Life is Strange Reunion Review
“A Bittersweet Finale” Written by: Ethan (@ChaoticAether)
Well here we go again. It’s been a year and a half since the release of Double Exposure, and now Life is Strange Reunion is here to act as a finale to the Life is Strange saga. I won’t go into too much detail on my history with the series this time, as I feel I covered that plenty in my review of Double Exposure (links below if you’re interested), but suffice to say the original Life is Strange holds a very special place in my heart. It was an emotional powerhouse of a game that really impacted me when I played it back in 2016. As for Double Exposure itself, well it's fair to say that I was pretty polarised when it was released in 2024.
It was the definition of a mixed bag. The first half of the game and its overall atmosphere was incredible, it has one of the best soundtracks in the series, and I adored the older take on the Max Caulfield we all know and love. But the second half was sloppy, the pacing was rushed and its ending left a lot to be desired. I was concerned for the future direction of the franchise, and if the franchise would even have a future to begin with after the games' mixed reception. Turns out my fears of no future were unwarranted, as only 16 months later the sequel was released.
That’s not to say that it was all good news though, as with that came the news of Chloe’s return, removal of its episodic format, and it all being advertised as the ending of the Max and Chloe saga. It was a lot to take in, and call me pessimistic, but I had real doubts that they could bring Chloe back while also respecting the original game and the choices you had to make. It felt like a last minute pivot to cater to certain fans of the franchise, but I hoped Deck Nine would find a way to make it work in the end. Unfortunately, it seems like I was right to be a bit pessimistic.
Life is Strange Reunion is a tough game to review. Fundamentally it's a stronger game than Double Exposure. Its mechanics are tighter, its overarching mystery is better handled, and the performances are as good as ever. But the overarching story of Max and Chloe and its handling of the original game and its choices are so poorly handled, that I honestly found it hard to overlook. Reunion often feels like fanfiction for a certain subset of fans, and it doesn’t even do that subset of fans justice in the process. It’s a risk-averse people pleaser that doesn’t please its people, and it's the most disappointed I’ve felt for a Life is Strange game to date.
Image Credit: Deck Nine, Square Enix
Life is Strange Reunion takes place the September after Double Exposure. Max is now a full time lecturer at Caledon University, and has taken the weekend away at a photography event organised by her manager, As she returns home, she finds the whole campus ablaze. Posters of Lorretta, signs of a protest, and students trapped within the fire. Making it to the observatory, she finds Moses trapped on the roof carrying a green-haired girl. With an explosion at the observatory killing Moses, Max uses a photo of herself to launch herself back to last Friday, now with three days to find the source of the fire and stop anything from happening to Moses or the campus.
It’s up to Max to use the little knowledge she has of the future to hunt for any clues, follow some leads, and figure out the culprit of the Caledon fires. What does the new dean have in store for Caledon? Were Abraxas involved in the fire? And do the events of last year have anything to do with it? Max has just three days to work it all out.
Meanwhile, Chloe Price is managing her band on tour, and has recurring nightmares of a lighthouse, Safi and Max holding a gun. After a particularly bad vision and the shattering of a mirror, Chloe decides to head to Caledon and figure out the meaning of her visions, hoping to find her long-lost friend and understand why she has the memories of two lives trapped within her head. The two eventually meet, and as you would expect, both of their goals seem to be closely aligned.
Now’s as good a time as any to mention that I chose to save Arcadia Bay in my playthrough of the original Life is Strange. In my timeline, the events of Double Exposure led to a merging of realities, where Chloe and Arcadia Bay have both survived the original storm. I’ve played through both choices of Reunion and honestly both of them feel extremely disappointing no matter how you cut it. If you are expecting there to be repercussions to this “everyone wins” solution, then you’re unfortunately going to be as disappointed as I was. The idea of Chloe having both versions of events stuck within her head, and the idea of herself being a paradox are both extremely interesting concepts to introduce, but unfortunately the game doesn’t do anything with these ideas that isn’t surface level.
The whole mystery around Chloe’s return and the resolution of her arc is essentially a nothing burger. Your original choices do not matter, and the game basically assumes that despite your decision in the original game, you wanted to romance her regardless. Your past relationships from Double Exposure? Gonezo! We’ll even make up a storm amnesia so everyone is hazy of events last year to make it all go over easier! You chose to be friends with Chloe in the original? Are you sure? Certain? For real? Even after our fourth attempt to make you confirm the romance option? Cool, that's fair, but we’ll ignore that anyway. You’ll get the same ending as the rest of us and like it!
