Bryce @ 30/9/2018 16:53

I've heard this one has a lot of political undertones. A lot of the negative reviews say the voice acting isn't great and the storyline is meh. But there are plenty more positive reviews. Worried about the political stuff, though.

Eh. Not really. There is racism. And the whole storyline does revolve around a police shooting which can certainly be political but really shouldn't be.

Anyway, I just finished. I would HONESTLY say I enjoyed this more than both premiers in BTS and LIS1. I was skeptical of the new storyline and characters but I thought it was great. I really, really liked this a lot. And I cannot wait for more to come out.

Choice & Thoughts

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- Gave the candy bar to Esteban. This was a cute scene (: - Lied to Esteban. I REGRETTED this a lot especially since Esteban was so open minded about us experimenting with alcohol, sex and weed. IF ONLY WE COULD REWIND! - Hugged Esteban, why the fuck wouldn't you!? Man I bet people who didn't felt like shit after he died! - Didn't steal money from the jar. I... think I actually missed this opportunity completely. I would not have stolen from it regardless. - Confronted Brett. Fuck that guy! Just throw it in the washer you little bitch. - Didn't steal from the car. Come on, dude. What's the #1 rule we've learned from the past in choice matters games? DON'T STEAL FROM CARS! - I begged for food. I kinda didn't want to but I almost always exhaust all the conversation trees so I just ended up doing it. Knew they probably wouldn't help. - Did NOT steal from the gas station. That made the interaction with the old dude even more infuriating. - I DID knock out and steal camping gear afterwards. Did not feel bad about this whatsoever. He fucking kidnapped and assaulted us!!! Fuck his business. - I DID call Lyla back. I made a promise to her in the beginning of the game we'd be friends forever. I felt like Sean needed to at least have some closure with her before he tossed his phone in the ocean as there is a very real possibility he'll never see her again. - Promised Daniel I wouldn't lie again - Taught Daniel about trailblazing... I guess? I don't remember this. I remember Sean constantly saying he learned about it from Esteban when he was 8 but never really explaining it at all. This is probably going to be important later on so good! Too bad for the 2% that didn't, Daniel's gonna get lost and die. - Daniel didn't fall down in the woods. Okay. - Daniel didn't learn how to skip stones. I was waiting for this scene!!! Oh well. - Daniel collected firewood. Cool. - Daniel won the wood race. He sure did. - Daniel didn't beg for food. Hey, we covered this already! - Daniel had an OK night sleep. - Daniel wasn't mad at me in the woods. - Daniel didn't have enough to eat. This... doesn't surprise me (: I really regret buying him that candy bar. I ended up putting a loaf of bread back so I could keep that promise to him that I'd get him one. - Daniel didn't distract Doris. I didn't steal, so. - Daniel stole from Brody. Yeaaaah, I had a feeling he would do something like that when I stole from the old racist dude but whatever. - Daniel did not get a bear toy. Fuck that machine, I wasted $2 on it! Had a feeling it was just a money eater so I didn't dare try again. OKAY, THOUGHTS. First of all I will say that the idea of a LIS game being more isolated and out in the wild is kind of weird, as to me one of the best things about this game is the characters you meet and how your dialogue/actions affect their lives just as much as yours. I was very excited about the party and was super bummed when the plot dump with the cops happened before it as I was really looking forward to meeting all these characters Sean was texting on his phone. The only character you really get to meet besides Esteban and Lyla is Brody, who we will likely never see again. That said! I did enjoy this a lot. I really liked the camping portion. And in games like this, I always enjoy the feeling of having to take care of not just yourself but a very vulnerable companion as well. It makes the decision making much more challenging as your actions will effect how he goes on with his life. For instance, stealing from the old dude will make Daniel steal from someone who isn't an asshole because he can't tell the difference in situations. The one part I hated was the gas station scene with the racist guy. This felt super super forced and kind of unnecessary. Especially the "build the wall!" shit. I mean these type of people exist, obviously. But is a guy who has a big plague in his office and award for being the best and friendliest gas station in the county going to fucking ATTACK an underage minority and then handcuff them to his office? Bleh. I don't mind racism in games. Fuck, I've been replaying Mafia III for a bit before I played this today, which I adore and is almost 100% about racism. But this was overboard. Super excited to see what is to come. I'm very interested to see how Chris gets involved in all this. I don't think it will be like 400 days like Boc mentioned where he only has a brief cameo, I think him having powers similar to Daniel's will play a very important role later on. And he's in a similar situation with his dad that he might end up on the run as well.

Anyway play this if you haven't yet

I mean... I guess?! It feels like forever since I played the first episode and another month and a half is going to be torture waiting.

