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This chapter didn’t get off to as much of a lightening flash, time storm of bay down destroying start. The walk down to the Firewalk party was a bit more subdued than Max waking up in the pouring rain and having a lighthouse drop on her.

The stuff inside the mill was actually really good. From conversing with Frank to maybe stealing a shirt and some money and definitely to the Firewalk concert. The part where Chloe sits upstairs and rocks out to the band was well done.

Nearly getting beat up by those two guys was tense and the choice to run or fight was actually a bigger choice that it seems. Nothing too crazy, but choosing to fight gets Chloe punched in the face and a lot of comments about her black eye the next day.

The scene with Chloe and her mom and then Chloe and David were, like I said in the No Spoilers post, kinda hard for me to play. I’m fine with directing Chloe to be an awesome jerk, but directing her to be mean to her mom and even David isn’t easy. I’ve played her about as nice as possible in those moments during both my play throughs.

The first dream sequence with William is well done. Chloe is so happy just relaxing to the country music but there’s several little elements wrong and out of place in the dream and getting hit by the truck is pretty well done. They actually committed to it for the most part where some games might have set the scene at night and just had bright headlights and a crashing sound.

At school I felt like maybe Victoria Chase was slightly out of character. Maybe she was just sucking up to Chloe to try to be in a position to suck up to Rachel later, but I felt like the V.C. that Max knew was a bit more “take no crap I’m in charge”. Who knows, maybe this V.C. will grow a bit more into that? The payoff to messing with her homework is pretty fun later on though.

Samantha the shy girl was interesting. I loved her little shy laugh after Chloe owns the jock in that Backtalk session.

The D&D game is easily the highlight of the school grounds section. With the right choices Chloe can shock the GM girl with her character’s outright brutality. The scene doesn’t branch quite as much as I hoped, so my recommendation is to fight the boss last to get the most out of it.

Not too much to say about the scene at the play rehearsal except I thought it was a neat touch to have Rachel offer to put some makeup over Chloe’s black eye. I’d been thinking she should do that and even went to the bathroom to look for supplies to do it before Chloe leaves for school, so I really liked that they gave you the option later.

Riding on the train is fun and the Two Truths and a Lie game does branch pretty well. And, while it’s not outright blatant about it, Rachel is eally good at determining truths and lies and specific reasons for them. The game isn’t exactly implying she has Max style superpowers, I don’t think, but there’s still this very, extremely subtle hint of mystery there.

The only thing I didn’t like about the train scene was that when you share your music with Rachel they didn’t think to cut the audio down to just the left channel to simulate only having one headphone in. I did it myself and that makes the scene better, I think. Would be better still with if I could still have train noises in my right ear.

The train scene is really well done from a directing and visuals standpoint, though. Everything from Rachel examine Chloe’s hands to figure out the lies to the slight bob of the camera that simulates the rocking motion of the train car are all really great.

The park scene with Rachel is fun and conning the couple out of their wine is one of the hardest Talkback challenges in the game. I failed at least two times even on my second play through!

The scene at the junkyard is pretty good. The argument with Rachel doesn’t branch quite as much as I wish it did, but the acting on both sides is pretty good. What’s really good though is Chloe’s rage after Rachel leaves. Smashing stuff is done pretty well and all of Chloe’s actions has the proper strength and weight about them. Even with a bat she didn’t outright destroy things for the most part. And the way she hefted and threw the toolbox was realistic.

And then the Smash Smash Smash Smash on her dad’s destroyed car along with the music and the great animation was excellent.

The dream sequence was interesting. That raven keeps showing up and Rachel catching fire was really interesting in the context of what happens next... Chloe even writes in her journal that she has the dream of riding in the car with her dad a lot. And later she writes that it was the dream after the smashes up her dad’s car that let her know Rachel would be back at the park. (As they drive by Rachel over and over note that she’s standing by the leaning tree.)

Rachel’s “you came” when Chloe goes back to the park is interesting to me. Maybe it’s not intentional, but it seems a kinda strange thing to say to someone who should have had no idea where you went. (Yeah, I still really want Rachel to be _special_ in a Max sort of way!)

Right at Rachel dropped the burning photo in the trash can I wondered if that was a good idea. Yeah, it wasn’t. But what the heck was that what happened as Rachel yelled at the fire?! Was it just some random wind that picked up?? Or was that Rachel’s anger spreading the fire?! It sure looked and felt like it!! Especially the first time through.

I love that same hint of mystery and implication that may or may not be true. They are playing with just slightly supernatural themes that make Arcadia Bay someplace Strange. And then, the forest fire? Wow. Another great cliffhanger ending for this series of games. Not quite as powerful as it snowing in Chapter 1 of the first game or the twin moons or beached whales later on, but still a great ending.

Oh, and what in the heck is with that woman just sitting their smoking as a forest fire rages?! (Note that the Rachel raven flies by near the top of the screen...)

While this episode has some points I personally wasn’t a fan of (Chloe being so mean to her mom for instance) I get why they are there. The rest of the episode from the D&D Game to the train ride to Chloe smashing up the junkyard were all great. So for a rating, I’d probably give this chapter a B+ or maybe even an A-.

And finally: Be sure to exit back out to the main menu after you finish! Wow. Just wow. (Note that it’s the same scene as the green happy daytime park!)