It all just reeks of pandering, which is a shame because the performances for Max and Chloe are as strong as ever. I love these characters to pieces, but it really does feel like they just shoved Chloe in so they could include her in the marketing. The game genuinely cannot decide if it's a sequel to Double Exposure or a new Max and Chloe adventure. I honestly think it would have been better if they had just committed to one or the other, instead of this half-way house of fan service pandering.
Image Credit: Deck Nine, Square Enix
As for the actual mystery of the Caledon fire, well that’s where the game actually shines brighter than Double Exposure. Playing as both Max and Chloe, you’ll dig into many leads and try to gather as much evidence as possible. These include investigating the new Dean of the University Owen, Safi’s return to Caledon, Reggie and his tenure as the leader of Abraxas, the damage caused by last year's storm, the building up of a “resistance” movement within the local area, and discovering why there was a March for Lorretta in the original timeline.
Moses acts as Max’s closest confidant in the investigation, and it's your job to gather clues and build your case. I still adore the friendship between Max and Moses, and he still really is one of the strongest parts of this game. The returning cast are all for the most part really well handled. I like how most of the cast have grown since their last appearance. From Reggie taking over a collapsing Abraxas and the anxiety surrounding him, to Lucas going off the deep end and becoming a podcast bro in the process. The only character they butcher is Vinh, who acts like his previous character arc never even happened. Can’t really talk further about that, but if you play the game you’ll know exactly what I mean.
Then there’s Safi, a polarising character even at the best of times. I think for the most part they did the best they could with the u-turn they decided to take. It’s clear the original plans for Safi went out the window, so what's left is a rushed plotline that tries to redeem her and explain away the original ending as quickly as possible. She actually has very little to do with the narrative on the whole, and I feel like it's for the best. Your choices in Double Exposure really don’t matter here, but I feel like you get enough and fans of the character will probably be fine with her inclusion.
It all leads to a climax that does live up to the marketing material. People can die due to the choices you make, and it really does feel like your choices mattered. It's just a shame the answers are so obvious, but I feel like that was bound to happen in a game like this. The actual conclusion to the narrative on the other hand again falls into the traps I mentioned earlier. The final choice is nothing to write home about, but the small changes based on events and the way they define Max's character were details I appreciated, even if the larger picture did absolutely nothing for me.
Image Credit: Deck Nine, Square Enix
Right, enough waffling, let’s get to some gameplay! Why has it taken this long I hear you ask? Why cause it’s a Life is Strange game, it's the same as it ever was!
Reunion’s gameplay is split between both Max and Chloe, who play like they originally did in Life is Strange and Before the Storm respectively. Max once again has her rewind power, allowing her to go back in time and take information and small items back with her. It leads to some fun encounters, but they don’t do anything unique with the mechanic that you didn’t see in the original game. Well there is a really funny joke, but why spoil the fun?
Chloe on the other hand has her backtalk mechanic return, and it's a really fun mechanic. It's just a shame there are only three instances of it in the entire game. No, I’m not joking. There were fourteen of them in Before the Storm, so it's a shame that Chloe is as underutilised as she is in the game. I would have loved to have seen her more present overall, as forcing your way through conversations in before the storm was a really neat mechanic. The main draw for Chloe here is seeing her interact with other cast members from the Caledon era, and she has some really fun moments on the whole.
The best moments in the game are when you are swapping between characters in the same scene. The standout to me was the Abraxas party in the second half of the game. Solving specific areas so the other can progress is a fun mechanic that I wish the game had more of. That area specifically is also where I feel the gameplay is at its strongest. The puzzles are fun, the interactions are hilarious, and it's the closest this game gets to feeling like the original Life is Strange.
As for choices, they are here and they are as forgettable as they have been in the past few entries. There are one or two that have big impacts as usual, but for the most part it really does feel like you're going through the motions. You may get a clue or some evidence here or there based on some of them, but that’s all there is to it. One nice detail I did appreciate was controlling both characters when interacting with each other. Having to choose dialogue options for both Max and Chloe in the same scenes was a cool detail that I really did appreciate.
