Life is Strange 2

 PlayStation 4
User Score
6.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 601 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 332 out of 601
  2. Mixed: 107 out of 601
  3. Negative: 162 out of 601
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  1. Watching_horizo
    Sep 30, 2018
    3
    Weak story with plot twist that doesn't make any sense. Little or none character development and stupid actions that you just have to deal with it. Feels like stupid simulator in season 2 and game doesn't have LiS feel in it.

    I loved LiS season one with its dlc BFTS. This season 2 doesn't even feel like LiS game and episode 1 set tone for rest of this season 2. Top of that SJW    Weak story with plot twist that doesn't make any sense. Little or none character development and stupid actions that you just have to deal with it. Feels like stupid simulator in season 2 and game doesn't have LiS feel in it.

    I loved LiS season one with its dlc BFTS. This season 2 doesn't even feel like LiS game and episode 1 set tone for rest of this season 2.

    Top of that SJW propaganda and seems like dontnod got woke.... I regret that i bought this game and trusted them.    … Expand
  2. Jekprus
    Dec 24, 2019
    5
    Disapponting!

    A game with some lights and many shadows, far from the previous LIS. The message proimigracion is excessive. Due to the road movie approach, the secondary characters lack depth. The attitude of the protagonists is not credible and you does not empathize with them at any time. The winks to pop culture, hallmarks of the entire saga, almost disappear. The music is not    Disapponting!

    A game with some lights and many shadows, far from the previous LIS. The message proimigracion is excessive. Due to the road movie approach, the secondary characters lack depth. The attitude of the protagonists is not credible and you does not empathize with them at any time. The winks to pop culture, hallmarks of the entire saga, almost disappear. The music is not remarkable. Only some shocking moments are saved.    … Expand
  3. Aeble
    Sep 18, 2020
    1
    I am sad to say that this game was a huge, disappointing mess. Loved the first game, despised this. The three biggest problems for me was 1. You didn’t stay with any of the side characters 2. Sean’s voice actor 3. Daniel. The third being the worst offender. I could not get behind him in any way, shape or form.
  4. krayzie
    Sep 11, 2020
    3
    Loved LiS 1 so much i played it thrice. Horribly unconvincing voice acting by the two main casts coupled with non existent character development however made this "sequel" such a struggle to get through.

    I've never disliked a character as much as Danial before. By far the most exasperating "protaganist" in any form of media I've experienced. His older brother Sean is not much better.    Loved LiS 1 so much i played it thrice. Horribly unconvincing voice acting by the two main casts coupled with non existent character development however made this "sequel" such a struggle to get through.

    I've never disliked a character as much as Danial before. By far the most exasperating "protaganist" in any form of media I've experienced.

    His older brother Sean is not much better. The overacting by the voice actor was unbearable at times and his character was unbelievably pathetic.

    If you enjoyed LiS 1, do yourself a favour and avoid this like the plague unless you want to mar the experience of the 1st.    … Expand
  5. SuperDuck23
    May 22, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. While there are a handful of positive moments, I found Life Is Strange 2 as a whole to be an overstretched, somewhat forgettable tale of two brothers on the run. The main characters here do not feel particularly interesting compared to the first game, and they are often paired with side characters who are intolerable at times.

    I feel Life Is Strange 2 suffers from the same issue as Before the Storm, in that it is just too long. This story could be condensed to three episodes and would be all the better for it. As a consequence, a large section of the story - namely parts of episode 2 and 4, and the entirety of episode 3 - feel completely pointless and are not engaging on a story level.

