it's trying too hard and in the end feels very inauthentic, except maybe some spurts of personality but most of it is just imitation that falls flat with dialogue that isn't quirky nor flattering to be forgiven and is not unlike steven fucking universe i am not kidding this is the consequences of rebecca sugars reign. how does the location even feel dead???? also what the fuck are these powers what, and it has like no ending no matter what you choose??? my final question is.... who let her serve bob?

while the first life is strange let arcadia bays crisp yet smooth autumn breeze stream into your being and marinate there, this jumps around a lot and not to its benefit due to its deprivation of a plot. i don't sense much personality blooming in these areas nor characters that stick around too long for them to make a real impact, and due to its slower and more serious tone, the two lead brothers aren't enough to carry the story on their own due to them being rather generic, underdeveloped and having lazily strung together arcs.

it’s obviously fueled by the post 2016 election america, institutionalized racism and marginalized groups and it, while important, explores those themes to mixed success. the good is when the game goes for a more subtle route, how the “good” white people ideologically against racism still are complicit in it and bask in their ignorance. however, the commentary very often falls cartoonishly flat, forced melodrama where the characters devolve into caricatures for different stances. clunky and dragged out writing and the lack of nuance hurts what this game is trying so hard to convey, the lack of a compelling story will not interest players in these topics, instead it will do the opposite and it’s very sad to see.

i’m struggling to interpret the lis formula, it’s like they removed the “strange” and all that is left is “life is”. brittle yet somehow laughable almost? i could often forgive the first game because of its quirks but this seems to be stripped of all personality, leading into non cathartic and predictable denouements, which are realistic, but does anything but engage me as a player.

vignettes this shell of a bumbling man against the backdrop of perfect golden sunsets, a dreamy tapestry covering the veil into the unresolved that is eating away at him. he gets immersed in this grand adventure, the romanticization yet the adrenaline pumping horror ignites the plot and the forest with it. after blowing the conspiracies up too big in your head it’s unveiled that everyone is human and broken in their own right, as the climax fizzles out instead of erupting as this escape did nothing and you are left with nothing but your old life ahead of you, this trip searing its way into memory as its ashened remnants will continue to haunt you for the rest of your life.