Please note, the following review contains potential spoilers for the wonderful story that is Life is Strange. You've been warned.
Following straight on from the end of episode one back in February, where we saw our unwitting, but brilliant, heroine Max Caulfield discovering that she had the ability to turn back time after bearing witness to a brutal murder, episode two seeks to build upon the highly emotive events within episode one.
It really delivers in this regard, because after five minutes you'll be dewy eyed and wishing that the internet didn't exist. The player is thrust head first into a storm of horribly relatable bullying that covers Blackwell Academy like a plague, ominously hanging over the majority of conversation and creeping around every inch of the dorm rooms.
However, before you're subjected to this, you get the opportunity to indulge in this series' beautiful soundtrack once again as you wake up from the day before. By flicking on the radio and walking around Max's room, you're given small snippets of information that help us understand our introverted superhero.
After lazying to the dulcet, Indie tones, you have to move slowly down the corridor to understand how intense the problems are within this school. It's almost like watching something from Mean Girls, with one ring of aggressors and a vicious, venomous head that hurts others for the fun of it all.
The player sees just how hateful this ring is as Max takes a morning shower, as Kate Marsh, a devout religious girl who had the misfortune to get drunk with the wrong company, is verbally beaten down by Victoria and one of her sycophantic friends.
It's amazing how well this game can make you properly hate some of its cast in such a short period of time. After Victoria makes her jokes and makes Kate run away in tears, she writes the URL of the viral video that has caused such a stir within the town of Arcadia Bay.
This episode also builds upon everything that you were told during the previous instalment, adding more depth to Max's powers and how they work, as well as your powers as a detective and keen eyed sort. The puzzles come hard and fast during the first hour and then don't show again until a tense train sequence much later.
A video game hasn't been able to play with my emotions this well since the finale of The Last of Us and no game has ever made me think this hard about every single decision throughout the entire experience. It's truly mind bending how much you actually think about a fifty-fifty question, because you have to consider everything that will, or won't happen depending on what you decide to do.
Power of choice and careful thought are paramount here, because all the choices come together into a single moment that will change how the rest of your episodes will play out. In that moment, you'll either feel like a savour or an absolute criminal.
Life is Strange plays out fantastically then, it's very well put together, with no obvious flaws or glitches and is hinting at something far darker that is lurking on the horizon. In the ending cut scenes, it shows the player a highly disturbing clue that looks to completely turn episode three on its head.
Life is Strange (Episode 2: Out of Time) * * * * *
Matt Dawson
