Spoilers ahead
Life is Strange has been a pretty significant video game series for me in the latter half of this decade. The game just has this aura to it, and is so good getting the player invested in the story and characters. Now we’re at the end of the second season.
On the previous Life is Strange, Sean had managed to save Daniel from a devious cult leader and they were reunited with their estranged mother Karen. Episode 5 opens with Sean and Daniel camping on a cliff side, still on the run but in a better position than they have been in a long time.
They have been staying with Karen at a commune far away in a desert, where she lives amongst other adult runaways. This had parallels with Episode 3 where Sean and Daniel were also in a environment detached from society but at least this time it’s not as nefarious as a weed farm.
What I wasn’t expecting was to run into David. Freaking David as in Chloe’s step-dad who has been a sort of domestic antagonist in the series. He now lives in the commune and has a ponytail.
This was quite surreal because there is now a link between the Diaz brothers and Max. David is a changed man, having gone through tragedy, at least if Chloe has died. This was a interesting way of tying in the events from Max’s story without overshadowing the current story.
After some emotional farewells, Sean and Daniel leave the commune and make way for the border. They get so close to freedom as they arrive at the border finally, however Daniel gets shot at by some “patriots” and then the police show up and arrest them. There’s a scene with Sean in a jail cell with a Mexican couple who tried to cross the border and I can only imagine that this scene is not so far from reality.
It really felt that this was the end of the line, but Daniel gets back on his feet to break the brothers out of jail in a very intense sequence where you could choose to have Daniel straight up kill the police officers, if you want to go full villain.
Once again the brothers arrive at the border and naturally there is a stand off. This is it, the big final choice scene. Either surrender or cross the border. Of course I chose cross the border, it was always leading up to this.
Daniel completely goes HAM, thrashing people and cars across the air, stopping actual firing bullets.
After the carnage, it’s over and at long last they drive away from it all.
An epilogue follows where Sean and Daniel have settled in Puerto Lobos six years later, running a repair shop. They live in a dangerous area but Daniel is able to fend off anyone that threatens them. This is just one possible ending you can get, it’s bittersweet but the brothers are alive and together.
There are several other endings which range from sad to really sad depending on how the player choose to use Daniel’s power and the influence this has on Daniel. I’m not going to replay through the game so I just watched the other endings on YouTube and I’m impressed with the vastly different outcomes, this really gives weight to the choices made throughout the game.
Well, that’s brings Life is Strange 2 to a close. I have to say final episode was handled far better than previous season which in hindsight was a bit of a mess.
I am so up for more Life is Strange games and the expansion of the Life is Strange Universe (LISU).
At My Desk 