Life is Strange 2: Episode 2 - Rules

 PC
User Score
5.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 78 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 78
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 78
  3. Negative: 35 out of 78

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  1. Bent
    Feb 11, 2019
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The second episode sadly cannot match the quality of the first one.

    As a player you don't feel like you are able to influence the story in a meaningful way if you do not count the very last scene of the episode. An example for this is the way the police gets the information about Sean and Daniel's location: If you do use the phone or the laptop that is the reason the police comes. If not they use the fact that you have been seen at the Christmas market. The player is not able to decide whether to go there or not. Another one would be the way your reactions to Daniel influence the story: The game allows you to remind Daniel multiple times not to use his forces publicly. Even if you do it every single time he ends up showing them to another boy. This is the case for many of the choices the game lets you make; for most ones it feels like they don't affect anything.

    Life is Strange is at it's best when causing great emotions with it's story and it's plot twists. With the exception of the last scene that feeling is almost never present. For example the dog comangion is killed at the beginning of the episode. This death does not serve the story a little bit and just feels like it is just there to have another "Life is Strange emotional moment". Introducing a character just to kill it off emotionally is just bad story telling.

    The story the developers try to tell inherently has the problem that there are no characters beside the brothers that can be around for too long. But the way you interact with characters and build relations with those was a core part of the first season and made it that great. Compared to that season the second one also does not present you a clear goal you try to achieve: Getting to Mexico never feels like a viable solution for the situation and you are never able to think or theorize how the story might go which makes it far less immersive.

    The graphical quality though is, excluding some visual glitches, very good and the art style is always spot on. Character animation and voice acing is also good.

    Lastly the second episode was in development for over 4 months which is a pretty long time span for an episode based game. You don't remember much of the story or the decisions you made in prior episodes. Also there were numerous bugs in the Christmas market scene which include invisible characters and frozen characters. Something like that isn't really acceptable after such a long development phase.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

93
#93 Best PC Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. Critical Hit
    Mar 18, 2019
    60
    Life Is Strange 2: Episode 2 is a disappointment. While it contains a number of revelatory moments and a couple of scenes that pack real tension, thanks to its lousy pacing and absence of agency, only the most committed fans of this series are advised to pick it up. Here’s hoping Episode 3 picks up the pace.
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  2. GameGrin
    Feb 6, 2019
    90
    Technically superior to the previous episode, and a strong second entry to the Diaz boys’ saga.
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  3. RPG Fan
    Feb 4, 2019
    78
    A slump in a promising series, Episode 2 still contains emotional highs and thoughtful choices.
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