Life is Strange: Before the Storm - Episode 2: Brave New World (PC) Review

Life is Strange: Before the Storm - Episode 2: Brave New World is very consistent in terms of atmosphere, as it retains the same audio-visual quality, directing style, and overall feel of the first episode - unfortunately, with even more robotic facial animation for non-protagonist characters this time around. Like before, there are a couple of zen moments, where "nothing" really happens, and yet are quite enjoyable.

The biggest difference with the first step into Before the Storm are the gameplay sections, which fill the first half of this chapter, take a bit longer to complete, and are, literally, nothing more than chores, while in the original they were an opportunity to explore and get even more immersed in this world.

Story wise, this starts right after Rachel Amber confessed to Chloe about the secret life of her too-good-too-be-true daddy. Once again, the character interactions are great, Chloe is a fantastic protagonist, her relationship with Amber, as well as the rest of the townsfolk is very interesting, and the choices you make do affect the story progression, unlike some other plot-heavy game developers one could mention (*cough* Telltale *cough).

There are a couple of spots that feel inferior to the first episode, like, for example, the dream sequences with Chloe's dad who end up being more silly than emotional, but, for the most part, everything is fine and dandy. There is one flaw, however, and it's far from a tiny one. Brave New World meanders, and does it a bit more than it should. In fact, it seems as if this doesn't really care about going anywhere this time around.

Episode 1: Awake concluded with the revelation that Rachel's dad is cheating on his wife, and, as such, it's safe to assume that this will be the focal point of this chapter. Nope! Brave New World simply puts that aside for two hours or so. Even worse, when the finale finally arrives, it doesn't really feel that good and surprising as it's supposed to.

That's mainly because the mystery lady that Rachel's dad is doing the cheating with isn't really a mystery, as the cliff-hanger ending of Episode 1 visually hints who she really is. A bad chapter? Certainly not. As mentioned before, this feels almost the same as before. It's just that the pacing is way off, not to mention that, for a penultimate episode, it hasn't really managed to add as much to the storyline as it should.