Life Is Strange 2 still makes sitting around fun

My favourite bits of Life Is Strange are the sitting around bits. You know, when Max decides she wants to rest her legs and plops down on the ground next to a convenient tree to lean against and thinks about how weird everything is now that she’s got time travel powers. Wonderfully, they’re back in Life Is Strange 2 and – even better! – they’re still very good.

This feature is technically called “A Moment Of Calm,” but I had to find that out by searching “Life Is Strange sit” which worked and therefore I think “sitting around bits” is a perfectly functional name. In our Life Is Strange 2 review, Alice Bee called them “voluntary pauses where [Sean’s] internal monologue starts going on about how fucked up everything is in a trembly voice,” which is also an excellent description.

Regardless of what we’re calling them, they’re always best in the first episode, as the heroes try to adapt to their new situations. Max goes from worrying about being lonely at her new school to “it is extremely weird that I can time travel right now.” Sean begins by worrying about whether he should bring a girl home after the night’s party and ends up – well, no spoilers, but let’s just say he has some bigger concerns.

These sit-and-think spots are really good for getting a sense of what the protagonists are feeling, especially since they've got quite a few secrets that they're not likely to go around blurting out to other characters. They’re also reflective of the slow pace of exploring the game’s environments; a natural extension of being able to take your time and see as much as you want to see. Plus, they’re perfect for soaking in the music and some very pretty scenes. (And, of course, they’re also extremely good for screenshots.)

I’m extremely glad that, not only have these moments made their return, but they’ve retained everything that made them special in the first place, and I’m looking forward to finding more of them when the second episode of Life Is Strange 2 releases.