Putting Too Much Faith in A Series: ‘Life is Strange 2: Faith’ Review
The original Life is Strange series is one of my favorite games of all time. The characters, the worldbuilding, the magical realism, the soundtrack, the gameplay and how it’s integrated into the narrative themes – all of these elements coalesced into something transcendent and unforgettable. As I’ve written before, Life is Strange 2 falls far short of its predecessor. “Roads” was a slow but steady start. “Rules” was a complete slog. “Wastelands” was at least decent. And now “Faith” has released and I don’t know exactly how to think about it. But like “Wastelands,” at least it’s a step in the right direction. I just worry that it has taken too long for us to reach the point where the story earns its place alongside the original.
“Faith” contends with “Wastelands” as the strongest episode of Life is Strange 2 so far, mostly because the main character, Sean, spends most of the episode alone and struggling – but that’s not saying much. A lot has gone wrong for Sean up until this point. He’s lost his brother Daniel, he’s lost his left eye, and now he has lost part of his identity that he was beginning to finally explore in the previous episode. I don’t relish in these things happening to Sean, but the suffering he endures throughout this episode truly strengthen his character, which is something badly needed.
The episode begins in a hospital where Sean awakens. By observing the room, we quickly learn a lot about what unfolded after the explosive ending to “Wastelands.” A business card conspicuously lurks on a nearby table to Sean’s hospital bed, revealing that he has been repeatedly questioned by a detective from the FBI. Stringing together events as far back as episode one, where a police officer was accidentally killed after he shot the Diaz brothers’ father, Sean is about to transfer from a hospital to a juvenile detention center.
Amongst other things, Sean is being tried for murdering a police officer – a crime he didn’t commit, but is obviously implicated in. The FBI is trying to piece together the events that concluded “Wastelands,” where Daniel caused a violent explosion that backfired. The hippie friends from the forest camp in the last episode have all been detained and questioned by this FBI detective, and you soon learn that everyone’s account of what happened is contradictory. Someone is lying – maybe all of you.
Sean makes a friend with his nurse in this hospital, a kind man who believes Sean is a good kid. You can ask him to help you escape the hospital so you can go on the run from the law, but you’ll quickly realize how selfish and foolish such a request would be. Sean has to break out on his own or face the consequences for his past actions.
Needless to say, the Diaz brothers never stay anywhere for too long, and Sean breaks out of the hospital. He sneaks around scaffolding on the side of the hospital building, finds an unlocked car and hotwires it. As he escapes, there is an almost audible sigh of relief in the game’s atmosphere. No more of the sterilized and lifeless hospital environment, no more fear of being convicted by the FBI, and best of all, now he can search for Daniel.
It’s worth noting that until this point in the episode, the gameplay sequences are uniquely obtuse compared to the rest of the series. I felt as though the game was repeatedly, intentionally, and unnecessarily preventing my progress in the hospital scenes. At an early part of the episode, for instance, the detective questioning you gets a phone call and has to leave the room. The game gives you a few things to observe, mostly just headshots of your friends from the forest. But it only takes a few seconds to skim through these. I was waiting for at least a minute or two, looking around and thinking I had missed something. Then all of a sudden, the detective ends her phone call and returns to the room. Sure, there’s a bit of realism in the inconvenience of waiting on someone to get off the phone, but dear lord, this is supposed to be a game. There were many moments that stalled out the episode early on.
As Sean escapes in his stolen, hotwired car, he eventually begins nodding off at the wheel. He pulls over for the night to get some rest. He’s rudely awoken a few hours later by two men who claim that he has parked on their property. Either Sean is forced to humiliate himself for the amusement of these thugs, or they drag Sean out of the car and proceed to beat him senseless. One of the men tries halfheartedly to stop the assault while the other continuously adds racist commentary to his violence. Again, I don’t relish in the suffering, but I felt a deep connection to and protection for Sean in this scene. Hearing things like “beaner” and telling Sean to repeat the phrase, “I don’t belong in this country,” made me want to start wailing on the guy myself. If only the game made me care about its characters more often.
Eventually Sean escapes, driving off into the distance once more. (A brief note: Earlier in the hospital, your nurse tests your depth perception, having lost one eye. You fail that test miserably. So how does Sean know how to drive without depth perception?) His car runs out of gas in the middle of a scorching desert, so he abandons the vehicle and goes on foot. He doesn’t know for sure, but he thinks Daniel will be where their estranged mother lives. Once again, the suffering Sean endures while alone in this desert, sweating from the sweltering heat, is a great way to create player empathy for his character.
