I never had the opportunity to play the original Life is Strange, however, I feel that this allowed me to approach this review with an unbiased perspective. I had no expectations, good or bad, going into my experience of playing the sequel. I have also been informed that, while the two games are connected, it is not necessary for someone to have played the first Life is Strange in order to enjoy the sequel. As far as I know, there is only a tangential link between the two stories and the main characters of the sequel are unrelated to the story from the first.
The first thing that struck me, even while going through the introductory section of the game, was just how authentic the writing is for the characters in this game. Which, for a game that is largely focused on character development and interesting storylines, was a good sign. The game is full of choices. Some are seemingly more important than others, but even seemingly benign ones can end up changing the course of the story in unpredictable ways. It is also designed in such a way that it is not clear which choice is the “good” choice or the “evil” choice. The game doesn’t prompt you with comments like “they’ll remember that” to let you know that your choice was right or wrong. In fact, I’d wager that there really aren’t right or wrong choices, just choices. Much like in life. Strange, isn’t it?
The game does a wonderful job of putting you in the shoes of a teenage boy placed in circumstances beyond his understanding and control, all while having to deal with the typical parts of being a teenage boy, like girls and parties, and having to deal with your annoying younger brother. There’s angst, and misunderstanding, bullies, and terrible adults. But there is also love, and hope, and beauty. It’s a good story, regardless of what choices you make, and regardless of if you get a good or bad ending.
As far as how the game works on the Nintendo Switch, I will say that the performance and graphics seemed pretty good, overall. It did seem like some of the overall detail was probably downgraded in order to keep performance at an acceptable level for the hardware capabilities of the console, but any concessions that were made did not hamper my experience.
However, it was frustrating that the game’s loading times, especially when you’re first starting a session, are quite long. I also experienced one hard crash early on in my playthrough, which forced me to restart the game and have to go through the long loading process all over again. Long loading screens aside, once you get into the game, it runs well and plays smoothly.
Bottom line, if you’re already a fan of the Life is Strange franchise and are looking to play it again on a mobile console, then I think that playing it on the Switch is an acceptable choice. If all you have is a Switch and you’re looking to play the game for the first time, this is also an acceptable choice. Another thing to note again, is that it is unnecessary to have played the first Life is Strange in order to enjoy the sequel.
However, I’d say that if you had the choice between playing this game on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, or the Switch, I’d probably choose to go with one of the other systems instead, all other things being equal.