    The best moments come from the scenes where the two protagonist brothers are alone. Their relationship should have been given more time instead of putting it aside in favour of side characters who feel jarringly out of place or who serve no purpose to the main story. Unfortunately, this game is somewhat of a disappointment after its intriguing prequel - The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit.    … Expand
  6. loumex
    Jul 15, 2023
    3
    Surely people will hate me for saying this, but LIS2 is by far the worst in the whole series, DLCs included. It is blund, straightforward, no character sticks till the end, the areas are linear and without much thought, music is non-existent compared to 1 and TC, there is a total lack of humour, there is NO ongoing mystery, a vague end-game that doesn't really make sense to build upon, youSurely people will hate me for saying this, but LIS2 is by far the worst in the whole series, DLCs included. It is blund, straightforward, no character sticks till the end, the areas are linear and without much thought, music is non-existent compared to 1 and TC, there is a total lack of humour, there is NO ongoing mystery, a vague end-game that doesn't really make sense to build upon, you have no powers but instead "nurture" them on your brother. The whole game is a great, GREAT disappointment. LS1 remains the GOAT, LSTC and Before the storm follow, but this, nah man, this is not worth your time.… Expand
  7. Superwolf
    Dec 4, 2019
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Я ошибся, игра интересная. Концовки очень трогательны.… Expand
  8. DaViDe_GioVaNNi
    Jan 5, 2022
    0
    BORING GAME LIKE LOOKING AT THE PAINT DRYING UP. The main characters do not have the slightest personal growth, except in the endings, which however are devoid of any logic. The chapters are boring and almost completely disconnected from each other, so much so that you could jump from chapter 1 to chapter 5 without missing any logical steps. Chapters 3 and 4 are even identical, have theBORING GAME LIKE LOOKING AT THE PAINT DRYING UP. The main characters do not have the slightest personal growth, except in the endings, which however are devoid of any logic. The chapters are boring and almost completely disconnected from each other, so much so that you could jump from chapter 1 to chapter 5 without missing any logical steps. Chapters 3 and 4 are even identical, have the same story and literally the exact same things happen, so much so that they could even be interchangeable (but it would be better not to play them at all). In addition, one of the secondary characters is literally identical to Rachel's mother from LiS: Before the Storm. In addition to buy a character from the first LiS, but it was completely twisted, in an absolutely senseless way and creating huge plot holes. Truly terrible game. In general, almost all of the characters are annoying, especially the protagonists. The choices are obvious and often obligatory.… Expand
  9. LYVrednyHer
    Jun 12, 2020
    10
    This is an amazing game with tones of different consequences and choices, amazing atmosphere choices and other, its just amazing! try it if u haven't
  10. DarkFlower
    Jun 28, 2020
    3
    Хорошая идея, но отвратительнейшая реализация, в игру банально скучно играть.
    Она недостойна цифры "2" в названии
  11. Adriano023
    Jun 29, 2020
    1
    This game is trash, wasted my money for a fricking trashy game. Bad storytelling, political correctness is the only thing the game has. There is no point of buying this piece of junk.
  12. piuscorvus
    Jun 25, 2020
    2
    I played both Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Before the Storm and liked them. I was not amazed by them but they were OK. Life is Strange 2 is far from being OK. It shows significant visual improvements compared to the previous two games. On the other side, the story is unbelievably predictable, feels very cheap and does not really go anywhere. Characters are not deeply developed andI played both Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Before the Storm and liked them. I was not amazed by them but they were OK. Life is Strange 2 is far from being OK. It shows significant visual improvements compared to the previous two games. On the other side, the story is unbelievably predictable, feels very cheap and does not really go anywhere. Characters are not deeply developed and they do not offer anything special or worth remembering. Luckily, this story has no connection with the stories of previous two games so you are perfectly fine with skipping this one.

    There is also one interesting thing that is important for people that want to buy second hand copy of this game: the game is sold as a full season, including all 5 episodes. BUT, there are only four episodes on the disc. The last episode is in the box as a download code and that code can be used only once, which means that if you get yourself a used copy of this game you will most probably only be able to play four episodes because the code will most likely be already used. If you want the last episode, you will have to buy it extra on Playstation Store.    … Expand
  13. overratedhuman
    Jun 23, 2020
    7
    The story is decent, it's not too long, you get to do some road tripping, some camping, living in a hippie farm, I overall enjoyed the experience, and there is a few references to the first game scattered throughout the story, although they don't seem to have any relevance. My criticism is in playability, unlike the first game you are kind of stuck with your choices and sometimes you don'tThe story is decent, it's not too long, you get to do some road tripping, some camping, living in a hippie farm, I overall enjoyed the experience, and there is a few references to the first game scattered throughout the story, although they don't seem to have any relevance. My criticism is in playability, unlike the first game you are kind of stuck with your choices and sometimes you don't even realise you are making a choice which sucks a bit. Also I couldn't find an easy way to go back and if I try to reload from a checkpoint I can't skip the cut-scenes. There is a drawing mini game which is kind of stupid, I don't know why developers put these things I find them really annoying. I'm also really bummed that you don't get to play around some of Sean friends too much, it goes to his feeling of how much the situation sucks but I really wanted more of Lyla or Cassidy.

