Life Is Strange 2 – Episode 2: Rules Review

Starting from a story that first starts out playful and innocent, to immediately turning into a story of two brothers, Sean and Daniel, running away from the police; while learning to survive out in the open world all on their own, episode two shines some light for both Sean and Daniel as they slowly make their way down the country.

Taking place some time later following the events of the previous episode, both Sean and Daniel, by this time, are more aware of what Daniel can do with his powers and have already gone through several practice sessions to help him learn to develop and control his powers. Having taken refuge in an abandon cabin during the stormy winter time, it’s here where we also see how much both brothers have learnt to adapt and look after one another, from setting up traps for food to salvaging supplies. We even see Sean become a little more of big brother when he shares a bonding moment with Daniel early on over a hand-made board game, but it’s afterwards as the two pack that we also see Sean becoming cautious and responsible of not only Daniels’s actions, but also his own actions when given the option to correct Daniel’s profanity issue. If you choose to correct him, Sean will even catch himself in the moment of swearing before cutting himself off as he starts to understand how much of a positive influence he has to be.

Apart from Sean caring for his brother early on, it’s afterwards when the two actually make it to their grandparents, the Reynolds, that really sets everything in motion.

Much like how episode one asks you what your choice from the original Life is strange final episode was, as which depending on what you decided would eventually show some aftermath consequences later on its story, episode two plays a particular role. If you had the chance to play the free short story, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, then you’ll soon find out how the these two different paths tie together.

While the boys are still on the run, it’s their grandparents that help provide them protection under their roof that, with the two on the run and them being in such a small town that is Beaver Creek Colorado, means the chances of them being able to live under a low profile are thin for as long as they’re able to follow their grandmother, Claire’s strict set of rules in addition to their own. The problem with the story trying to set the idea of rules around the two is that story would often at times tell you that having Daniel use his power out in the open is wrong, but would then overrule everything Sean would tell Daniel and put you in the spotlight of using Daniel’s powers and, or, Daniel would completely disregard the rules and Sean would follow along away.

For an episode that wants to make itself clear on how crucial the value of their rules to stay hidden are, it’s almost pointless when the main rule is to make sure they don’t stand that are constantly nonexistent.

Despite being so contradicting of itself, it’s Chris Eriksen a.k.a Captain Spirit that brings in some humor and color to an episode that is often serious and mundane. It’s nice to see both stories come together, because its helps us have a better understanding from Chris’s father’s perspective, which is actually a rather nice touch and helps shine some positive light of his side of the story.

While the game’s central characters are for the most part well developed and likable, the majority of the supporting cast clearly exist only to advance Sean and Daniel onto the next stage of their journey.

Balancing out a game with multiple paths and complex characters like Life is strange and the story that each player gets, will never fully satisfied or even feel like it’s the right outcome. Several occasions this series has it nailed down, but at least for this particular episode, just misses a few narrative beats favoring it with shocks and hard lessons to really be one of those classic episodes of this still great franchise. As for how or if any of these characters will ever get screen time again, especially if Captain spirit will still play a factor in the story is unclear, but I don’t doubt this will be last that we’ll get to see of them.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PlayStation 4 code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.