Episode 2 is out and done!

Thots

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First of all, I'm not sure if it was a PS4 issue or not but man was this BUGGY as hell! There were times where characters would just completely vanish. Chris and Charles were invisible for the tree market portion. I also got STUCK inside the don't tread on me man after talking to him and had to reload the segment. Background characters were jumpy and glitchy, repeating lines over and over again. Mouths weren't moving during dialogue. Objects and shadows kept disappearing and reappearing. There were virtually no SOUND EFFECTS! Just music and dialogue. A bummer as this was a VERY GOOD episode and would have been even better if not for the frustrating glitchiness of it. Anyway, choices and thots after: SEAN: - I threw a snowball at Daniel and Mushroom because I'm an asshole apparently. - Scared the cougar off. Cougar was going off it's natural instincts. Also did not want to teach Daniel to kill in revenge. This was a VERY SAD scene. I absolutely knew something bad was going to happen as soon as I let Mushroom out and my heart sank when I saw her corpse laying there in the snow. My dogs were right next to me when I was playing this and I held them both tight ;___; I hate pet death scenes in games. Fuck. - Prayed with Claire and Daniel. Because I'm nice apparently! I get stuck in situations like these all the time irl and I just go with it to be respectful as I was here. - Told Stephen the truth. I trusted Claire and Stephen and honestly didn't see a big harm in confiding with either about Daniel. - I did the extra chores. - I told Daniel he did the right thing by saving Chris. - Did not call Lyla. Maybe I would have done this if I hadn't already when I threw my phone in the ocean. But it would have been very unnecessary here. - Did not use Stephen's laptop. Logging into social media while on the run sounds incredibly risky (: Didn't see the point. - Didn't gain Chris' trust. I guess because I got the heroes/villains wrong? I may have done well at that if it hasn't been like 6 months since I played Captain Spirit (: - Told Daniel to hide his secret from Chris. I... kinda regretted this immediately. - Listened to Cassidy's song. Also tipped her! Surprised that wasn't a choice nor did it spring any dialogue from doing so for some reason. Hope we see her again, even if it would be extremely nonsensical. - Drew zombies for Chris. Alright. - I bought Daniel the little polar bear sitting on the lawn chair toy that was like $7. - Did not talk to Charles about his problems. I attempted to but evidently didn't do enough. - Let Daniel use his powers to get Stephen free. Stephen already knew about Daniel's powers anyway and I knew it would probably be p bad if we didn't. Also it was pretty obvious this was the last time we'd see them anyway. - Cop chased us and hit Chris. Man, this made me feel really bad that this was not linear! I knew the Daniel/Chris decision was a mistake. DANIEL: - Daniel did not continue to swear. I knew this would probably be a bad idea so I curbed it (: - Daniel won the dice game without cheating. - Daniel did not kill the cougar. - Daniel was not able to bury Mushroom, I guess because of the above. :( - Daniel agreed to pray. - Daniel tidied the room. - Daniel was not asked to tell Chris the truth. - Daniel repressed his power. - Daniel did not save Chris. - Daniel blamed me for Chris getting hurt. - Daniel was too upset to enjoy his gift. -------- As I mentioned a few times, this was a pretty sad episode overall. As soon as we got Mushroom last episode, I knew something bad was probably going to happen to her as surviving with a pet would be extremely difficult. It happening so early as well really kind of killed my mood. The Chris stuff was also a gigantic bummer. I definitely saw something like that happening as soon as I made the decision to have Daniel continue lying to him. The game definitely teaches you to be truthful and honest as it seems lying and stealing does absolutely horrible things to you so far. Getting to meet a lot of new characters was a good contrast to the first episode which was almost entirely isolated. Cassidy and Finn was a fun little scene, I enjoyed the feeling of shelter with the grandparents, learning more about our mother which was extremely vague in the first episode and Chris returning were all very great. Again, the one thing I really didn't enjoy was the stupid character at the tree market who went on a political rant about snowflakes and people leeching off the government. I'm still not quite sure why they feel it's necessary to shoehorn these antagonistic political characters to the game when it adds nothing to it. There was no reason for that guy to be a character. Despite that and the glitches I mentioned above, this was very great. I think any other game, I would have had to take a break due to some of the brokenness but the story kept me enthralled enough to keep going. I can't wait to continue.

Oh I forgot this came out

Now I wanna play but I gotta work in 30 mins

Uh... did... hmmm.