    Reviews shouldn't be political, if you find the existence of latinos offensive then I feel sorry for you in general, but you are not going to like this game, just go play something else.    … Expand
  14. Tplayhow
    Jun 27, 2020
    0
    As a huge fan of the first game, I could not wait for the sequel. I cannot describe in words how disappointed I was.

    The only positives I can think of is how it portrays racism and the struggles of people of color in America, and the final decision at the end could have been very impactful if the rest of the story actually led up to it like in the first game. Unfortunately (and I    As a huge fan of the first game, I could not wait for the sequel. I cannot describe in words how disappointed I was.

    The only positives I can think of is how it portrays racism and the struggles of people of color in America, and the final decision at the end could have been very impactful if the rest of the story actually led up to it like in the first game.

    Unfortunately (and I really am sad to say this), that is all the positives I can think of. On to the negatives:

    The most obvious one is that the life is strange formula does not work as a road trip. In the first game, we got to know all the side characters and the town of Aracadia Bay, which made the final decision in the game feel much more impactful, and we had the mystery of the disappearing girls to keep the story moving forward. This game has zero mystery (apart from how did the little brother get super powers, but that's never explored anyway), and we only get to know side characters for one and a half episodes; just enough so we want to know more about them, and then the game never mentions them again. I think this game could have been a million times better if the main characters stayed with the group in the third episode, but for some strange reason the writers decided against it.

    Another big problem is the game just feels boring, and the fact that the strongest emotion I got from a life is strange game is boredom goes to show the poor quality of this game. Whereas in the first game we had smaller environments to explore with a lot more characters we could get to know, this game either has big environments in which you just waste your time walking at a snail's pace from point A to point B (with very few characters to interact with), or you are literally unable to move and can only advance after looking at certain objects. These parts where you can't even move are incredibly boring, and there's around 2 of them in each chapter.

    Another big problem are the main characters. Not saying Max and Chloe were revolutionary characters, but they had very distinct personalities and you actually wanted to get to know them and their relationship better. In this game, Sean is just a generic teenager with no discernible personality traits, and Daniel... God, don't even get me started. His whole persoanlity is just being annoying. The game tries something interesting where Daniel's personality changes based on how you act with him, but even in my playthrough where I tried my hardest to be a good influence on him, he is just unbearable.

    Lastly, I just want to finish off by saying the first game felt like a coherent story with lots of character and story development in each chapter building off what came before it. However, in a road trip scenario, that's impossible to do, which would be fine if the individual episodes had compelling stories. Unfortunately, apart from the third episode, this is not the case. I really do hope that if there is a LiS 3, they realize what made the first game special and try to recreate a similar experience, and we just forget this game ever existed as time goes on.    … Expand
  15. Awanka
    Dec 27, 2021
    0
    Terrible graphic adventure game where the player is presented with "choices." Sure, I've always wanted to babysit an idiot little brother across the country. When the game isn't annoying, which it almost always is, it's boring. Long stretches where nothing happens and people pontificate endlessly. Its story is filled with contrived family conflict, and tedious melodrama. Being a LifeTerrible graphic adventure game where the player is presented with "choices." Sure, I've always wanted to babysit an idiot little brother across the country. When the game isn't annoying, which it almost always is, it's boring. Long stretches where nothing happens and people pontificate endlessly. Its story is filled with contrived family conflict, and tedious melodrama. Being a Life is Strange game, the superpower here is fairly generic and kind of uninteresting.

    The main characters themselves are pretty horrible. I don't know why games keep putting children as main POVs. There is also a cringy recap sequence before each episode in the form of an allegory with wolf cubs in place of the main characters. It's awful. Maybe the story and dialog being terrible would be forgivable if the gameplay was good, but it's a graphic adventure game so there is no real gameplay. This is all there is.