In terms of gripes, there are a couple. The main one is the removal of episodes/chapters in the main game. I really despised this change. I think True Colors and Double Exposure both handled this excellently, allowing you to play the game at your own pace with perfect stopping points in between. The new structure just doesn’t flow well, as it never felt like it was a good time to stop playing the game. It also led to some really weird pacing issues that makes it feel like content was cut rather than this being the original goal. The removal of the social media pages is also a real shame. I get it, two diaries is more effort than one, but removing a really interesting mechanic from the last game feels like a miss. I also want to note that the puzzles and collectibles in this one are particularly basic. Most play areas have very rigid structures, so the gameplay can come across as too simple at times.
As for the presentation, Deck Nine have once again nailed it in terms of character models and general graphical fidelity. There’s a bit of pop-in here and there, and the performance mode makes everything look a bit blurry, but I really cannot get over how great the game looks. I also really appreciated the return to hand-drawn photos and environmental storytelling that I felt was lost a little in Double Exposure. The only visual issues I really noticed was the drop in facial animation quality. Characters' lips aren’t synced as well as they were in the last entry, and some of the faces can enter the uncanny valley some times. The performances make up for these issues though, as both Hannah and Rhianna do an incredible job here. They both do an excellent job of bringing these characters to life, and it was a joy to see these characters interact once more. The same same goes for the rest of the secondary cast. While the writing can be hit or miss, the performances in this game are stellar, and I really do commend the cast for doing such a good job.
Unfortunately, I can’t really say the same for the soundtrack. This is a huge step down from Double Exposure in my opinion, with none of the tracks really leaving much of an impact. Embers in the Sky is probably the highlight, as it's a wonderful theme that works both in the context of the game and on the main menu, but the rest of the soundtrack left a lot to be desired. It doesn’t really have an identity like the previous scores had, which is honestly how I’m starting to feel about the game in its entirety.
Image Credit: Deck Nine, Square Enix
Summary
Life is Strange Reunion has been an extremely tough game for me to review (sounds familiar huh). At times it shines brighter than Double Exposure, with a stronger second act, a more likeable cast of characters, and some genuinely gorgeous moments that you’ve come to know and love from this franchise. But it is also one of the safest, soulless games I’ve ever played. It makes a mockery of the final choice from the original game, and it decided to play it safe for fans and shippers instead of actually providing an engaging story.
Reunion feels like it doesn’t know what it wants to be. On one hand it's trying to tie up loose ends and act as a conclusion to the threads set up in Double Exposure. On the other it's trying to appeal to original fans by bringing Chloe back and attempting to centre its narrative on her return. One of these on its own would have held enough weight to be the sole focus of the narrative, but in attempting both it ends up delivering half baked results on both fronts.
Narratively, Life is Strange Reunion is a poor sequel to both the original game and Double Exposure. Yet despite all that, the performances are still great, rewind and talkback are still enjoyable mechanics, and I still loved hanging out Max and Chloe one last time. Reunion often feels like bad fanfiction, but that’s not to say that there aren’t reasons to suck it up and enjoy the ride.
I’m once again hesitant to recommend Life is Strange Reunion. If all you wanted out of this is a good enough time with Max and Chloe, you’ll probably come out of this stronger than Double Exposure. As a game it probably is the better entry, but its poor narrative and lack of respect for the original entry are just things I personally cannot overlook. I had my gripes with Double Exposure eighteen months ago, but at least that game took risks. Sure they didn’t all work out, chapters four and five are terrible, but I at least respect the heck out of it for trying. Reunion is the definition of playing it safe, and in the end all it did was make me feel very little while exploring this world I love for one last time.
If this is it for Life is Strange, then I am sad to see it go. But I also won’t lie to you, after playing Reunion I feel like the series has run its course. It's clear that to Deck Nine and Square Enix, Life is Strange is the Max and Chloe show. And as much as I love and cherish that original game, their experiment in coming back to this story has honestly just soured me on the franchise in general. Maybe one day there will be room again for someone to work on this franchise with a fresh pair of eyes, but for now I think its best for it to rest and take some time away. Thanks for the memories Life is Strange, It's just a shame that your final entry might be the one I think about the least going forward.