Delivery via email
PlayStation Network Card €10
€ 10,00
Life is Strange 2 Episode 4 review
By: Maud
Warning: this review contains major spoilers for Life is Strange 2! Read our spoiler-free preview of Life is Strange 2 here.
Previously on Life is Strange 2
If you have played the first 3 episodes of Life is Strange 2, you will know by now that Sean and his little brother Daniel fled Seattle after their father was wrongfully shot and killed by a police officer. Daniel appears to have telekinetic powers so the brothers run to Mexico in the hopes of finding their estranged family members. But on their way, they only seem to run into trouble, until they meet a group of wandering teens. Adding a few of Sean’s peers to the mix puts a strain on Daniel, who wants to feel part of the group. He starts showing his frustration a lot more and his confidence in his superpowers grows. Episode 3 ends with Daniel’s huge outburst that also injures Sean. The end clip shows Sean unconscious surrounded by rubble, but Daniel is nowhere to be seen…
And so it continues
The story picks up 2 months after the incident. The scene starts when Sean wakes up in the hospital with a shaved head and an eye patch after having a nightmare, which immediately raises a lot of questions. Who found him? What happened to Finn? And most importantly, where is Daniel? Sean used his sketchbook during his time in the hospital and even received several letters from friends, that provide me with a bit more information on the situation. After a visit from the nurse I find out his left eye is not working optimally and his depth perception will be weakened for the rest of his life. His check-up is cut short when a social worker comes in to interrogate him once again. In this scene, I get to make some choices, like whether or not to tell the truth about what happened with Merrill. I choose the honesty route, and that does seem to help the situation a bit.
The escape
The search for Daniel is already in progress, but for Sean, this is not fast enough. Staying in the hospital any longer and going to juvie is not something Sean is looking forward to, it is much more important to him to find Daniel. So, we escape! The escape scene could have been a lot more exciting in my opinion. A stealth scene in which you have to find your way to the exit and sneak past guards would be much more fun. Instead, it is relatively easy to escape through the window without alerting anyone. I do pass by Finn’s room on my descent, so I had the change to chat with him for a bit. Once Sean arrives at the parking lot, it doesn’t take him long to find a car and literally jump-start it in 5 seconds. This could also have been much more challenging.
Welcome to Nevada
After travelling for at least 8 hours, Sean arrives in Nevada, where Daniel could be hiding. It doesn’t take long for Sean to find confrontation again as a racists dude wakes him from his sleep in his car in the middle of the night. But because I choose not to give him the response the racist guy is looking for, he thinks it’s okay to give me a good beating. The second guy who was watching sympathetically is nice enough to pick Sean up, throw him back in the car and send him on his way. And if things weren’t going bad enough, the car runs out of gas quickly after and Sean has to continue his journey on foot.
Reuniting with Daniel
The rest of the way to Nevada is very slow and nothing much happens. Sean manages to hitch a ride with a truck driver to Haven Point, a Christian church. As we enter the church, a surprise is waiting around the corner; Daniel is here! I was actually expecting the search for Daniel to take a lot longer and to be harder. So far I haven’t had to make any difficult choices that could influence my journey to find Daniel. The reunion between Sean and Daniel also did not go as I expected, because apparently, Daniel’s powers aren’t a secret among the church people. He is even seen as an angel – a gift from God that is going to help the people find their way. Unfortunately, another conflict between Sean and the Christian leader arises and they kick Sean out. Daniel even makes it clear that he rather stays with his newfound family. And we are back to square one…
And another surprise
As if we haven’t had enough surprises in this episode, outside the church, Sean comes face to face with Karen, his mother. He doesn’t hesitate to join her and go to a motel nearby for a well-needed shower. We finally get to know more about Karen, and Sean gets some answers to questions he has had for a long time. After some sort of trust is established, they decide to go save Daniel from the evil leader that brainwashed him. After another long (verbal) fight, he convinces Daniel to come with him and flee the burning church (yeah, it was suddenly on fire). And that concludes the fourth episode with Sean, Daniel and their mother reunited again.
My verdict
To be honest, I found this episode to be quite boring. It even became a bit lonely after a while. Without the interactions with Daniel and his cheeky remarks, there is a lot less to do. Although this was very normal in Life of Strange 1, I guess I became used to always having Daniel close by. And without Daniel, there were also no kinetic powers to mess around with. These were the more fun scenes in the previous episodes. Furthermore, I think it is a shame that there were hardly any choices in this episode that actually made a difference in the story. There were only small choices that determined the way a conversation went, but that was it.
I am curious as to how the last episode will conclude the story this December. Do you want to experience Sean and Daniel’s story for yourself? You can buy the 5 episodes all together or each episodes separately.