    The worst thing about it though is that this game only presents the illusion of choice. At every turn you are forced into bad or unethical decisions that don't make sense. When accused of stealing, you can't just show proof that everything was purchased legally. When getting a gift, you're forced to steal instead of just walking away with nothing. When presented with a choice on whether or not to disobey your grandparents' simple request, whatever you choose doesn't matter either way. The narrative forces you to keep a secret at the beginning of the game instead of just telling it which is the obvious and moral thing to do. It just goes on and on with endlessly stupid plot points and terrible choices forced on the player. Early on I just stopped caring.

    This is the first game I've ever given 0 stars. It's not just bad, it's offensive to me as a gamer.    … Expand
  16. Asgard0822
    Nov 4, 2022
    2
    LOVED life is strange 1, but this game is far from the same level when it comes to story.
    way to long cutscenes of the 2 brother walking, the kid is annoying as hell, weak slow paced story...
    really regret buying this game, even if it was only 10 bucks
  17. ArysGaming
    Nov 22, 2020
    2
    This game is a trip, wrong way down the stairs, the story tries to tackle so many relevant political issues, but spreads no message, starts out interesting to then only get worse and worse and worse. The characters are mundane and boring, the interesting ones are either killed of, or are made to disappear.
    There is no good ending in this game, the endings are simply choosing between bad,    This game is a trip, wrong way down the stairs, the story tries to tackle so many relevant political issues, but spreads no message, starts out interesting to then only get worse and worse and worse. The characters are mundane and boring, the interesting ones are either killed of, or are made to disappear.
    There is no good ending in this game, the endings are simply choosing between bad, bad, bad and bad. The story tries to go somewhere and doesn't in the end. Game is slow, boring and predictable, trust me after getting the platinum trophy/completing the game i immediately proceeded to delete this game and so will you as it will be taking up 66gb that you could use for other games that are far better.    … Expand
  18. Morrowclaw
    Jul 18, 2021
    3
    For a game all about decisions it sure doesn't let you make many of them based on the situations you find yourself in. I related more to this store than I did to the first LIS game as I'm an older brother but the game just doesn't let you do anything. The voice acting is a little janky too.
  19. BigMac1988
    Mar 26, 2022
    6
    The plot of the game is okay, but the playability is very poor. Basically, it is running and interacting with certain items, and the gameplay is very simple.
  20. AmberAnk2000
    Apr 6, 2022
    9
    I cried at the end of each episode when I first play through the episodes. They had my attention all the way through, but now. Yes, it doesn't have same effect, but doesn't mean that I hate this game. I still find love for this game.
  21. 67483340
    May 1, 2022
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Me gusta mucho esta saga la juegue todas las anteriores y me gustaron esta secuela me gusto. Desearia que hagan una secuela en los proximos juegos… Expand
  22. jaymeehuynh
    Aug 2, 2023
    0
    So basically in 10 long ass hours of gameplay, u get to babysit a fking spoiled ungrateful 9yo brat who constantly gets on ur nerves and never wanna listen to u, so then all of ur decisions in this game doesn’t fking matter at all since that brat is the one that holds power and u r just a supporting role to escort him and deal with his **** until the end. And what’s with the racist thingSo basically in 10 long ass hours of gameplay, u get to babysit a fking spoiled ungrateful 9yo brat who constantly gets on ur nerves and never wanna listen to u, so then all of ur decisions in this game doesn’t fking matter at all since that brat is the one that holds power and u r just a supporting role to escort him and deal with his **** until the end. And what’s with the racist thing in this game that doesn’t add any development value for the characters at all other than annoys tf outta me (and plz i’m not even white, for those that said things abt how supreme-white ppl rate this game low for that)

