Life is Strange 2
Where do I start, which point do I find contention with? It’s like you pull one corner of the bedsheet and the entire thing slips out of the bed frame, plot-ridden with so many holes that the game just oozes missed story beats, character stories that you wish wrapped the entire game in a neat little foil, but they become undone immediately as they are introduced.
There’s a story here that perseveres, it plays inside your head more than it does on your screen, a story of two brothers against all odds, making their way across a country, the game feels personal even if you don’t have familial bonds as you assume the role of a surrogate father figure while being the brother to a 9-year-old.
What I disagree about the popular criticism for the game:
-Right off the bat I want to say the game’s sense of time passing is captured well between each episode, people find issue with the fact that events feel disconnected when you’re usually experiencing a gap of multiple weeks or months between the ending of an episode and the transition to a new one, I think it works perfectly fine.
-Even though Daniel is an annoying kid, he is written as faithfully obnoxious as little kids are, their entire worldview is so fragile, and their sense of conflict is so lofty, they move the line that offends them back and forth, but they are also easier to make amends with. Daniel throwing a fit, being impatient or bratty, wanting to be an adult and being jealous of his brother finding new friends all make sense within a child’s worldview, you can criticize Daniel for being an obnoxious shithead, you can criticize the plot for writing contrived scenarios around him being the center of conflict, but he himself isn’t that poorly written in my opinion. Daniel’s biggest issue is that his character growth is all over the place, how much he matures is dictated by how much conflict he should be the ignition for, that’s why he seems like he is the same from the start all till the end with minor moments of levity and self-reflection.
-I don’t think the game is blissfully unaware of the fact that Sean running away from the crime scene with his brother is a little bit stupid if he’s truly innocent. I think it’s the other way around, the story is about a 16-year-old who makes a stupid decision out of fear of being implicated in a crime that he cannot reasonably explain or rationalize in any way whatsoever. He is just that scared, I feel like they could have played into this conflict way better instead of framing his entire adventure as morally good in the end.
-I don’t mind the grandparents being offended when the brothers visit their mother’s room, even though it feels childish of them to throw a fit about disobeying the house’s “rules” (thanks for making this the main theme of the episode and name it that guys!!!) what I did find more offensive was how you take the main road to escape at the end so the cops can make chase absolutely fucking blew my mind. What even.
Popular criticism I agree with:
-The game’s racism is too cartoonishly evil, in parts of the plot where it feels unnecessary and a juvenile attempt and chokes the plot up as a means to pad out the episode’s length, or an unnecessary addition altogether. Real life racism can be pretty baffling but in a plot that’s entirely fictional, you have got to be fucking kidding me, Sean can’t directly go to Nevada he has to be dragged out of his car and berated so you the audience can understand that this story is about racism. Oh, guess what? We’re finally at the border and instead of just having the police arrest you there’s 2 racists who get to you first inculcating the same “Mexicans bad … here to ruin country …. No work + come here give birth” racism anthem, it’s tired, and RUINS the game.
-Episode 4 is bad.
My criticism:
This is my biggest complaint; this story would work far better in a novel than it does in the game. Every scene feels like it’s too long, the points of interest for Sean to explore and comment on at any time are made completely insufferable by his lazy unimpressed voice, he seems like he never has energy or he doesn’t even care.
Speaking of slow, this game purposefully forces you to wait in so many moments that it was actually fucking insane. We just got done sightseeing in the canyon. It’s time to slowly pack up every object individually while Sean comments on everything so the audience can catch up to where they are since the episode just started!!! Oh joy we have to wash the clothes in the laundry as slow as the engine can allow, time to cook ravioli for my little brother…. The Agent just came in to question me she’s in the other room receiving a phone call I have to wait painstakingly for her to arrive, and the worst one, WEED TRIMMING, OH MY FUCKING GOD, WE GET IT YOU DON’T HAVE TO MAKE THE AUDIENCE FEEL THE WEIGHT OF TIME AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN
-The part in episode 4 where you have to fetch a file on Sarah lee and Sean and the brother have a long conversation in the file room about gay conversion therapy fucking KILL ME
-Ending feels rushed and you must wallow in “its about the journey not the end” copium
The good:
-I like the licensed music LiS manages to have enough hippie music for you to add to your collection
-On paper, the story is very touching, even when it’s too misguided at a lot of times
-Episode 3 is the best and covers the found family trope the best but the ending is so fucking ??? why do they do the robbery anyway it makes no fucking sense to me that would’ve been a perfect point to majorly branch the plot
-I love the recollection of the events of the game up till the episode you’re playing as a sketched out storybook of the wolf brothers braving all the hardships they have gone through
-Karen basically saying the reason why she abandoned her kids is because she dgaf about being a mother and nothing deeper was funny as fuck and it was such a non-reason that it worked also her making amends makes somewhat sense and I feel like she manages to get redeemed in some weird way
Conclusion:
I want to say I outright hate this game, its characters that don’t stick around too long for you to care about them enough, its cartoonishly evil portrayal of racism, chores that make you want to jump into a pit of fire, attitudes that only exist to drive a sense of conflict…. But I can’t. I can’t say I hate this game, when you’re at some random park with your brother having to pretend like your father is alive, so he would think they are out in a trip, encouraging him to make traps while you prepare wood for a fire so you can barely spend the night, having to comfort him without having any hope yourself, the game feels hollow.
I internalized the story to a certain extent where I felt like it had meaning beyond what it did. The game felt personal at times, my mind was drawing up conversations happening off-screen, between episode moments that we don’t get to see.
I can’t promise that kind of experience for anyone.
