Life is Strange 2 | Episode 3 | PS4 Review (Spoilers)

*CONSTAINS SPOILERS FOR LIFE IS STRANGE 2: EPISODE 3*

Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Dontnod Entertainment
PS4 Review

I have been holding off finishing this episode due to the fact that the last two are so far spaced out for the rest of the year and I wanted to take it all in a bit slower this time and after the events that took place with Mushroom in episode 2, I'm still not over it! I found this episode to be the weakest out of the three so far, I enjoyed it but there was such a slow run up to the action taking place that I felt a little bored most of the time. This episode is more focused on Sean and how he has managed to hold down a job and earn money for him and Daniel to escape to Mexico, we also see two characters we met from episode 2 and find out that Sean works alongside them growing, picking and distributing weed to suppliers. Obviously, this is an illegal job but Sean feels a lot safer hidden in a forest away from anyone trying to find him and Daniel.

It's clear the boys aren't as close as they used to be and it's affected things a considerable amount but not much is spoken about it until we get further into the episode, we do see that the boys aren't hanging with each other as much as they used to and it made me feel quite sad because they were so close and now they're in a new environment it looks like people are slowly coming between the boys. the atmosphere in this episode felt a lot more relaxed but at the same time, I couldn't find it as engaging as the previous two which was disappointing.

Considering the environment the boys were in it felt too carefree for my liking, sean's cautiousness seems to have gone away altogether and there isn't that much thought about them being on the run, they make themselves very comfortable at camp even though they plan on leaving once they have enough money. Daniel has turned into a moody teenager whose focus has moved more on Cassidy than his own brother that was until he needs to go to work. It's just weird to me how they were on guard the previous two episodes only to now be fine whilst working on a weed farm, one of the shadiest places to be especially when they're on the run.

Talking of Daniel, he seems to think he is much older than he is because he has been hanging around with an older guy a lot and seeing Sean moan about this whilst letting it happen was very hypocritical to me. This episode isn't afraid to discuss sex or drugs but it worked because of the kind of people who were working at the farm along with Sean and Daniel. Cassidy who we met in E2 is growing closer to Sean and it's clear there is an attraction there and the game slowly eases itself into how they feel about one another until it's too late and the worst happens towards the end of the episode.

I didn't find the boys interesting at all in this episode, I was concentrating more on Cassidy and her friends than anything, they had a lot of depth to them and had a lot of history to tell, I knew I would click instantly with Cassidy from seeing her in E2 because she is the kind of person I would get along with. Daniel and Sean still keep their secret but without Sean keeping a better eye on Daniel it was clear that Daniel was going to slip up sooner or later in front of the rest of the group and I was waiting for that to happen somewhere in the middle of the episode but nothing really did until the end.

As I said I found this episode slow, there is one scene where we see the group cutting and preparing the weed to be sent off but it feels like it lasts for too long and was made to be some kind of filler to make the episode slightly longer, just like the rest of the episode where they slow things down and leave gaps where the characters are talking to each other, the pauses seem too long-winded. Most of the time the characters were fed up with being there and wanted to move one, they were bored out of their minds and it didn't feel like there was enough story or gameplay like the previous games.

Once I reached the last 30 minutes or so of the episode that's when things started to pick up and get exciting and considering the episode takes about 2 and a half hours to finish that's a huge disappointment. Towards the end Daniel was snooping around where he wasn't meant to and the boys get told they're not welcome there anymore, they don't have near enough money to leave and they have nowhere to go so they decide to tell the group about Daniels powers and the truth about what went on in their life.

I honestly don't know why Sean felt the need to do this, it felt like the silliest choice he could make especially when this group of people could turn on them any chance they got no matter how nice they seemed, it was pretty obvious it would all go wrong for them. Finn took it upon himself to use Daniel as a pawn in his plan to steal money from the guy they were working for and because Cassidy and Sean didn't agree to the plan in the first place Finn took it upon himself to use Daniel even after saying he wouldn't let anything happen to him.

I don't want to give away the end but it was the best part about this series, I'm hoping episode 4 will be a lot better and has more action, from the looks of the preview for it a lot is going to change. Overall I give this episode 2/5 I know that's pretty low but I expected more after the previous episodes.