    I had high hopes after playing the first game, couldn’t get over it for weeks, looked for dlc and easter eggs etc… and man, this one is such a disappointment.    … Expand
  23. escobar_pablo
    Aug 2, 2023
    2
    The first episode was quite good, the story was going amazing. But afterward, the game becomes so boring, the game story is streaming so slowly, and very childish scenes turn up. 90% percent of whole episodes are boring except the first. barely played till 4th episode and then deleted. 2-3-4 episodes are about being the babysitter of that little ****
  24. Nikeliquid_72
    Nov 2, 2019
    5
    As a huge fan of the series and have been playing this one from the very beginning, i have to say they could've put in more effort, i don't feel the connection to Sean and Daniel like i did with Chloe and Max. The voice acting can go from really good, to god awful. With the weak story and sometimes bad writing, i can say that the game is enjoyable. With a great new soundtrack and beautifulAs a huge fan of the series and have been playing this one from the very beginning, i have to say they could've put in more effort, i don't feel the connection to Sean and Daniel like i did with Chloe and Max. The voice acting can go from really good, to god awful. With the weak story and sometimes bad writing, i can say that the game is enjoyable. With a great new soundtrack and beautiful graphics and some fresh new characters, it doesn't hold up the game. And although the story isn't anything new, it still has its moments and just like the previous LIS games it will pull at your heartstrings. Unfortunately it doesn't live up to the first one or even the prequel BFS. With being such a huge fan of the series i was expecting more, and hopefully in LIS 3 we see some of these issues addressed and hope we get a better sequel in the future.… Expand
  25. Sterling_Archer
    Feb 8, 2020
    4
    The first Life is Strange is one of the best games I've played. I loved it, but number 2 is amazingly bad. Daniel is easily one of my most hated characters in any game. There is little to no character development throughout the entire story, and I felt like my choices meant absolutely nothing. This is clearly not a choose your own adventure game, but a narrative where you can choose whatThe first Life is Strange is one of the best games I've played. I loved it, but number 2 is amazingly bad. Daniel is easily one of my most hated characters in any game. There is little to no character development throughout the entire story, and I felt like my choices meant absolutely nothing. This is clearly not a choose your own adventure game, but a narrative where you can choose what to interact with on your way to the next plot point. The story starts off extremely slow, and I feel only gets slower from there. The tension they build is more infuriating than heart pounding with little to no pay off. I'm completely shocked this was written by the same people as the first. I really wanted to like this game, especially after how amazing the first one was, but this is a game I would never play again.… Expand
  26. Kif1983
    Jan 26, 2020
    4
    It's really unfortunate that the game doesn't work given the success of the previous games. However, I think it's easy to understand where the failures are.

    The game has you following 2 very 1 dimensional, often frustrating characters. They frequently make poor choices, even with no input from you. The other characters have no time to breathe, or develop. In the final episode,    It's really unfortunate that the game doesn't work given the success of the previous games. However, I think it's easy to understand where the failures are.

    The game has you following 2 very 1 dimensional, often frustrating characters. They frequently make poor choices, even with no input from you. The other characters have no time to breathe, or develop. In the final episode, there's an emotional goodbye with a character, I know it's emotional because the music told me so. During the scene, I couldn't help but tap my fingers thinking 'I've spoken to these people literally once, move it along already'. It's very telling that the only emotional hit in the game, for me, was when a character from Life is Strange 1 was talking about events from that game. And, to be honest, that seemed like a cheat to me, relying on the previous games for an actual connection.

    The narrative itself is extremely flawed. Overwhelmingly, it felt like the decisions were entirely pointless. Obviously, a game like this will have a path to follow regardless of the choices. However, even smaller choices were often rail-roaded. There was one particular moment where the story literally wouldn't progress until I stole a yoyo as a gift, simply because I couldn't afford to buy a gift. It didn't seem like there was an option to do anything else. However, if you told me there was and I didn't spot it, I would believe you because that's one of the other problems.

    On looking at the 'X% people chose this' screens. A fair majority of them showed 90+% people did one thing, and the rest were split by the other choices. I believe that in a lot of cases, it's because the other choices were poorly, or, not at all telegraphed.

    Also, to nitpick, a lot of the voice acting seemed very flat. To a point where I stopped interacting with the random objects after a while cause I didn't care, or want to hear about what the character had to say about them.