Sean seeks refuge under the shade of a giant billboard and is eventually saved by a truck driver who claims not to care about hitchhiking laws. You can choose to ignore his offer and go on foot, but it’s hard to imagine anyone in these conditions turning down such a generous offer. I will admit, given the original Life is Strange’s tendency to set up nice characters only to find out they have malicious intentions – and vice versa – I was a little worried that this truck driver might put in a tip to the police about Sean. Fortunately for Sean, but somewhat unfortunately for the narrative, this did not turn out to be the case. Sean arrives safely in one piece.
The town Sean arrives in is a dismal small town where the only prominent feature is a church. It seems that the entire town attends this church, and Sean decides to enter. Inside, all the people are waving their arms about, shouting, almost in a parodical fashion. I couldn’t but help crack a smile at the not-so-subtle mockery towards Southern Baptist churches and their often predatory practices. It seems Sean is a bit in on the joke, too.
Suddenly, he hears his brother Daniel’s name. The head of the church claims that they have been blessed by the arrival of a miracle worker who channels the powers of the lord. His name happens to be Daniel. We already know where this is going: Daniel’s powers are being mistaken for divine intervention.
Sean reunites with Daniel, who is relieved to finally connect with his brother. But when Sean asks Daniel to leave, Daniel refuses. He has found a home in this church, with a surrogate mother, father, and sister, the heads of the church. This presents a conundrum for Sean, who is torn between the urge to leave and the urge to protect his brother. No amount of reasoning is going to make Daniel budge, so Sean has to rethink his initial plan.
From this point, a lot of the episode is rather forgettable until Karen shows up. Karen is Sean and Daniel’s mother who left them when they were young. She decides to show herself and plead for their forgiveness. Karen’s pleading isn’t insistent and dramatic, rather she almost cynically resigns herself to the fact that Sean will never be able to treat her like his mother again. What unites them in this moment is their sense of urgency in protecting Daniel from this religious cult.
It’s worth describing this church as a cult, not as a religious dig, but as an indication of how corrupt its leadership is. Lisbeth, the leader, oozes vile platitudes and vacuous quotes of scripture as she twists like a snake around Daniel’s mind. Sean can clearly see that Daniel is being manipulated and his powers are being exploited to gain credibility within the church community. When Sean tries to confront Lisbeth about this, Sean is escorted off the “private” property at gunpoint. Clearly the solution will be risky.
Sean breaks into Lisbeth’s home, finds a cache of files that document all sorts of people, and quickly realizes how neck-deep Daniel is within this religious cult. He teams up with an old friend as well as Karen to save Daniel, which culminates in a violent confrontation with the church’s leadership. Invariably, Daniel realizes that his blood ties to Sean and his mother trump the special treatment that he’s receiving within the church, and he turns on the people who have been manipulating him. As is the case with much of this series, Daniel’s powers are a blessing (no pun intended) and a curse.
The church catches fire and begins to burn. Karen, Sean and Daniel limp out of the building together, with Sean leaning heavily on Karen for physical support. As the church burns down behind them, they walk away. The episode concludes on yet another melancholy and open-ended note.
In this moment, I couldn’t help but view this scene as a metaphor for the series: a church burning down. Life is Strange is something sacred to me. With the sequel, Life is Strange 2, I feel like I’m watching something sacred burn. This episode was on par with “Wastelands,” in the sense that I feel like there’s still some magic left in the series, but stacked up against its predecessor, falls far short.
Reflecting on this episode, I realized that we’ve lost a lot about what made the original Life is Strange special: meaningful choice. Life is Strange 2 offers similarly framed choices as “vital” moments but has yet to deliver on any of them. Whether you threaten Lisbeth or not, ride in the truck or not, confront a character or not, nothing you do ever feels like it matters. You’re shunted through a narrative hallway with the set dressing of “player agency” yet never receive moments where it feels like that agency ever exists. What a shame for a franchise with such established narrative impact.
I think this episode, “Faith,” has a lot of potential, but it comes far too late in the series to really redeem the narrative. Even when the story shines, a lot of the gameplay feels phoned in. Whereas the original game is mechanically similar, the way the mechanics integrate into the narrative are completely different. Every detail that I mentioned that I love about the original seems lackluster in the sequel. Life is Strange 2 is just “okay,” which is almost worse than it being bad. It’s like I’m seeing a living body without a soul and I’d rather it be dead so I can mourn. Meanwhile, I will continue to hold onto faith that the finale will bring the payoff that this series desperately deserves.
Thank you for reading. Your Patreon support keeps our community entirely Ad free.
