Life is Strange 2 – Episode 1 review

Life is Strange 2 is a welcome return to a series about interpersonal difficulties and human stories. But it’s also an enormous departure from the world that developer Dontnod created when it first took us to Arcadia Bay in 2015. The turbulent, supernatural coming-of-age drama remains, but after one episode Sean and Daniel’s adventure already promises to take us in a very different direction. Whereas Life is Strange was a supernatural mystery its sequel is, instead, a road trip narrative. You play as the 16-year-old Sean Diaz, the son of a first generation Mexican migrant living in the suburbs of Seattle in late 2016. From the opening of the game, Sean is woven into the kind of social tapestry you’d recognise from any portrayal of American high schools from the past few decades. Sports and schoolwork clash with part-time jobs and illicit parties. Sean has to traverse best friends, bullies, and awkward crushes. It’s an opening that’s immediately welcoming. I was entirely sold on Sean, the snapshots of his life and personality on show more detailed than anything Dontnod has produced so far. You’re able to read back through weeks of text conversations with his friends, his dad, his athletics coach. There’s a story waiting to be told in the game’s opening that, to some extent, I’m sad to have missed.