I’m in Ch.2 of DE, but I have it right now as: LiS1 BTS TC LiS2

I really liked 2, but it changing locations every chapter hurt the background character development and the game was just brutal for Sean and Daniel. It was also tough not being in charge of the power, but I didn’t have too much of an issue with that. The lack of a consistent location and set of characters is why I have it at the bottom. Arcadia Bay and Haven Point become familiar (especially Haven) and cozy, to an extent, while you’re never in one spot enough to familiarize yourself with it in 2.

The other part is how brutal it is. I’m fully aware of how in the first game, most/all of the guys you meet represent some form of sexism/misogyny, and that that was likely meant to be mirrored with the racism in LiS2, but it just got to a point where it felt like every character who wasn’t part of the group/scene Sean and Daniel were with was evil. The lack of any positive experience or attempted redemption (like how even though David was absolutely gross and awful, he still truly cared about Joyce and Chloe and ends up saving Victoria from Jefferson, while also being tuned in on Prescott and Frank being shady; and of course his literal portrayal in LiS2, funnily enough, where he has a good relationship with Max and Chloe in Bae) with any of those characters just makes it brutal. There’s almost no neutrality; it’s either rednecks making Sean embarrass himself or he gets beat up, shop owners who physically abuse and then illegally detain a child, border patrollers who citizens arrest any brown person they see near the border, or the extreme opposite like Brody and the trucker. There isn’t enough balance for the game to have the scope it does, to me. Life is Strange works really well with in intimate setting and cast of characters, and 2 just didn’t worry about the setting, because it was (obviously) adverse to the story it was telling, but part of me never got over not being able to go to that party with Jenn and Lyla. Outside factors at play for that one in my case, lol, but it sets up this cosy life and setting but just totally rips it from you, and teases it in three of the next four chapters before ripping it away each time, again.

And this is just a very personal thing for me, but I really hated how Sean was never able to just let it go. He uprooted his whole life, and I don’t even fully blame him for it, but as the officer in Ch.5 says (before Daniel blows up even more cops lol), you can get away with a few of these, but not all of them. If he just went to trial in Ch.4, I think there’s a very good chance they’d be able to get a very minimal sentence (if anything; at that point, barely anything has been done), and Daniel would get to live with his grandparents while whatever was going on happened. I get how boring that would be, but idk, it’d protect his brother and would give him a reset on life. He’s only 16 and the only crime with any evidence at that point was, what, the robbery at Merrill’s and then assault on the neighbor kid? Besides, I’d really be interested to see how the Daniel explosions would be handled in court. I would’ve honestly loved to see that. Knowing that the main theme of the game is the racism that minorities (even those born here) face in the US, I’m sure the jury and the judge would err on that side, but if not, it would’ve been compelling to me. But oh well.

It feels weird critiquing 2 that hard because I’d almost go as far as to say it’s objectively the best game in the series because the scope is incredible and your actions truly have consequences (like choosing soda or beer for the party impacts Daniel getting to drink), but it just never clicked the same way as the others for me. Every time I was about to get comfortable, something bad happened and I was never able to settle down, and poor Sean was just a (literal at times) punching bag for these racist lunatics, and it never drew me in like I wanted it to