SJ Longthorne

Do I know anybody who played Life is Strange: Before The Storm BEFORE playing the original game? I'd be super interested in hearing about your experience.https://twitter.com/sarahlongthorne/status/1272866148955152391 …

What did you think of LiS 2?

I really liked how they approached the branched endings with 50% immediate choice and 50% accumulated impact. All the player agency of 1 while retaining mystery about the outcome. Not a big fan of road trip narratives though; didn't have time to grow fond of people.

I also had some trouble with the brothers. There were elements of their relationship that I couldn't be caught up on as a player, so Sean's options wouldn't reflect how I, playing Sean, felt; there were times where I could only be mean. I've never had siblings though, so.

I also found that my irritation at Daniel often spiked higher than any accumulated fondness. I'd sometimes end an episode having got to a good place with him, then have the next episode set X time later when our relationship ain't great again. That was wearying.

I'm at peace with the fact that this game probably wasn't made with me in mind, demographically speaking, and I'm delighted to see how much friends of mine (for whom it had greater resonance) loved it. The first one will always be 'mine', so to speak.

So yeah. On balance, I really liked the branch design, less so the narrative itself, though that is (probably) largely down to this being a game built with others in mind. So I'm glad it exists ^_^