The second episode of Life is Strange focuses on the secondary characters within Max’s world. Where episode one did little to introduce us to the other characters in the Life is Strange story, episode two centers entirely around them.
The result of this focus on character building means the episode is a little light on action and slow at times throughout, yet it does a great job at building the sense of there being a living world outside of Max’s life. We experience Kate’s suffering, Chloe’s struggle and an introduction to Chloe’s mother. However, that is not to say that there is no excitement in the episode. A major plot event occurs at the end of the episode which is the entire purpose of the character building within the episode.
Neither the story of Max nor the relationship between Max and Chloe are built upon in this episode; much of it is spent showing other people Max’s powers of reversing time. As a result, the episode drags along and suffers from bad timing. The episode deals with the heavy topics of drugs, severe depression, bullying, sexual harassment and abuse from both the side of the victims and the perpetrators. Due to the character building which this episode focuses on, you begin to develop an emotional connection to even the secondary characters. To be made to watch them suffer or be abused and bullied is often quite difficult to play through.
However, as the episode draws towards its close, you will begin to see the effects of the choices you made throughout the episode. Even the small choices made which you did not think would have much of an overall effect can end up having significant and far reaching consequences for the characters in the game. One thing which I can say with certainty is: there is no perfect set of choices to produce a good outcome for all the characters. Whatever you choose to do, there will be negative effects for some character(s).
Overall, while the second episode does suffer from some timing issues and periods of slowness, it overall does a good job of building the player’s relationship with the characters and delivers some moments of excitement, particularly towards the close of the episode. If you enjoyed the opening episode, episode two is a worthy continuation of the story.