    If you are looking for a heart warming story about brothers. I would instead suggest Brothers, A Tale of 2 Sons.    … Expand
  27. Kokos742
    Jun 9, 2020
    4
    This is so sad. First game had its weak and naive moments, but it fit the perspective of young girls. YOu had friend to meet and problems to solve. Here only problem is you brat of a brother. He is irritating every single minute and would love to be aloved to leave him to die in the forrest. Every other character is just political caricature and game just does not even allow you to haveThis is so sad. First game had its weak and naive moments, but it fit the perspective of young girls. YOu had friend to meet and problems to solve. Here only problem is you brat of a brother. He is irritating every single minute and would love to be aloved to leave him to die in the forrest. Every other character is just political caricature and game just does not even allow you to have real decision. You can only agree with autor openly or somewhat more mildly. I had to force myself to finish like 10 times… Expand
  28. StrohNamiX
    Jul 27, 2020
    4
    I loved the first game. The second game is however something completely different.

    Story / Character Development.: I could not wait for the finale episode of the first game. Got it on the release date. In comparison. I really needed to force myself to play the last episode of the LiS 2. I waited probably like 6 months after the release of ep. 5. Dontnod doesn't seem to understand what    I loved the first game. The second game is however something completely different.

    Story / Character Development.: I could not wait for the finale episode of the first game. Got it on the release date. In comparison. I really needed to force myself to play the last episode of the LiS 2. I waited probably like 6 months after the release of ep. 5. Dontnod doesn't seem to understand what actually made the first game so great.

    I can tell you what the first game wasn't. A political / social justice infested mess that focused on forcefully feeding you it's agenda instead of telling a captivating story.

    Graphics / Sound / Atmosphere.: Graphics were definitely an upgrade. The style was the same but from a technical perspective it was a nice bump. The music was worse than the first one. It's highly subjective but some of the original soundtracks were just better in the first one.

    Gameplay.: The dialog options you choose within the game don't feel impactful at all. Sometimes you will get 2 dialog options that are pretty much the same. There is nothing new compared to the first game. I even think that the first game had way more interesting choices and a more compelling superpower.

    Conclusion.: I really think that the first game was better in every single part except the graphics. Stupid characters, boring story, trivial joices. I give it a 10/10 for the wokeness factor however.

    Story / Character Development.: 2/10
    Graphics / Sound / Atmosphere.: 7
    Gameplay.: 4/10

    Result.: 4    … Expand
  29. Azhael
    Dec 9, 2019
    3
    Although a fan of LiS1, the second game failed miserably to captivate my interest and involvement. The main problem is that I did not feel "touched" by the brotherly love present in the game and honestly consider that just having a younger brother "influencing" or interfering with your decisions / attitudes / journeys limits the narrative and your free will. Of course, the player still hasAlthough a fan of LiS1, the second game failed miserably to captivate my interest and involvement. The main problem is that I did not feel "touched" by the brotherly love present in the game and honestly consider that just having a younger brother "influencing" or interfering with your decisions / attitudes / journeys limits the narrative and your free will. Of course, the player still has the last decision, but just having a young person "following his example" technically interferes with gameplay.

    In addition, I consider that they wasted a lot of time on the plot exploring the place in some scenes (especially in the first episode) and this detracted from the flow of the narrative. At other times, the player is forced to go on long walks and this has generated more boredom than interest in me.

