Eleven years after the first game, with five other games in the series, Life is Strange: Reunion brings back the original protagonists Max and Chloe for one last adventure. The events of previous games are recapped in a rather confusing montage that involves time travel and multiple timelines before the game allows you to choose specific events from the past – crucially, did you save Chloe at the end of the first game?
Cut to the present day and Chloe (who is somehow alive regardless of your choice) is managing a punk band while Max is a teacher at a university, living separate lives but still connected via past events. Before long there’s another atrocity that requires Max to jump in the past via a photo to try and save her friends, but also deal with the repercussions of meddling with time.
I played and loved the first Life is Strange and there was a pleasant feeling of familiarity playing Reunion. It has a cosy, warm, glow of a world where it seems to be permanently autumn, the landscapes brushed with reds and oranges, with a gorgeous indie soundtrack (which echoes previous games) washing over the often beautiful imagery.
The story of Reunion is a little hard to follow if you have skipped some of the previous games, as this really is a finale to them all. Max has to try to stop a fire at the university, which kills one of her friends, while Chloe finds herself drawn into a mysterious dream realm.
In terms of gameplay, not much has changed since 2015, Reunion doesn’t stray far from the established formula. Choice-based interactions, environmental storytelling, and branching dialogue paths are used during the lengthy cutscenes before the game opens up, and you get to wander around and investigate the surroundings, picking up clues.
As before, the choices you make will change the outcome of later events, but in Reunion, they seem to be a little more about the emotional consequence rather than the trajectory of the plot. While the University fire is the McGuffin and main the narrative thread, as you might expect from a finale, there’s plenty that revolves around confronting the past and the choices our characters have made. Death is one of the main themes – understandable given what happened with Max and Chloe – but drugs and suicide are also part of the story, so if these are triggers then it’s probably best to skip the game.
Max’s powers to rewind time have returned so there’s not really any way to fail at the game. Make the wrong choice and a quick tap of the button resets time, and you can have another go – very useful when defusing a bomb. Chloe also has a returning mechanic, “backtalk” from Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, in which you have to pick the correct conversational choices, but without time-bending powers, so the chances of getting it wrong are permanent. There are some neat puzzles to keep you engaged but again, nothing too taxing.
I must admit that jumping back into the world of Life is Strange was a bit like hitting a brick wall, but in a good way. The game is deliberately slow, lingering over conversations, and it took a while to get back into the laidback pace of the story. This is deliberate, there is little in the way of explosive spectacle, with some plot points being resolved with quiet acceptance rather than drama. At the heart of the game is the relationship between Max and Chloe and here the writing and acting excels, you will fall in love with them again, rooting for them to be together. Sadly other characters such as Safi and Amanda, last seen in Double Exposure, are sidelined, but loveable bear Moses gets some screentime as he’s fully aware of Max’s powers.
So, very much Life is Strange again, which is a good thing, but also it’s 2026 and it does feel rather dated. This is further hampered by the game engine on PS5, which has some low-polygon objects and frequently loads geometry and textures after the scene has started, so you focus on a tree popping in the background rather than the conversation on-screen.
The most ridiculous narrative decision that Max is teaching a photography class at the university using a Polaroid camera. It’s a nice continuation of the mechanic from previous games, but totally unbelievable. There’s also an overuse of dust particles in certain scenes which are really distracting – a little quibble I know, but when the game is leisurely paced, these details stand out.
Finally, Square Enix must be applauded for enabling this final game to made in the current gaming landscape. Life is Strange is not the biggest franchise, but it is loved by the fans and Deck Nine has been able to take the baton from Dontnod’s original and run with it over the past five years. Life is Strange: Reunion isn’t perfect and could have done with a bigger budget, but props to them for allowing a series to be concluded gracefully.
