Life is Strange 2

[taxalot]

I just finished Episode 4. I think it's safe to say that this season is a complete disaster.

I'm not even talking about the politics of the game. I do not mind them. But, they really missed the boat on a few occasions :
-Moving from place to place each episode is an improvement ? Not really, they are the surest way to make sure that your decisions do not matter. And they really don't, nothing you do in this game matters since you start each episode in a new place, with new characters.
-The characters are unlikable. I used to appreciate Daniel and the two kids had nice interactions and brother/brother chemistry during the first episode. Everything is gone after that. Episode 2 is about caring for another kid. Episode 3, Sean is more interested about having sex. Episode 4 Daniel is almost non -existent.
-The politics are heavy handed. Yeah, the Diaz brothers are victims of racism, sure but we have in each episode : 1. a cop shooting in ep1, ep 2. Abusive father with an alcohol problem, ep 3. Bitnicks dealing with illegal marijuana that wou
ld be so much better if it was legal, ep 4. THE CHURCH ARE MANIPULATIVE SHITS, ep 5. THE WALL ! Season 3 is definitely about global warming now. I don't mind the subject matters, I don't even mind the biased treatment, but there is not much subtlety and a lot of the writing in this game, political or not, feels like it's enjoying treating you like shit just to make a point.
- LiS1 had some gameplay, some puzzles : there is none of that, even the supernatural elements are under exploited.
-And possibly the worse offence : the entire game feels like Sean telling everyone that life is shit. He talks to someone : life is shit. Oh, a random, chance encounter : they beat you up. Here's a dog. You like him ? Look, it's dead now. Refuse to shatter's this kid dreams ? Let's have a car run over him. Jesus fucking christ. No. No. They should rename this season "Life sucks".

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Episode 3, Sean is more interested about having sex.

Tell us more about that part.

 

[taxalot]

Episode 3, Sean is more interested about having sex.

Tell us more about that part.

Okay.

Spoiler

You end up in a beatnik camp. Eventually, some girl (or SOME GUY IF YOU WANT LOL) tries hitting on you. You can end up taking a bath naked in a lake with her. The "conversation" ends in her tent.

When you wake up, you find out your little brother might be in trouble and it's all "OH NO, I WAS TOO BUSY FUCKING AND NOW MY BRO IS GONNA GET KILLED."

Very subtle handling of emotion based on player choice. And if you want to know, if you refused to fuck, the same shit happens.

 

[WallaceChambers]

Life is strange 2 is one of the worst games I've ever played in my life/

I loved that first game, too.

 

[Alpan]

I just finished Episode 4. I think it's safe to say that this season is a complete disaster.

I agree generally, especially about the lack of puzzling, and the heavy-handed politics which was just absurd in Episode 4. Where I disagree is the choices not mattering. While the plot always moves in the same direction (and by now this is an expectation among AA-tier choices-matter adventure games like LIS and The Council) -

Spoiler

in Episode 3 side characters can get killed, and in Episode 4 either main character can pretty much become a murderer depending on how you've handled Daniel up to that point

- so I'd say that's actually quite significant from a character development standpoint. I don't think it'll matter by the time the game ends, but the game does a fair job at translating your attitudes towards your brother into consequence.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I really liked the first one, but from what I read, it's better to avoid this game to not spoil the IP for me. No wonder that DontNod's stock price is below their offering price and retreated to 1/3 of its height within a couple of months (it has gained a bit since then).

 

[Alpan]

I really liked the first one, but from what I read, it's better to avoid this game to not spoil the IP for me. No wonder that DontNod's stock price is below their offering price and retreated to 1/3 of its height within a couple of months (it has gained a bit since then).

I caught your reply as it was originally posted. Most indie/AA sequels sell worse than the originals, so you would have had good reason to short the stock regardless of how the sequel turned out critically.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I caught your reply as it was originally posted. Most indie/AA sequels sell worse than the originals, so you would have had good reason to short the stock regardless of how the sequel turned out critically.

