, while BTS's Backtalk mechanic is just a weak attempt to make something similar (incidentally, The Council has a similar game mechanic to Backtalk, but much more refined and better executed). I also find the Max-Chloe relationship more interesting than the Chloe-Rachel one. On the other hand, this whole Butterfly of Doom thing going on in LIS1 is a bit arbitrary, taking back from the believability of the story. In BTS the mystery part is taken more to the background and is in general more of a vague Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane. I also found the investigation of Rachel's screwed up family background more interesting than the serial murderer plot of LIS1.

Edited by petersohn on Oct 12th 2019 at 5:48:55 PM

LIS 1 will make you depressed. BTS will make you happy and a little paranoid.

LIS 1 was a full experience. BTS could have used another episode and had a weaker ending.

Neither game truly fulfills the sort of representation that LGBTQ fans want, but provide enough that people still covet it as one of the few LGBTQ-friendly games out there.

Chloe is more entertaining than Max. Max is more thoughtful and easier to relate to than Chloe.

BTS has better music and dialogue. LIS has better characters and a better premise.

The final choice in LIS pissed off people who expected choices to matter. BTS throws that out by making most of the choices irrelevant by default in lieu of the game being a prequel.

BTS was a labor of love to the original game - there's very little to dislike if you adored the first game's setting and style. LIS is an arguably bold game that took a risk in cutting back on gameplay to tell an engaging story.

I don't really think of one as being better than the other. LIS 1 is a bacon omelette. BTS is a Belgian waffle.

Edited by Soble on Oct 12th 2019 at 9:06:25 AM

Oh, I forgot about music. I liked the licensed songs of LIS1 better, but that's just my taste.

On a side note, I don't like calling LIS2 "Season 2", because it's a completely different game and different story. Yes, I know that's the official title, but still, it's dumb.

Life is Strange is better than Before the Storm. It's more interesting to play because Max's powers offer more creative puzzles, the Backtalk mechanic is laughable in both dialogue and implementation, BTS's characters are less interesting than the first game's, and the plot about Rachel's parents distracts from what was supposed to be a story of Rachel and Chloe's growing bond.

I think the plot is stronger in 1 but the character interactions are stronger in Before the Storm.

I can't find it in me to disagree with any of the above analyses regarding which is better, but I definitely enjoyed Life Is Strange more than Before The Storm.

Alternate Chloe's house has an access ramp.

That's some excellent attention to detail that they didn't have to do.

Well, while probably nobody would have noticed, this detail is actually required for consistence. I love these little details that tell you about what to come yet we don't notice them until we play it multiple times over.

Says a lot that I actually forgot Episode 5 was yet to come out.

Or maybe not, there's been a lot of great videogames, for me at least, this year, apparently it was enough for this to get completely overshadowed. Still, it's a not a great look.

Edited by artfulscruff on Nov 8th 2019 at 10:38:32 AM

Just completed the final episode of season 2. Choices under spoilers:

1. You decided to force the roadblock open and Daniel accepted. 25%
2. Overall, you taught Daniel to put himself and his brother first. 34%
3. You did the treasure hunt and found the hidden souvenir. 92%
4. You overall got closer to Karen. 83%
5. You didn't leave a note to Karen. 15%
6. You didn't say farewell to Arthur and Stanley. 24%
7. You didn't say farewell to Joan. 24%
8. You hugged Karen before leaving. 97%
9. You stayed out of the argument. 22%
10. You freed the Mexican couple. 60%
11. You didn't ask Daniel to free the vigilantes. 80%
12. You asked Daniel to take revenge on the vigilantes. 15%
13. You asked Daniel to kill the officers to escape the police station. 14%
14. Daniel wasn't told off about the scorpion. 28%
15. Daniel managed to set up Joan's sculpture like he wanted. 19%
16. Daniel wasn't concerned about officer Campbell. 34%
17. Daniel killed the officers when leaving the police station. 10%
18. Daniel was okay to kill the officers. 9%

The pacing of this season was awful, and I think the rotating side cast robbed us of the satisfaction of seeing them grow alongside the leads, but overall I grew to enjoy season 2 more than 1 for a few reasons.

The ending being the exact opposite of season 1 is the biggest factor. Season 1 made your choices and Max's character development irrelevant no matter which ending you picked. Here? The Diaz brothers and their development plays directly into the tone of your preferred ending. As you can tell from my choices, I wasn't going for a morally upstanding set of wolf brothers, and the last choice plus the ending left me extremely satisfied with how I played them to that point.

Speaking of the brothers, I loved how Daniel's powers were never more important than as a way to enable him to act and save Sean. We aren't questioning why he has them, nor are they connected to a vague supernatural threat that can't be adequately explained. It did wonders to the choices, because the powers were only used to show how the brothers developed as family and as characters. I imagine someone would get a very different episode 5 if they had Daniel suppress his powers all season long for example, because something like that would obviously cause the Diaz brothers to have a strained relationship. This in turn affects how choices play out. A Major difference from season 1's static outcomes.

biggest spoiler of the bunch believe it or not, but DONTNOD even managed to use a season 1 cameo in the best way possible. The cameo didn't just not overstay his welcome, they contributed to the plot in an organic way that also reflected how they developed as a character from their experiences in Arcadia Bay. It was the greatest surprised I had all year in gaming, and it will take a long time for that feeling to be topped.

The wait was too long, but this game restored my faith in DONTNOD.

Who is this cameo? I'm curious but not curious enough to check out several hours of a game that I don't really care for.

No offense, but I'm not sure why it matters to know in that case. All I can say is that you could have Youtubed it by the time you asked.

Edited by VeryMelon on Dec 4th 2019 at 5:00:45 AM

David, Chloe's stepdad, considerably mellowed out. It's also the last person I would have guessed would show up in a cameo, and definitely not in the way they did.

I liked this episode overall, and I've nothing to add to the previous analysis really. Having a 'rotating cast' did hurt it; seeing the development or different facets of secondary characters was one of season one's greatest strengths, and it felt very lacking here. It's a good point as well that in this season your choices affect the ending, through a character you don't have complete control over. In my ending, I forced the road block, though I knew it was likely the wrong thing to do, but Daniel didn't go along with it and stayed behind.

Regarding the cameo; how did that play out for those who chose the Arcadia Bae ending to season one? I chose Arcadia Bay, and David talked mostly about how Chloe's death affected him, how his life changed since then.

Edited by artfulscruff on Dec 7th 2019 at 2:10:39 PM