Where do I start, which point do I find contention with? It’s like you pull one corner of the bedsheet and the entire thing slips out of the bed frame, plot-ridden with so many holes that the game just oozes missed story beats, character stories that you wish wrapped the entire game in a neat little foil, but they become undone immediately as they are introduced.
There’s a story here that perseveres, it plays inside your head more than it does on your screen, a story of two brothers against all odds, making their way across a country, the game feels personal even if you don’t have familial bonds as you assume the role of a surrogate father figure while being the brother to a 9-year-old.
What I disagree about the popular criticism for the game:
-Right off the bat I want to say the game’s sense of time passing is captured well between each episode, people find issue with the fact that events feel disconnected when you’re usually experiencing a gap of multiple weeks or months between the ending of an episode and the transition to a new one, I think it works perfectly fine.
-Even though Daniel is an annoying kid, he is written as faithfully obnoxious as little kids are, their entire worldview is so fragile, and their sense of conflict is so lofty, they move the line that offends them back and forth, but they are also easier to make amends with. Daniel throwing a fit, being impatient or bratty, wanting to be an adult and being jealous of his brother finding new friends all make sense within a child’s worldview, you can criticize Daniel for being an obnoxious shithead, you can criticize the plot for writing contrived scenarios around him being the center of conflict, but he himself isn’t that poorly written in my opinion. Daniel’s biggest issue is that his character growth is all over the place, how much he matures is dictated by how much conflict he should be the ignition for, that’s why he seems like he is the same from the start all till the end with minor moments of levity and self-reflection.
-I don’t think the game is blissfully unaware of the fact that Sean running away from the crime scene with his brother is a little bit stupid if he’s truly innocent. I think it’s the other way around, the story is about a 16-year-old who makes a stupid decision out of fear of being implicated in a crime that he cannot reasonably explain or rationalize in any way whatsoever. He is just that scared, I feel like they could have played into this conflict way better instead of framing his entire adventure as morally good in the end.
-I don’t mind the grandparents being offended when the brothers visit their mother’s room, even though it feels childish of them to throw a fit about disobeying the house’s “rules” (thanks for making this the main theme of the episode and name it that guys!!!) what I did find more offensive was how you take the main road to escape at the end so the cops can make chase absolutely fucking blew my mind. What even.
Popular criticism I agree with:
-The game’s racism is too cartoonishly evil, in parts of the plot where it feels unnecessary and a juvenile attempt and chokes the plot up as a means to pad out the episode’s length, or an unnecessary addition altogether. Real life racism can be pretty baffling but in a plot that’s entirely fictional, you have got to be fucking kidding me, Sean can’t directly go to Nevada he has to be dragged out of his car and berated so you the audience can understand that this story is about racism. Oh, guess what? We’re finally at the border and instead of just having the police arrest you there’s 2 racists who get to you first inculcating the same “Mexicans bad … here to ruin country …. No work + come here give birth” racism anthem, it’s tired, and RUINS the game.
-Episode 4 is bad.
My criticism:
This is my biggest complaint; this story would work far better in a novel than it does in the game. Every scene feels like it’s too long, the points of interest for Sean to explore and comment on at any time are made completely insufferable by his lazy unimpressed voice, he seems like he never has energy or he doesn’t even care.
Speaking of slow, this game purposefully forces you to wait in so many moments that it was actually fucking insane. We just got done sightseeing in the canyon. It’s time to slowly pack up every object individually while Sean comments on everything so the audience can catch up to where they are since the episode just started!!! Oh joy we have to wash the clothes in the laundry as slow as the engine can allow, time to cook ravioli for my little brother…. The Agent just came in to question me she’s in the other room receiving a phone call I have to wait painstakingly for her to arrive, and the worst one, WEED TRIMMING, OH MY FUCKING GOD, WE GET IT YOU DON’T HAVE TO MAKE THE AUDIENCE FEEL THE WEIGHT OF TIME AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN
-The part in episode 4 where you have to fetch a file on Sarah lee and Sean and the brother have a long conversation in the file room about gay conversion therapy fucking KILL ME
-Ending feels rushed and you must wallow in “its about the journey not the end” copium
The good:
-I like the licensed music LiS manages to have enough hippie music for you to add to your collection
-On paper, the story is very touching, even when it’s too misguided at a lot of times
-Episode 3 is the best and covers the found family trope the best but the ending is so fucking ??? why do they do the robbery anyway it makes no fucking sense to me that would’ve been a perfect point to majorly branch the plot
-I love the recollection of the events of the game up till the episode you’re playing as a sketched out storybook of the wolf brothers braving all the hardships they have gone through
-Karen basically saying the reason why she abandoned her kids is because she dgaf about being a mother and nothing deeper was funny as fuck and it was such a non-reason that it worked also her making amends makes somewhat sense and I feel like she manages to get redeemed in some weird way
Conclusion:
I want to say I outright hate this game, its characters that don’t stick around too long for you to care about them enough, its cartoonishly evil portrayal of racism, chores that make you want to jump into a pit of fire, attitudes that only exist to drive a sense of conflict…. But I can’t. I can’t say I hate this game, when you’re at some random park with your brother having to pretend like your father is alive, so he would think they are out in a trip, encouraging him to make traps while you prepare wood for a fire so you can barely spend the night, having to comfort him without having any hope yourself, the game feels hollow.
I internalized the story to a certain extent where I felt like it had meaning beyond what it did. The game felt personal at times, my mind was drawing up conversations happening off-screen, between episode moments that we don’t get to see.
I can’t promise that kind of experience for anyone.