Yes, VD once posted a good explanation for that phenomenon and why they didn't do AoD 2. DOS 2 seems to be an exception.

 

[WallaceChambers]

Life Is Strange 2 is failing on the basics. Scriptwriting 101 stuff. There's no cohesion to the plot, every episode an almost entirely new cast is introduced who are totally irrelevant within 2 hours. So you have super rushed character writing but a slow moving overall plot. The fact that there's a time skip between every single episode exacerbates cohesion problems. Sean & Daniel simply aren't strong enough to carry the entire season as the only consistent characters. Daniel is a cliche walking plot device and Sean has a few decent moments but is overall a wooden protagonist. His voice actor has no range either, which doesn't help.

The defenders of this season (which only exist among LiS devotees in insular communities on reddit,discord,etc -- and even then it's split) claim the narrative issues are inevitable because it's an "on the road story." But that's basically a load of crap, The Walking Dead was "on the road" as well and didn't have these problems. It also had the "protect small child against all odds" thing except it didn't suck.

That's not even getting into the heavy handed political shit or gameplay issues. Honestly at this point I'm only playing for the cringe so I say bring on the politics but that's just me. Gameplay wise Life Is Strange 2 is a total downgrade over the first game. There were like 5~10 puzzles per episode in the first game. They were light but still enjoyable. LiS 2 has maybe had 3~4 puzzles over the entire game and they all suck save for one. Finding the right way to steal the car, then using Daniel's powers to get into Merrill's office undetected was cool. You can fuck it up pretty easily if you're not careful.

DontNod should put the LiS franchise to bed for at least 5 years or so after this. Hopefully Twin Mirror is good.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I liked the first one.

Spoiler

The part where you go to the timeline where chloe is bedridden was probably one of the bigger feels I've ever felt in a video game.

The game got very weird near the end, but in a good way.
Shame they seem to have destroyed everything that made it good.

 

[Ivan]

I liked the first one.

Spoiler

The part where you go to the timeline where chloe is bedridden was probably one of the bigger feels I've ever felt in a video game.

The game got very weird near the end, but in a good way.
Shame they seem to have destroyed everything that made it good.

I laughed so hard @ that reveal. Just me?

 

[Mortmal]

Finished episode 4 too, it was bad, almost fell asleep during it. This is directed by parisians bobos with very narrow political ideas, yet i see even taxalot dont like it...I sure did not either, who is it aimed to then ?
Episode 1 was poorly handled, the shootout was ridiculous, they should how stressfull that cop life was before the event , give him a reason to snap. The mexican father wasn't looking threatening at al ! Maybe as things were flying around , hit the cop with a stone which then accidentally trigger the shooting. Really ridiculous scene.. Then you encounter the villain bearded man who's a caricature of a trump supporter.
Episode 2 with the grandparents was ok with no bullshit and too big inconsistencies, 3 was ok and somewhat educationnal, i certainly wont work in a weed farm ever, trimming plant is far too repetitive. 4 was slow ,dull, back to caricatures again as if they learned nothing from their first mistakes, only the first part int he hospital room was ok .Oh and daniel turn to be some unlikable little piece of shit seriously.End scene of 4 is ridiculous again.
Is it time to short dontnod stock again? I dont know but i certainly wont invest into it all of it seriously reminds me of telltale demise.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Is it time to short dontnod stock again? I dont know but i certainly wont invest into it all of it seriously reminds me of telltale demise.

No idea how their games are selling atm but I speculated that before they go under they'll probably try to get Max & Chloe back in an act of desperation because the characters were so popular.

 

[Mortmal]

Yes indeed, it was completely moronic to not follow up with max and chloé , they could even add the two brothers with them. After it was all a road trip, chloé and max could have been on the run too and meet them, join with finn and Cassidy , have a lake scene too(think of your bald 40+ years old bearded white man public too , you cunts), they could still have told the tale of racism and poor beaten mexicans they are so enamored of. Life is strange had the feat to appeal to women as well, a large untapped market and they just threw it all by the windows.
Really sad they still have the artists and coders to do a good game, technically it's still good, they just need some better storyteller and someone with better business sense.

