begins with an EXCELLENT premise, mostly follows through on it. dialogue is a lot less life-is-strangey than the first two games (this is a double-edged sword - it means in turn that the majority of the cast is a lot less memorable) but the writing takes a step back in how addresses virtually all of its themes. there are some really poignant ideas at play in this story, but when you make every single antagonistic character more of a cartoon stereotype of a racist person than an actual character with bigoted beliefs, it starts getting frustrating. i especially started to notice that around episode 4. as somebody else on this site already said: the game is far too obvious when it needs to be complex, or at least a little more subtle.

despite that i think this MIGHT be the best life is strange game, for two reasons. as much as i love max and chloe in LiS1, sean and daniel's dynamic being both extremely lovable as well as very malleable to the choices that the player makes feels like such a natural progression for the series to go to. i never thought of my choices in LiS1 to "not matter" as some people put it, but i do feel like every bit of dialogue you choose matters significantly more in this game. apparently a lot of people really disagree with me on that one but building up to an ending based in part on how you raise your kid brother feels pretty noteworthy to me... again, though, that can feel like a double-edged sword because the game doesn't always know how to make its different options appear compelling; it can feel so extremely risky to do the "wrong" option that it's pretty easy to just straight up avoid certain options altogether. there are exceptions like the decision to steal from the gas station during episode 1, but by the time you reach a certain point the choices you face are just [AWFUL FUCKING IDEA/LET'S NOT DO THAT]. but still!!!!!!! pretty good. i think once i play true colors i'll have my preference between this and the arcadia bay story figured out