    Another aspect of frustration was comparing the cast of LiS1 and LiS2: in my view, even though they were not related, there was a stronger connection between Max and Chloe instead of the two brothers. In addition to this, the power of turning back time is much more attractive and useful than telekinesis. For both practical purposes and to make plot development more agile and interesting.    … Expand
  30. Wegx
    Dec 12, 2019
    5
    Ok, where to start... As a person who has always been a big fan of the franchise, I believe it is interesting to make a valid analysis of the reasons why my opinion about this game end up being a little bit mixed. It is important to emphasize that I'm here considering the complete season, which means I played all episodes 1-5.
    - Narrative: Maybe that's the point that bordered me the most.    Ok, where to start... As a person who has always been a big fan of the franchise, I believe it is interesting to make a valid analysis of the reasons why my opinion about this game end up being a little bit mixed. It is important to emphasize that I'm here considering the complete season, which means I played all episodes 1-5.
    - Narrative: Maybe that's the point that bordered me the most. Life is Strange 2 lacks an element that's exactly the strongest point of your predecessors: Depth. Don't take me wrong, the story keeps addressing polemic topics that are actual world issue of our society however; the relation players develop with the characters end up being less intense here. That happens, mainly, because the dynamics of the game introduces a storyline where almost none of the characters seen on an episode show up again on the next one. It can be annoying the way people just seem to disappear through the narrative making most of them just another road acquaintance of which you feel knowing very little. And that does not happen only with the characters, the places are also less emotionally remarkable and can be synthesized as beautiful landscapes you see for 20 minutes and soon have to go away. Although this "life on the road" feeling feats well with the game context the way how it was developed ends up compromising the proximity relationship between the player and the established universe. There were a lot of moments that I felt more touched by Easter eggs of the first game than on supposedly dramatic moments of the sequence. Even on Captain Spirit, you can feel a stronger presence of sentimental and emotional sensitive moments. When it comes to the possible ending, the game can be separated on 4 "main" outcomes with other 3 more "minors" variants inside those four. I think we can say all of them are "ok" and, somehow, can even be considered less "cannon" than the ones on Life is Strange 1.
    - Gameplay: The mechanics, in general, is pretty similar to the first game however; playing without the powers CAN BE LESS INTERESTING. The thing about controlling a "normal" character has already been discussed on Life is Strange: Before the Storm but because the public was already so involved with the whole universe it ended up being more "forgettable", a benefit we don't have here. As interesting as seeing how your actions can "affect" the behavior of your young brother, and that is an actual NICE addition to the gameplay, there are times where you will do everything to convince Daniel to do a certain action and he will simply act like a spoiled kid. Daniel IS A KID and he is expected to act as such however; sometimes it just begins to feel more frustrating and boring than it should and you start to feel more like in a babysitter simulator. It's a FACT: playing without powers can turn the gameplay into something less enjoyable.
    - Graphics, Scenario and Sound Track: Here is one of the few points where the game shows a NOTABLE EVOLUTION compared with the first season. The art style is preserved but everything seems to be more polished. The scenarios are astonishing and you just want to have a camera to capture the moment. By the way, the new collectibles include drawings you make with Sean, which are also a super nice addition that feats well the character's personality. About the soundtrack, like in all the other games of the franchise, this one remains as a strong positive point. The highlight here would maybe be an absence of remarkable songs in the last episode, especially in the final scenes. About the production, in general, I can't complain, so green mark.
    At the end of the day, the game comes with a very different proposal and, for most of the public, DO NOT expect to experience it with the same intensity as the first season. Of course, different narratives have a different impact on different people, however; the minimum expected from a game that carries the same title is some patter and coherence of experience, otherwise, you have to give up some identity core aspects. Life is Strange 2 IS NOT A BAD GAME. But it definitely feels like a step back compared to the other games of the franchise, especially the first season. Life is Strange one can be unforgettable. Life is Strange 2 is just another good game.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

86
#86 Best PS4 Game of 2018
22
#22 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. Cubed3
    Apr 12, 2021
    70
    Anyone that enjoyed the original Life is Strange and opted not to give a chance to this sequel should reconsider right away. The story may not deliver the same impact or suspense, but this is a poignant narrative that many should find a degree of relatability to, with extremely likeable characters in the form of Sean and Daniel. With the full season discounted often and a new game on the horizon, this is a great time to journey south with the Diaz brothers.
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  2. IGN Japan
    Apr 10, 2020
    70
    Different from its predecessor, Life is Strange 2 brings more political themes to the table. Protagonist Sean’s little brother Daniel has supernatural powers, but is too young to distinguish between good and evil, and it is up to the player how you want to guide him. While interesting in theory, this results in a gameplay experience based almost entirely on making decisions, and supernatural elements are not put into use as cleverly as in the original Life is Strange. This makes Life is Strange 2 feel like it lacks focus, because most of its political themes are not fleshed out enough, and the ones that do work don’t really need supernatural elements in the first place.
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  3. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    Jan 9, 2020
    90
    A refined followup with a totally new cast to fall in love with. You should absolutely play Life Is Strange 2. But you might want a box of tissues ready for the ending. [Issue#171, p.85]
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