 

[HanoverF]

It'd be weird to go on the run with a cadaver.

 

[Mortmal]

Who in their right mind would sacrifice chloé at the end to save arcadia bay ? After all that shit and 5 episodes.. No one.

 

[Tehdagah]

I only cared about the first game for the lesbian stuff. Never played it, just watched videos on Youtube.

 

[taxalot]

I have finished Episode 5, the last in the series.

What's left to say that has not already been said ?

The only decent episode this season was Episode 1. Great set up. Great premise, decent writing... and then it goes all downhill, even production wise.
Episode 5 still remains shallow as far as politics are concerned. The game aligns with my views, but I like to think that those have a little more depth than what is presented here. Complicity between the Diaz brothers is a little more present there, but it feels forced. Gameplay is absent. World interactions are reduced to almost nothing of consequence.

Episode 5 is just talking to a few people and a short action scene in which you can have your brother kill someone if you don't think quick enough or just don't bother. But then comes the final choice...

...and well, without spoiling it, they managed to make that final choice even worse than the Life is Strange 1. Something unpredictable happened in my playthrough when I took the final decision. When that unpredictable event happens, it's fair to say that it should be possible to rethink your decision.

And of course the game offers no such things, and you can't help but feel it's pointing at you saying "ha ha ! choices and consequences, sucker !". Yeah, no. That's not how it works. It's not the first time you pulled this trick either. Episode 2 had a kid being ran over by a car because I didn't feel like telling him he was not an actual super hero. What the hell, DontNod ?

Life is Strange 2 started well. Mexican family involved in cop shooting, victims of racism ? That can work as a storyline. But you need good writers and your story needs to have things more in it than a list of parisians beliefs of what is wrong in USA. The Diaz brothers travel from a caricatural situation to the other without much in terms of consequence and analysis.

Where's the complicity between Max and Chloe from season 1 ? Where's the mystery ? The build up to a strong climax ? The game is lacking most of what made LiS1 great, while not offering much new in terms of other qualities.

 

[WallaceChambers]

I'd say it didn't even start off well because Sean literally has no proper motivation to run. They try to sweep it under the rug by throwing several possible motivations throughout the series but none of them feel legitimate. The cop died in an unexplainable energy blast that ruined half a suburban block. There's literally dash cam footage of him flying through the air. That would have never been blamed on two underage kids. It's even funnier now because at the end of episode 5 it's flat out said that if they didn't run they would have just been put in their grandparents' custody. So in the most legitimate sense their entire journey was pointless.

Episode 5 sucked but it sucked in such an expected fashion that it's barely worth talking about. It's about 2 and a half hours, the first of which is complete filler. Yet another cast of forgettable randos who are gone just as soon as their introduced. Nothing to make you invested in any of them. With a light dusting of political cringe for good measure. This game really expects me to believe that a gay couple was so poorly treated in the San Francisco Bay Area that they needed to flee to a remote desert commune in Arizona? "Things change... but being gay is still dangerous. The end." You literally lived in the most stereotypically gay friendly city in the entire country. They could have picked anywhere else and made it more believable. This shit is just brain dead.

All the choices suck but that's a matter of course when you're not invested in the characters one iota. Sure the depth of the choice & consequence system is technically greater in Life Is Strange 2. But it never amounts to anything that packs a punch like having Kate live or die. You basically just get different flavors of Daniel being a bratty shithead. So yeah, it's keeping track of more choices and there's a morality system undergirding certain outcomes but in service of what? Two crap characters IDGAF about.

