Before I fully touch on Reunion, I’d like to say that the original Life is Strange is one of my favorite narrative adventures. Telltale spoiled me with The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, but Life is Strange gave me a particularly emotional experience. Each subsequent game failed to reach the magic of the original, and with the change of developers, the series went in some strange direction. But whatever you say about that direction, at least the Life is Strange games are no longer episodic, so the latest Reunion can be played in its entirety.
| Initial price | Reviewed version | Reviewer copy |
| 40€ | PC | Provided by publisher |
Life is Strange: Reunion begins with Chloe preparing to perform at a bar with her band. While Chloe waits for the band to arrive, strange things begin to happen to her – apparitions, or nightmares that don’t end well for her. Before starting the game, you get to choose a few major decisions from previous games that you have or haven’t played. I say games in the plural because Reuinion, in addition to being a direct sequel to the original Life is Strange, is also the second part of Double Exposure.
Not long after that we jump into the role of Max driving to Caledon University. We know that university from Double Exposure, but after the storm part of the campus was destroyed, so movement around the university is significantly less and without some new rooms and rooms. Arriving at the university, Max sees that a fire has broken out and sets out to save his students and friends. However, the university collapses and Max is forced to awaken her dormant power to manipulate time. She succeeds and returns to the moment before the fire, specifically three days earlier, and embarks on a mission to find out who and why caused the fire in order to save her people.
Yes, Max has her power of turning back time again after it was put to sleep in Double Exposure. On the other hand, he no longer has the power to switch from one timeline to another, primarily because the different timelines in the previous game merged into one. While going back in time, Max keeps the items she finds and takes so she can put them to good use at certain times.
These supernatural elements are tempered by Chloe, who is actually the game’s second protagonist. For the first time in Life is Strange we have two female protagonists that we can control alternately. Just as it was in the recent Resident Evil Requiem, in Reunion we have parts where we play primarily with Max, and then they break the tempo a little and insert themselves into the brave and daring Chloe.
For the first time in Life is Strange we have two female protagonists that we can control alternately.
If you’ve played Before the Storm, then you’ll be familiar with Chloe also having her own minigame. The so-called backtalk it allows her to save herself or extract the required information from other people. This segment gives some peace and balance to the gameplay from the power to turn back time. Still, I expected more from back talk because it turns out we ended up with a poorer version from BTS. Literally everything is in front of your eyes from evidence and you don’t have to think at all about how to save yourself or get something out of others. The answers offered are not ambiguous either, so if you are not someone who stares at your phone while playing, it will be quite easy for you. Besides the fact that you can talk to both girls and explore the world around you, you have the option of collecting drawings or photos – depending on which of the two girls you’re playing with at a given moment.
The story is solid and clearly shows the feelings of love and reconciliation with the inevitable consequences of difficult decisions and indicates how everyone grieves differently. The narrative aspect of the game at the beginning is mysterious and interesting. But as the story progresses, you slowly realize that there is nothing behind the mystery that will enlighten you. Although throughout the game you are looking for who started the fire at the university and why, it is clear that the developers wanted the real focus to be on exploring the relationship between Max and Chloe. What is their relationship now, what do they want from each other and how do they deal with the fact that, depending on which ending you chose in the original, both Chloe and Arcadia Bay were saved.
And therein lies the biggest problem of this game, what by combining those timelineova completely rejects the original as such. He simply ignores all those emotional moments that we went through with heavy hearts and whose decisions we made through tears. I mean, Reunion even cancels spoilers, if we will. Chloe is dead, but is she actually alive? Arcadia Bay is destroyed, but is it actually whole?
Reunion relies too much on nostalgia, and comes across as fueled by an obvious concession to fans. Not only that, but Max has no real problem with Chloe being alive. Internal bickering, something that would make her question the situation she is in more deeply, none of that is present and the focus is solely on the fact that the two of them are finally together again. Relying on nostalgia is ironic in one sense, since Reunion practically erases the consequences of the original.
Relying on nostalgia is ironic in one sense, since Reunion practically erases the consequences of the original.
When it comes to decisions, they are almost negligible. The game ultimately guides you towards a ready act that you basically cannot change. A narrative game with multiple choices eventually boils down to two endings with a few small variations. Just play it once and watch the rest in a YouTube video.
It’s a little hard for me how much was pushed through Reunion that Chloe and Max have to end up together. Even when I was choosing those decisions that were purely friendly, the game on several occasions gave clear indications that the two were still something more than friends.
However, as many problems as there were, I think that the ending of the game ended in a very beautiful and emotional way. It’s the moment that concludes one chapter of Life is Strange. Maybe just their stories, maybe entire franchises. Who knows, once you’ve lived, you’ve seen it!
Besides Max and Chloe, all secondary characters are more or less sidelined.
Besides Max and Chloe, all the secondary characters are more or less sidelined, except for Moses who, along with Chloe and Max, is the main star of the Reunion. Some existing characters from previous parts are not in the game at all, but communicate with you through messages on your mobile phone. Remember what Safi decided at the end of Double Exposure? And that was completely ignored in Reunion and literally has no importance. Safi has some other motive, totally unrelated to what was her idea at the end of the previous game. Did you have love selections in Double Exposure? Whatever has passed – it is no longer valid for you, you broke up with him/her somewhere, sometime at some point. You literally get the impression that they are developers wanted to separate as much as they could from Double Exposure.
If nothing else, at least the voice acting is pretty good. All the characters are believable, especially Chloe. I think that Chloe was also the best character in the game, which she literally carries with her stature and charisma. Even the dialogues are not to be thrown away in most cases. There were parts of the game where I honestly laughed, regardless of whether I was playing with Max or Chloe. The comments they had and their jokes seemed very natural and in line with their characteristics.
Graphically, the game looks no better than it did in Double Exposure. I’d even say it’s more blurry for some strange reason that has nothing to do with the game settings. It’s just as if the characters were not put into greater focus. Visually, it is composed of a richer and warmer palette of colors. The overall impression is that it does not bring her enough to stand out from her predecessors. When you add to that that there are quite a few objects and things that were reused from the previous title, it is clear to you that there was not much progress in the visual part.
The background music is clear and good, in the same range as Life is Strange. It’s not at the level of the original game, but it’s striking enough to help create atmosphere, especially during emotional moments.
The facial animations look good on the main characters, but there are still plenty of moments where they’re just not well done. In one moment you are positively surprised that the facial expression is in line with what was said, but then another moment arrives in which you can clearly see that it took more time to cook here. There is also an obvious problem during conversations with multiple dialogue options. You can tell exactly when the conversation is over because the game gets a very strange cut on several occasions that lets you know that the next scene and shift in the narrative is coming. The transitions are not seamless at all.
I have to mention that my game crashed on several occasions. There were also problems with glitchevima such as hair, chains and bracelets falling into the skin of the characters. But when such problems were not present, the game ran great on the highest settings. Not that we have some ultra-super high settings, but it’s commendable when it functions at the highest level it can offer you right now.
The original Life is Strange was a really great game for me. I’ll never forget how shocked I was at the end of the third episode. Unfortunately, we didn’t get anything like that in Réunion. There is one moment that could have been at that level, but it was not used in the right way. In the end, Reunion turned out to be a typical example of a title that relies too much on nostalgia and too little on the creativity that we appreciated in the original 11 years ago. You might be wondering how the story ends with Max and Chloe, but in the case of this game, it might be better to leave it unanswered.