THOUGHTS

Episode 3 Choices & Thoughts

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SEAN - Made coffee for everyone. I nearly forgot to but after Penny shouted at me for walking away, I made it. - Hit the target while knife throwing. - Tried to be understanding about Karen. - Asked Daniel about the watch. I thought this was a silly MAJOR choice (: - Intervened when Big Joe slapped Cassidy, ofc - Trimmed a lot of weed buds. Didn't FEEL like I did but man was this part boring... I guess that was the point! - Didn't ask Daniel to help with chores. I kind of just did the chores as soon as the segment started as I had a feeling it was timed and if I fucked around, I'd be in trouble for not doing them. I have a feeling he would have refused! - Didn't help Daniel with the dishes. I.... didn't even ask. :( I feel bad about this. I kind of just walked right by him when I dropped the tank down. - Got wasted at the party. - Stayed up late and got a haircut. Again, felt bad about this. But I wanted to spend more time with the group. - Let Finn take the blame for Big Joe being hit. This was unintentional, I just ran out of time answering. - Did not go with the heist. Stuff like this in LiS is always a bad idea. I always did my best to try to stop Chloe from stealing (except when playing her!) and I'm doing the same with Daniel, especially after the lesson we learned with the stolen hula girl. - I stayed friends with Finn. - I let Cassidy choose my tattoo. It was... disappointingly lame! - I went skinny dipping with Cassidy. - Cassidy didn't get mad at me. - Kissed Cassidy. - Had sex with Cassidy. - Did not alert Big Joe. I didn't sabotage the vehicles... I thought I had, must of missed something. - Came into Merill's house after Daniel and Finn were already there. - Didn't take the gun from the safe. - Told Daniel to use his power. I stared at this choice for a LONG time as I had a funny feeling Cassidy was going to die here. Ultimately it was probably the right choice. - Cassidy got injured. DANIEL - Daniel waited for me in the morning. - Daniel did dishes on his own. - Daniel did not help with the tanks. - Daniel went to bed alone. - Daniel got shot and lashed out. MAN! I wasn't crazy about this episode for the most part. I just wish we got a litttttle bit more development before we were just thrown into the weed camp. It was just one episode ends with us on a train and now all the sudden we're living with the lady we were attracted to at the Christmas Shop. I did LIKE the fact that we got to be with other characters the entire time and it was pretty obvious that this episode was a test -- will you let your new friendships distract you from Daniel? And.... for me, they did. I really liked Cassidy in the last episode and wanted to spend time with her here and for that, I severely neglected Daniel and lead to him being a little shit for most of the episode. I thought FOR SURE that Sean died at the end and was convinced of it until the sneak peak for Episode 4. Sean walking alone down a road makes me very sad. Don't think we'll see Finn or Cassidy again and with all the interaction we got this episode, think we're going to be back to being isolated. And even more so now with our search for Daniel. Still, good stuff even though it wasn't my favorite episode. The romance stuff was a little forced but still fun to play out. I really wish these episodes came out closer to each other.

Ya'll need to catch up on this, seriously. This is really, really, really good.

POWERFUL penultimate episode.

THOTS

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I thought this was going to turn out kind of lame with the church cult stuff but damn, great episode. Controlling Sean getting back up again and again and again each time Nicolas punched him was so great. Daniel finally realizing what the Reverend was all about and using his powers to shove them to the side. That shot of Sean, Daniel and Karen driving off into the desert sun. Could have been a closing shot, honestly and I would have been okay with it. Some good other stuff too. I really liked Joey and the hospital scenes. He was a fun character. The two pricks bullying Sean and Sean breaking down crying on the road was super emotional. And of course the Karen reunion. Only real complaint... the time between episodes made me have to remember who Karen even was. I forgot that was our mom's name (: So her sudden appearance made me feel nothing as I thought "Karen" was just one of the people from the California farm for a minute. And I didn't really remember Jacob at all. I don't think he had a very big part last episode, which is a shame with how big of a role he played here. CHOICES! - I passed both vision tests. - I told Agent Flores that the robbery was Finn's idea. Finn fucked a lot of stuff up in the last episode and this choice might have made me think a bit harder about inditing myself instead if things didn't go how they did last episode. I also didn't want to say it was everyone's idea to get Cassidy in trouble. - I ended up attacking the guard. I tried to convince Joey but felt bad so stopped. I felt like my only other option was hitting the guard in the head. I absolutely didn't want to do this as this game makes you feel like shit for resorting to violence and continues to paint Sean as a violent felon. - I didn't talk to Finn on the way out. Mainly cause I had already ratted him out and felt it would have been awkward to talk to him afterwards. - Chad broke Daniel's toy and I sang the song in Spanish. This was a tough scene. Mainly cause I knew I really couldn't do much to fight them with my injury and the threat of police getting involved. I felt like a bitch afterwards and Sean's breakdown in the car while driving away was hard to watch. - Got into Anton's truck. Liked this scene. Nice little getaway from stuff. - Gave money to the church and took a pin. Eh. - I let Karen open up to me. I wasn't going to hold a grudge. I know what it's like to have a parent disappear on you and I also know about forgiving them. - I stayed outside with Karen while she smoked. - I let Karen clean my eye wound. - Nicholas was unaware I was at the church. This seemed... too easy. You could be right in those people's line of sight and they never said anything. I saved scummed a bit out of curiosity and you literally have to be right in front of them. - Shared my money with Jacob. I mean he kinda helped us find Daniel AND Karen, he deserves it. - I hid from Nicholas successfully. - Let Lisbeth live. Man was I scared Daniel was going to break her neck or something. No way did I want another murder on our hands, nooooo fucking way.

