Life Is Strange 2 is the fourth-ish entry in the Life Is Strange series, and in my opinion it's a very solid one. It's also an LGBT-friendly game - there's a happily married gay couple, a pansexual character, and the main character has romantic options with both a man and a woman.

It's a Telltale-style game, a narrative-based adventure game, wherein said narrative is dramatically impacted by the effect of the choices the player makes throughout the game. It's a tear-jerker that follows the 16-year-old Sean Diaz and his 9-year-old brother, Daniel, as they are on the run from the police after their father is accidentally killed by a cop, and Daniel develops a power that manifests at that moment, killing the cop.

Very different from the first Life Is Strange game, Daniel's power is telekinesis, so unlike the first game, you won't be rewinding time to fix all of your mistakes or poor choices. The effects of your choices may not all be immediately apparently, however - in addition to solving the problems in your face in a certain way, each choice you make also helps to shape Daniel's personality, from his hygiene to his moral fiber. By the end, he might reject your commands, if his personality has been shaped in a way contrary to what you're asking. This is an incredibly powerful storytelling device, and it's a sort of sense of agency that I haven't seen often in video games.

Life Is Strange 2 has some lovely visuals. They're not groundbreaking, but they do convey the beautiful artistry of the world well.

This game continues the series' trend of an absolutely spectacular soundtrack that includes ambient instrumentals as well as songs from independent musicians.

The voice-acting is as superb as I've come to expect from the series. Thankfully, the dialogue writing is *much* better than that of the first game, on par with the rest of the series.

The gameplay is decent for what it is. There's a sketchbook minigame that pops up every now and again that I found simultaneously interesting and boring - I loved watching the sketching, and loved having control over how much detail Sean would add to his drawing, but it often happened at a time when I didn't really want to sit down and sketch.

Which does lead into my one real complaint with the game, which is the pacing. There may have been times when I sat down to play this when I wasn't really in the mood for it, but I definitely observed frustration that the game wasn't moving faster ever here and there, and times when there were items in the world to examine, that I suppose I could have skipped had I not feared missing something important or meaningful, when I would have much rather moved on with the plot.

The characters and story are both solid. We see Sean and Daniel travel across the country, encountering some compelling characters and situations along the way. To be honest the timeskips between each episode grated on me a little, as the characters would talk about the weeks that I missed and I felt like there was important change implied during that time, but I suppose there's not a better way to do that. Ultimately, the choices made throughout the game come together in the ending in a way that I've never seen done so well in a video game, and I think that's a thing to celebrate.

It is also definitely worth mentioning that the Diaz brothers encounter a fair bit of racism along the way, and there are direct themes and, brief, discussions of the political climate in which the game was released in 2018-2019. Indeed, racism might be said to play a strong role in the events that kicked the entire story off.

All in all, if you like sad games with a very strong element of choice, an excellent narrative, compelling characters, and a pace that's at times a little slow, this game is worth your time and money.

Life Is Strange 2 is the fourth-ish entry in the Life Is Strange series, and in my opinion it's a very solid one. It's also an LGBT-friendly game - there's a happily married gay couple, a pansexual character, and the main character has romantic options with both a man and a woman. It's a Telltale-style game, a narrative-based adventure game, wherein said narrative is dramatically impacted by the effect of the choices the player makes throughout the game. It's a tear-jerker that follows the 16-year-old Sean Diaz and his 9-year-old brother, Daniel, as they are on the run [spoiler]from the police[/spoiler] after [spoiler]their father is accidentally killed by a cop,[/spoiler] and [spoiler]Daniel[/spoiler] develops a power that manifests at that moment, [spoiler]killing the cop[/spoiler]. Very different from the first Life Is Strange game, [spoiler]Daniel's[/spoiler] power is telekinesis, so unlike the first game, you won't be rewinding time to fix all of your mistakes or poor choices. The effects of your choices may not all be immediately apparently, however - in addition to solving the problems in your face in a certain way, each choice you make also helps to shape Daniel's personality, from his hygiene to his moral fiber. By the end, he might reject your commands, if his personality has been shaped in a way contrary to what you're asking. This is an incredibly powerful storytelling device, and it's a sort of sense of agency that I haven't seen often in video games. Life Is Strange 2 has some lovely visuals. They're not groundbreaking, but they do convey the beautiful artistry of the world well. This game continues the series' trend of an absolutely spectacular soundtrack that includes ambient instrumentals as well as songs from independent musicians. The voice-acting is as superb as I've come to expect from the series. Thankfully, the dialogue writing is *much* better than that of the first game, on par with the rest of the series. The gameplay is decent for what it is. There's a sketchbook minigame that pops up every now and again that I found simultaneously interesting and boring - I loved watching the sketching, and loved having control over how much detail Sean would add to his drawing, but it often happened at a time when I didn't really want to sit down and sketch. Which does lead into my one real complaint with the game, which is the pacing. There may have been times when I sat down to play this when I wasn't really in the mood for it, but I definitely observed frustration that the game wasn't moving faster ever here and there, and times when there were items in the world to examine, that I suppose I could have skipped had I not feared missing something important or meaningful, when I would have much rather moved on with the plot. The characters and story are both solid. We see Sean and Daniel travel across the country, encountering some compelling characters and situations along the way. To be honest the timeskips between each episode grated on me a little, as the characters would talk about the weeks that I missed and I felt like there was important change implied during that time, but I suppose there's not a better way to do that. Ultimately, the choices made throughout the game come together in the ending in a way that I've never seen done so well in a video game, and I think that's a thing to celebrate. It is also definitely worth mentioning that the Diaz brothers encounter a fair bit of racism along the way, and there are direct themes and, brief, discussions of the political climate in which the game was released in 2018-2019. Indeed, racism might be said to play a strong role in the events that kicked the entire story off. All in all, if you like sad games with a very strong element of choice, an excellent narrative, compelling characters, and a pace that's at times a little slow, this game is worth your time and money.