There is no more adventures with Max Caulfield nor with Chloe Price in Arcadia Bay. For Life is Strange 2, the game follows a pair of brothers hitting the road to the country of Puerto Lobos in hopes of starting their lives over despite facing tragedy.
Meet the Diaz Brothers…
Moving from Arcadia Bay to the city of Seattle, the Diaz brothers named Sean and Daniel Diaz reside with their divorced father living a normal life for a couple of kids in their early teens…Sean is dating a girl from high school and Daniel is doing what Daniel is doing best and that is living life as a “superhero” while looking forward to an outstanding future.
Daniel Diaz pictured using his kinetic superpower to pick-up a whole wooden stump out of the river in the “Wastelands” episode (Episode 3).
All of these things are what any kids looks for unless one slight mishap with a neighbor snowballs into a nightmare that makes a future come crashing down with murder and a mysterious superhuman power that magically appears with Daniel to help fight of anyone who tries to capture and torment the brothers.
Living life on the run from law enforcement to the FBI, both Sean & Daniel have one goal and that is to make a run for Mexico in hopes of eluding prosecution to start their lives over.
The only problems for both Sean and Daniel is the fact they will have to look over their shoulders and be careful with who they might meet that includes extended family (including a distant family member that Sean despises for abandoning his family many years ago) to people living off the grid out in the woods of Oregon to the deserts of Arizona who might turn the brothers in. Also, they will have to try to survive and have food available to avoid starving to death. All of this due to the brothers innocence and due to Sean looking out for his brother to their father protecting their boys when trouble is on the horizon.
Making the Right Choices – Life Is Strange 2 Gameplay
Picking up from previous Life is Strange games, Life is Strange 2 measures the consequences of your actions by what you decide that can help or hurt you later in the game while staying as a third-person adventure game as usual.
As expected you’ll get to meet complete strangers like a travel blogger who supposedly likes to write about people to even an original “Life Is Strange” character that makes another return in Life Is Strange 2.
The interaction view in LIS 2 is much the same with the exception you can get Daniel involved in the communication when the notification prompts so
The only differences is now you must make sure that you protect your brother as well as make sure he does not turn into a “super villain” based on your actions since this game is played more like a co-op game.
Some of these decisions including to steal or not to steal from other people as well as to allow Daniel to use his superpower or force him to stand down with “using the force” when the situation arises…just make sure you always make the right decisions.
At the end of each episode, each decision that you made or the actions of Daniel are measured by a percentage that will help you measure whether or not your decision was made just like the majority of other players who were faced with the decisions.
On the contrary to making decisions and weighing on the consequences, the communication between characters is much the same with some dialog being “timed” meaning that some of the dialog can allow Sean to say nothing to trigger some random dialog with the character you’re communicating with.
As for keeping track of the Diaz brother’s activity, Sean’s diary keeps a journal of their activity that happened during the particular episode and activity that happens hours and days after the episode concludes as well as a “roadmap” on where they are located exactly and how far they are away from Puerto Lobos.
Also, just like any other Life Is Strange game there is also the opportunity to explore around each area to read notes, letters, and selecting non-readable items you see to gather extra dialog thoughts from Sean while also getting a chance to take a seat to get extra dialog as well.
Creating Your Own Artistic Masterpiece…
If anybody remembers Max Caulfield’s talent as an artist with the use of photography, she used her talent to collect photographs and make a collage in her diary. The same is mentioned in Life Is Strange 2 for Sean Diaz as he shows off his artistic talents by drawing or sketching a picture of the environment that would worth a million words to describe.
When prompted on screen to “draw,” Sean can sit down and draw anything including adding a twist to the drawing even if it includes Daniel in the drawing or something mischievous that is hard to comprehend in the picture. Every drawing done is considered a collectible type in Life Is Strange 2 and can also be found in Sean’s diary.
Collecting Souvenirs on the Road – Life Is Strange 2 Collectibles
Besides creating an art gallery in Sean’s diary, there are other collectibles to pick up on the way to the border wall of Mexico.
These other collectibles are “souvenirs” of random items that you might remember a certain town or location of whether it’s a bumper sticker, a wood carving, even Cassidy’s guitar pick as a calling card to show off her punk musician side.
Each of the 5 episodes would contain between 3 to 5 souvenir collectibles per episode not including the drawing collectibles mentioned before (there would be 6 collectibles total per episode).
Personal Views about Life is Strange 2
Life is Strange 2 stays true to the previous Life is Strange games and the plot expected without anyone knowing any obvious outcomes.
The game’s outcome and decisions are all put into the player’s hands whether aiming for happy or sad outcomes.
Although, this game does raise the bar by forcing the superpower away from the main playable character to the AI partner in this case with Daniel, not Sean having the power.
It’s up to you playing as Sean to determine whether Daniel should show his powers or not and weighing out those consequences. Bottom line, Life is Strange 2 remains a “simple” game to play, enjoy, and live moments that would “Hit Home” and relate as far as feelings felt from the 1st Life is Strange game.
