![]() While the second episode, “Rules,” ended with the Diaz brothers hitching a ride along a southbound train, the third episode begins with Sean and Daniel being well-established within this hippie camp. The flashback transitions into the present timeline of the vagabond Diaz brothers who have taken refuge in a hippie camp out in the great sequoias of Northern California. One of the things that this third episode does really well is rely on its licensed music, which has always been one of the strongest aspects of Life is Strange. You can think of this flashback as a parable for the tone of the episode to come. You have the option to pin it on Daniel or take the responsibility, but either way the two brothers devolve into a “he said, she said” situation when trying to explain to their father what happened. As they break apart, Daniel bumps into the bookshelf in the living room, knocking over one of their dad’s trophies and breaking it. ![]() Sean notices and chases after Daniel and punishes him in a normal, brotherly way, with either a noogie or the classic “stop hitting yourself” that siblings inflict on each other. Daniel sneaks in while Sean’s headphones are in and attempts to steal a watch from his desk. The scene begins with Sean laying alone in his room, listening to music. For the first time since “Roads,” we see a glimpse of the mundane day-to-day relationship between Sean and Daniel’s life before the incident with their father, and how he was a necessary guiding force in their early development after their mother abandoned them. The episode begins with a flashback to three months before the devastating events that framed the first episode: the death of the Diaz brothers’ father. This first theme of brotherly tension manifests itself in the game’s opening gambit. I identified three main themes throughout this third episode: tension between the Diaz brothers, their unstable lifestyle, and the exploration of identity as Sean enters adulthood. After playing “Wastelands,” I can say that I’m still not convinced that this story has as much narrative potential as its predecessor, but that the series has finally articulated what kind of game it is trying to be and what kind of story it is trying to tell. The third episode of Life is Strange 2 was the make-or-break episode for this struggling spiritual sequel to one of my favorite games of all time.
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