Finale is out. Apparently there are SEVEN different endings.

Starting... now!

Dyl @ 3/12/2019 14:07

How does it rank to the first?

About the same to me. It's hard to compare because they're completely different. To me it still has a lot of emotionally impactful moments that make the series great. The one thing that I liked better in LiS1 is that you can't really grow too attached to any other character aside from Sean and Daniel as they are constantly traveling, so you see most side characters for only one episode. What I absolutely loved about the first game was not only exploring your relationship with Chloe, but getting to know the random side characters in the school, which effects very little of the main story. You can't really do that here, although your interactions with them are still VERY important and certainly affect what ending you get.

Bottom line is if you liked Life is Strange, you'll like this.

FINISHED!

Thoughts.

FINALE

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Going through choices first, thoughts afterwards. - Forced the roadblock and Daniel refused - Overall, taught Daniel to do his best to follow the rules of society I'll get more in depth in this for my overall thoughts but I'm very, very happy with how this turned out. - Found the hidden treasure This was a bit silly (: and very frustrating! I could not find the treasure because I was on the wrong side of the car, but Daniel kept saying "YOU'RE BURNING HOT, GRAB IT!" - Overall, got closer to Karen - Wrote a caring note for Karen Like I said in the last episode, I think in this case it's important to forgive and forget. Being resentful towards Karen at this point is incredibly unnecessary considering how much she's helped us out. - Said goodbye to Arthur and Stanley - Said goodbye to Joan I could definitely see how this could be easily missed. Fun characters! I really liked this little community and am kinda sad we didn't get to interact with them much. - Hugged Karen I like how this is currently at 99%. Again, not sure why the game feels like the Karen interactions would be such a TOUGH choice? This was an odd major decision for the finale, although I'm sure snubbing her would affect things in the end. - Told Diego to calm down - Allowed the Mexican couple to be freed - Did not release the vigilantes - Did not take revenge on the vigilantes Didn't really dig this scene at all. The vigilantes were very cookie cutter, cliche characters to get under your skin. I didn't want to hurt them because even when all hell was breaking loose, I didn't want to teach Daniel to intentionally hurt people that weren't a threat. So to get even with them non-violently, I freed the Mexican couple to annoy them instead. - Didn't ask Daniel to kill the officers at the station This was a TENSE scene! I came close to doing it only because nothing was working before I realized what you had to do. Glad I could solve it non-violently. Not going to go over Daniel's choices because it's a rehash of the above except that he stopped messing with the Scorpion when I yelled at him to, he was concerned about Officer Campbell being hurt and he got the sculpture done with my help. OK! So my ending had Sean alive in Mexico and Daniel with his grandparents. At first... I was mad at myself and thought I had fucked up. But as I watched the final cutscene play out... I really like this ending. Daniel didn't deserve to be robbed of his childhood by being stuck in Mexico, he gets to live with his grandparents and has a best friend across the street. I had a big goofy smile on my face when Daniel opened the letter with the picture of Sean and Cassidy smiling together at the beach. Overall.... really good! I enjoyed this series as a whole. As I said above to Dyl, it's hard to compare it to the first game. And honestly, I don't think much could compare to the feelings and emotions I had to Max and Chloe. The one thing I didn't like about this game, it was bad enough that most side characters were only there for one episode but the episodes always starting in the middle of already knowing everyone was a bit lame. I understand that this was probably the only practical way to do it due to every episode starting in a different state, but it took away from my connection with the side characters. I can name every class mate of Max's in the first Life is Strange along with a fact about them. For this game I know a handful. STILL! This game was about your relationship with Daniel and the values you teach him along the way. So for that, it worked. Well done, DONTNOD.