Life is Strange 2: Episode 3 Wastelands Xbox One X Review

Life is Strange 2: Episode 3 Wastelands starts off slow, eventually gaining traction and concluding with a bang. Providing multiple new characters and old souls from the previous episode to interact with. All while building and Sean and Daniel's relationship, which has become increasingly rockier since the previous episode. Life is Strange 2: Episode 3 Wastelands is full of emotional moments and will leave the player craving the next episode.

Life is Strange 2: Episode 3 has Sean and Daniel working on a marijuana farm 2 months after the events of Beaver Creek. Still running from the law the brothers have found sanctuary for the time being thanks to Finn, Cassidy, and the others working on the farm. At first, things seem alright as Sean and Daniel work on the farm to earn enough money for their trip to Mexico.

Things steadily begin to escalate, Daniel has become increasingly more unfriendly and depending on your choices these can be much more aggressive responses. Daniel feels like Sean has thrown him aside in exchange for his new friends and actively uses his powers as an example of him coming into adulthood. That's far from Sean's only problem as the episode progresses, Sean's fear for Daniel grow as the child shows more control over his power but uses it questionable ways.

The episode does tend to drag out in the beginning. With simple tasks such as cutting plants and camp chores peppered into the dialogue. During the last hour of the 3-hour episode, things begin to quickly gain momentum. Suddenly, tough choices begin to flood in as Sean quickly has to make a series of difficult choices. This is exactly what fans of this series wanted and the developers delivered. With various branching paths, players are encouraged to keep coming back and with a more fluid skip option available you can quickly change decisions and save it to another file.

Episode 3 doesn't waste a lot of time with puzzles and offers a limited area to explore. Most of the episode is focused on speaking and decisions. With so many new characters you're given ample time to explore each one. Learning about their lives prior to the farm, hopes, dreams, and gaining their trust if you choose to do so. The area you explore, a camp where the workers live, doesn't offer much in exploration but the focus here was the characters which were well-appreciated.

Those wondering if the technical problems that existed in the second episode plagued episode 3, the answer is no. We only experience 1 minor character model glitch and 1 clipping issue. Nothing compared to Captain Spirit floating in mid-air here. The episode plays smoothly and without issue.

Life is Strange 2: Episode 3 Wastelands is a fantastic journey that provides players what they expect from this acclaimed series. Great characters with unique personas and lots of difficult decisions towards the end. Players will have to endure some busy work before things start to ramp up but this is a minor issue. You won't see the ending coming and when it does all you'll think about is what's next for Sean and Daniel.
 

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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