Finished Episode 1 of Life is Strange 2. Loved it, loved the new characters, loved the story beats, loved the idea of a road trip story, loved how woke it was, how unashamedly political it was.
For a road trip narrative, you're relying a whole lot on the main characters, the one's you'll be following throughout the narrative. There's no side characters to bounce off of, no regular locations you can return to. And given that our two main characters aren't, you know, Max and Chloe, the task of getting people invested in our two new leads, Sean and Daniel Diaz, is quite a tall one. It could have been overwhelming, especially having a little kid character as your 'sidekick'. But Daniel's adorable even when being infuriating in the way only little siblings can be. Sean is a great protagonist, and I really felt for the kid (it's vital to remember that Sean's still just a kid), helped by a powerful performance from the voice actor Gonzalo Martin.
Rooting the story in such an contemporary political background is certainly a bold move, and one I applaud DONTNOD for. It's rare to see in games, a willingness to tackle such real world issues that are taking place right now, but they've handled it well so far, and if they keep this up then there's Life is Strange 2 is going to be really something special. They're not pulling any punches here.
Also, in absolute spoilergeddon territory, this hurt me in my heart. Don't click unless you've finished it, seriously.
