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Updating my earlier review now that the full release is here.
The first two chapters have their issues, but in general they do good enough job to set up the mystery and the characters you will be dealing with throughout the game. Then everything falls apart in chapters 3 and 4, and 5 is an absolute disaster that only serves to tease the sequel. That's right - the story isn't resolved in this one, after dragging it out for hours they just literally say "MAX CAULFIELD WILL RETURN" the second it's time for any consequences.
Speaking of consequences - your actions do not really have them. The entire story is incredibly railroaded, to the point where you can make every wrong choice and still end up with the same ending as a person who made every right one. The original LiS also had a similar problem, with the ending being rather binary, but at least it allowed for some actions to have consequences in-between episodes. Not so much here, here you are put on rails and you can't escape from Mr. Bones' Wild Ride until the game rather unceremoniously ends.
I'd like to say that at least the characters make the subpar story worth it... but that would be a lie. Everyone is extremely two-dimensional - you have a sleazy love interest, a quirky love interest, an asocial scientist on the spectrum, and of course Max's new best friend, around whom the entire shebang rotates. Don't get me wrong, they have potential and could be explored further, but Mr. Bones' Wild Ride strikes again and every decision you make regarding them doesn't matter because we need to hit those plot beats. As a result, they come off a little bit schizophrenic. I literally gaffawed when the character whose friendship with Max has been torpedaued ten minutes ago decided to have a heart-to-heart to provide some needed evidence. And then the person who torpedaued the friendship dropped by to deliver some plot threads because she felt like it. And don't even get me started on Safi, who might as well be bipolar considering how often she flip-flops between two completely different personalities. Overall, the character work is a massive downgrade even compared to True Colours, not to mention the original.
The gameplay is mostly just frustrating. Even with the hints turned completely off, Max will still provide "diagetic" commentary on how to solve the puzzles the second you encounter them. And the puzzles themselves are pretty bad, mostly defaulting to "get an item/piece of information in the other timeline; use it in the current timeline to progress". And the few times DeckNine decides to step up their adventure game are equally embarassing and straight from those frustrating early 90s point-and-click adventures where the only way to progress is to interact with everything in every single way until the random sequence of events works. For example, to deface a stand you need a specific marker, the marker you saw in the previous room won't do. Alternatively, the game will tell you to find a piece of evidence in a certain room, although Max has no idea that it should be here. Turns out what the game wants from you is to rotate a picture upside down to reveal a hidden key compartment - although none of this is telegraphed in any way.
The crowning moment of the game is the ending of Episode 2, where Max shifts between two timelines to evade a person who is looking for her. It is... an extremely lame take on A Crack in the Slab, and once again incredibly hand-holdy, with only one correct way to resolve the situation. You can't even fail the encounter, because the Mr. Bones' Wild Ride don't stop - Max just suddenly gets her old powers back for a moment, rewinds, then loses them again until the plot requires for her to get them back.
Finally, let's talk about things that work - the character models are surprisingly charming, even if not all of them are in the same style. Hanna Telle doesn't miss a bit as Max, and both her mo-cap and voice performance are stellar - and deserve much better writing than whatever she was given. Moses, despite being a stereotype of an autistic scientist is surprisingly charming and funny - to the point I wish he was the protagonist or at least a deeper character sometimes. And the music is great as always, with "Illusions" being my favourite track in the game. It's just that all those awesome parts only serve to spotllight the poor story work and downright boring gameplay.
Regarding the game's technical state: at least on the Day-1 patch of the actual release DE has quite a few visual glitches, especially with doors. You also have quest objectives that don't trigger sometimes and require you restarting the chapter. Granted, it's mostly limited to sidequest, but still - the experience isn't polished. For example, giving the therapist card to Abraxas students in Chapter 2 may not be possible at all unless RNJesus is on your side and their dialogue actually triggers. You also don't have DLAA or any other form of advanced TAA - so the game looks either pixelated on low AA settings or smudged and blurry on high. Considering that this is a UE5 title with software ray tracing and even the medium settings at 1440p bust the balls of my RTX 4060 (I get drops into 40s during particularly heavy scenes), having some decent upscaling would help a lot.
P.S. Chloe Price does not appear in this game, outside of a short nightmare sequence and some flashbacks. If you are going in expecting Pricefield in any capacity - do not. Even if you choose the Bae timeline in the prologue, the girls will be broken up by the time of the actual story in the game. The reasoning is asinine, but on some level I understand - Chloe's existence would require more work and variety between worldstates, and Mr. Bones' Wild Ride don't stop for those. For the record, other members of LiS1 are equally gone - even if you choose the Bay timeline, you won't get any updates on Kate, Dana, Warren, etc.