This is a great spiritual successor to the original Life is Strange. The same director, Michel Koch, back at the helm. I truly feel like the Life is Strange series took a huge dip in quality after the first game. I wasn't a fan of the sequel and now that series has been passed down to Deck Nine Games, they're.... They definitely doing things with the series I'm not engaged with.

DONTNOD's writing has massively improved from LiS. Even being a huge fan of the first game, dialogue came off as really cringey and forced at times. I was familiar with the slang because it was genuine. Because I grew up with that generation who used that kind of slang but DONTNOD's writing of it was very awkward. Their character writing is leagues better now. I think a huge turn off for a lot of people in LiS was how characters were written, especially Chloe Price and how she was written. I actually understand that. I first played LiS as a teenager and let it slide. But now as I adult I just wanna tell her to quit complaining and grow up.

I feel Nora is a better written Chloe. Immature and carefree but not whining about her life and "woe is me" attitude. Autumn is the chill person everyone gets along with. Kat is the firecracker, very filled with teenage anger but will stand up for her friends without hesitation. Swann is the shy introvert that slowly comes out of their shell and slowly grows a better self-esteem from her new friends supporting her.

I found all four of the girls written well. I never felt I was in a position where I just wanted them to go away in certain scenes or stop talking. No doubt we all have our favorites (Kat is mine) but their chemistry feels genuine. We all had friends we love/loved at one time but we sometimes did have pet peeves about them that you wish they changed. I think the constant transition between teenagers and adults really shows that and their growth. Even as adults we cringe at our younger selfs from time to time. In the adult scenes they do just that and some of the antics they did.

DONTNOD's music once again hits that string of nostalgia. A nostalgia that you can or maybe cannot put into words.

One major complaint I do have is the game has some graphical problems. The most prominent one is the texture pop in. Especially the transition between teen and adult you'll see pop in. I've also had a few times where the game loaded up and it felt like a source game showing purple textures. I easily resolved it by reloading the checkpoint but I hope they work out these kinks.