Life is Strange 2 isn’t finished yet, but already it’s something I think will be looked back on as something pretty special. I can’t think of a game that has captured the indie film feel in that medium quite like it has, in the sense of its more grounded, subtle characterizations and portrayal of life. Even with superpowers involved, it’s probably the most realistic slice of life game I can think of, at least within recent memory. Unfortunately, that realism has bled over in an unfortunate and sad way to real life
The first Life is Strange was an unexpected success. It was a game that also went for that “indie” feel, including a lot of alternative artists defining the game’s breezy soundtrack. Its gimmick was that the main character had the power to rewind time, using it to save an old school friend, and stumbling into a murder mystery with a slight David Lynch flavoring. It really captivated people largely because it was something we hadn’t seen very much in video games. The community that developed around it hung on every episode (it was released in 5 individual part). It got a shorter prequel, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, that also got a lot of love.
The game’s developer, Dontnod, had a big hit. But, to their credit, they chose not to rest on their laurels and announced the second game would feature a different cast and the series would be an anthology.
After several teases, we finally got a look at what Life is Strange 2 would look like. It featured a story about two Latino brothers, Daniel and Sean, on the run after the younger of the two manifests powerful telekinetic powers when their father is gunned down by a trigger happy Seattle police officer.
You can probably tell just by that description the game is heavily political, much more so than the original. Even though parts of the game are less blunt, it’s there quite obviously for those that explore past the main story track. The game begins in 2016 before the Presidential election, and you can check text messages between the main playable character, Sean, and his friends as they face anxiety at Trump’s possible win. In the second episode, they are forced to hide at their grandparent’s house, who are the parents of their absentee white mother. When you get a chance to explore their house you can check the grandfather’s computer to see he frequently visits hard rightwing websites in the vein of Breitbart.
But the central story is about the two brothers on the run from the law, and Sean struggling with what to do with his little brother’s developing powers.
While the game still has two episodes to go, I can already say that Life is Strange 2 is a better game than its predecessors. While I appreciate the first game, it’s not particularly well written, and for games that hinge so much on their story that’s far more important than the average title. Life is Strange 2 also clearly has a bigger budget so a lot of the corners obviously cut visually isn’t as apparent here.
It also has gone largely ignored.
While neither Dontnod or publisher Square Enix have released any official numbers, the game launched with ¼ the player concurrency on Steam than the first episode of Before the Storm, and even below the first episode of the original game, which was a completely unknown entity at the time. While the first episode got some critical attention, a few nods at the end of the year game awards for instance, the second and third have gotten almost entirely ignored by most outlets (very few places reviewed the latest episode). While it’s hard to call something a failure yet, especially something episodic in nature, it’s not looking too good.
In that way, the game’s story has bled over into reality.
While people fell in love with the plight of young, white suburban women attending a private school in a murder mystery, they seemed to have ignored the far more true to life experience of people of color. As Daniel and Sean run across America, fearing police at every turn, forced in situations like having to work on illegal pot farms or camping out in closed off sections of parks, that doesn’t seem to have to struck the same chord as the first.
I do think there’s other obvious reasons why the game probably isn’t doing as well as the first game. It launched at almost twice the price, and the episodes have suffered some major delays. There are actually several non-racial things one can point to as to why the game is probably underperforming.
I am aware that the main characters of the first Life is Strange are queer, too, and I don’t want to diminish the plight of LGBTQ individuals or downplay their representation just because they are white. I know for many fans that’s also one of the reasons it resonated so strongly and why the community around it has developed. However, a lot of that content surrounding that game’s queerness is designed so you must play a specific way to actually see it, and was not an apparent aspect of the game until later episodes. The ethnicity of the characters in Life is Strange 2 is something that is front and center from the beginning, and its plot is directly driven by an action of police brutality towards people of color. While that game’s queerness is something that can be missed or, more cynically, ignored, who Sean and Daniel are cannot be. Even if you don’t explore the various environments in Life is Strange 2 to see the most overtly political statements, the fact that they are minorities and persecuted by an unfair system is something that is always front and center. It cannot be missed nor ignored, forcing potential players to stare its face in a much more aggressive way.
One has to admit, even if there’s other reasons you can point, it’s eerily symbolic that a game that focuses on the plight of minorities in America seems to be going ignored. That raw reality of the suffering of the marginalized that well-meaning folks (or not so well meaning in many cases) choose to look away from in favor of something more familiar, less real and, if the truth is told, just a slightly different skin tone they actually care about. While I keep my fingers crossed the game actually is performing well or at least will find its own strong audience, I fear that the virtual brothers are to share the same fate as the flesh and blood people who no one pays attention to, or worse, perhaps are eventually seen but then casually ignored. It’s sad and unfortunate story, and truly it is an American story.