The ending pretty much just happens. There's almost no point in playing the final episode of this game because the ending is so banal, so lacking in surprise or intrigue, that you could just assume everything about it and end up being 80~90% correct. That applies across all 5 endings. Life Is Strange 1's ending (the decent one, at least) was essential for the completion of the protagonists character arc. As well as the various mystery sub plots (confirming Max did cause the storm with her time meddling). Life Is Strange 2's ending is just what has to happen for the game to end at all. I'm not sure if there even is a character arc for Sean. Despite all the abuse he takes and some severe injuries suffered. His incredibly bland personality & nondescript outlook on life are basically the same in episode 5 as in episode 1.

I guess the whole thing was about brotherhood and to that end it did make me thank my lucky stars that neither of my brothers are as fucking annoying as Sean or Daniel.

Where's the complicity between Max and Chloe from season 1 ? Where's the mystery ? The build up to a strong climax ? The game is lacking most of what made LiS1 great, while not offering much new in terms of other qualities.

Absolutely, the mystery element is non existent in this game. In terms of the main plot but especially in regards to the supernatural stuff. No ghost deer, no strange weather events, twin moons or reality breaking events. Nothing even CLOSE to the big moment in episode 3 of the original game.

As for the strong build to a climax. For whatever reason DontNod thought it'd be more prudent to dick around at a hippy commune and be lectured about gay acceptance rather than give their narrative some proper momentum. Absolute unabashed filler. Imagine if at the end of The Walking Dead, when Lee is dying and desperately trying to find Clementine, the game's narrative took a 1 hour break so the characters could discover an abandoned fair. Then proceeded to do arts and crafts while chatting leisurely about basically nothing until finally deciding, an entire hour later, to actually get on with anything important. This is why I say that DontNod is failing at the scriptwriting 101 level basics. This shit is so bad it makes the first season seem like a fluke.

 

[Falksi]

I only cared about the first game for the lesbian stuff. Never played it, just watched videos on Youtube.

It's worth playing because. not only is it a great story, but you do get to feel the lesbian vibe build too.

It felt like I was playing a straight girl into the depths of corruption, whilst destroying the lives of countless morons around me at the same time.

As I held Chloe's cunt stained hand & watched Arcadia bay's annihilation not only did I feel complete, but I had a hard on too.

 

[Alpan]

taxalot, I generally agree with your assessment of the final episode (especially the very flimsy content), but ...

...and well, without spoiling it, they managed to make that final choice even worse than the Life is Strange 1. Something unpredictable happened in my playthrough when I took the final decision. When that unpredictable event happens, it's fair to say that it should be possible to rethink your decision.

Here I disagree completely. The final choice in Life is Strange 2 is executed way better: What you refer to as "something unpredictable" is called "choice and consequence" around these parts. I'm not saying it's particularly good, but it's better than Life is Strange 1 and more than what that game ever did. There are a lot of things to dislike about Life is Strange 2 but the different endings are not one of them, in my opinion.

 

[taxalot]

I strongly disagree, but this will require a spoiler tag.

Spoiler

In my ending, I decided to force the police blockade. The surprise was that Daniel, who clearly showed no sign of doing so earlier in the game, decided to jump off the car. Now, I have three major issues with this :

1. If Daniel's mind was made up about what kind of limits he would set himself, why doesn't he talk about it to Sean beforehand ?
2. Let us admit the reason he does not is that he is just a kid and was surprised by my Sean's decision to force the blockade, the connection between his decision to jump off the car or stay in the car, and my previous actions is fairly vague. It is, in fact, totally vague and seems totally artificial.

But the major one is the next one :

3. Daniel jumps off the car. It's unexpected. Why I, given this new piece of information and development, am I not allowed to go "Oh shit, whatever, the most important is to NOT leave the kid behind" and come back in my decision ? Sean has time to brake. He has time to exit the car and surrender also.

But the player does not. And as such, the entire thing of letting the player NOT know that this could happen feels like an entirely artificial way of doing choices and consequences.

 

[Alphons]

I only cared about the first game for the lesbian stuff. Never played it, just watched videos on Rule 34.

FTFY

 

[Dexter]

 

[Black]