Life Is Strange Episode 2 – Out of Time review: not too testing, but you'll look forward to the next instalment

But it’s also a compliment to say that Episode 2 handles things rather well, throwing gamers back into the school days of lead character Maxine Caulfield and all of the hip school smart talking and teenage angst issues that situation throws up. It takes barely a few minutes to get back up to speed and in to the action – or non-action as is mostly the case – once again.

This school has some rather pressing issues to attend to, one of which relates to a very troubled character called Kate Marsh who has fallen victim to a rather nasty viral video and who has come to learn on on Maxine in a way that will see her making some very life-changing decisions.

Without going into spoilers, this proves to be a pivotal moment for the player as it soon dawns that most actions really can have consequences in this game. It lends a kind of character drama that is not often seen in video games and this is heightened further by the realisation that Maxine’s time-rewind powers can have significant limitations. Not everything, you learn, is up for reconsideration.

It is a shame, then, that the game will fall back at times on time-honoured gaming constructs which serve merely to pad out the game. It does not spoil things to say that Maxine’s bolshy confidante and new-found friend Chloe is hellbent on testing her pal’s abilities and that this manifests itself in a dull, frustrating run around an old haunt strewn with rusty, abandoned cars in search of a few bottles (one of which is so mischievously placed that you can only scorn the makers).

What this section of the game also shows is that this will never be a title to truly test the player. Puzzle solutions are broadly hinted at, with all of the tools needed to solve them very much to hand, requiring little more than moving a single object and using some magical time reversing.

That puts the emphasis firmly on decision-making and yet this somehow works so well. It may throw a memory test in here and there but it’s the plot, the characters and the intricate torment over whether you are making a correct choice (the makers say there are no correct choices) that drives you on.

It’s lovely to see moments of reflection and discovery; the time spent just exploring and picking up and reading stuff broadens the game. You can choose to sit – on a chair or on a tree stump – and let the game soak in. There is a point where you feel all of the time bending aspects are’t really needed and that the game would work just as well without. One thing is for sure, you really do look forward to the next instalment.

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