Before I began working as a paid games writer, one of the first pieces I wrote for my own self-published blog was about the impact the original Life Is Strange had on me in 2016. Ten years later, that sentiment is all but gone from the latest installment in the franchise, Life Is Strange: Reunion, which feels like corporate pandering trying to squeeze every penny of Max and Chloe fans while desecrating the original in the process.
The concept of Chloe Price making a return over a decade later, whose fate essentially carries the emotional weight of that first journey, felt wrong. And sure enough, while Reunion has some solid moments featuring the now band-manager interacting with Max's newfound reality, her very own appearance in Reunion just feels tacked on, particularly since the game doesn't even begin to make sense if you pick the ending where you spare her over Arcadia Bay. The whole emotional nuance of the story is erased as there's barely a sense of conflict in her characterization as opposed to seeing Chloe come to terms with the fact that a version of herself didn't get a chance to grow up into the person she has become, and that's the Chloe Max remembers when they reunite.
It's almost like Deck Nine admitted being creatively bankrupt and had no other choice than to pull one of the oldest tricks in the book: resurrecting a fan-favorite character for a cheap nostalgia-inducing joyride. Sadly, Life Is Strange: Reunion doesn't do much beyond being exactly that, even if a few of the side characters managed to be somewhat compelling with the little screentime dedicated to them amid a whole convoluted mess of a plot.
The developers had a lot to apologize for following the disastrous Double Exposure, which was not only met with a mediocre critical reception but also dismal sales numbers that, by any account, should have made Square Enix shelve any further projects involving the IP. Miraculously (going to go out on a limb and say it was likely a sunk cost fallacy situation for Square with both projects probably being worked on back-to-back, considering the short turnaround), players will get to say goodbye to an iconic duo on the developers' intended terms.
This new and final entry in the Max and Chloe saga doesn't necessarily feel like an apology tour, but it does try to mend a lot of the bizarre decisions Deck Nine made in the previous game. In turn, it makes Reunion a game that tries to bite way more than it could chew with a Scooby-Doo-esque mystery led by characters who are pushing (or past) 30, intertwined with what was supposed to be an emotional sendoff for the two most beloved characters in the series, which ends up falling flat, teetering on the brink of feeling manipulative with an unearned "emotional" climax.
The first Life Is Strange had an earnestness that hasn't been replicated. Sure, it might have had hella cringey dialogue, but it was also a braver game thematically than Reunion ever dares to be (something you could say about every Deck Nine title as opposed to the two worked by Don't Nod), dealing with crude subject matters alongside the general mystery surrounding Max Caulfield as a character that could manipulate time. That's a recurring criticism of the new era of Life Is Strange under the current management, as even Life Is Strange 2 feels as relevant, if not more, in the present day than when it released, dealing with racial profiling, persecution of minorities, and a much more compelling coming-of-age tale of two brothers being the central themes.
Reunion doesn't bother with that, making everything feel surface-level. There's so much happening at any given moment that there's barely any room to breathe and flesh out the narrative threads and Reunion's supporting cast. Picking up almost immediately after the events of Double Exposure, Caledon is amid a complete overhaul as an institution, both literally with multiple buildings undergoing restoration efforts, and academically, as new president Owen Teller wants to get rid of the arts in favor of a Caledon 2.0 that focuses on science and technology.
In this context, Max experiences yet another tragic incident: a massive fire spreads across the campus, ravaging through buildings, and taking the lives of people close to her, forcing her to act by jumping into a selfie taken a couple days prior, leading to our central mystery: who is the arsonist that set Caledon on fire and why did they do it?
Elsewhere, returning heroine Chloe Price starts having visions of Safi, one of Max's closest friends, who was last seen trying to recruit all humans with supernatural abilities to maybe open a School for Gifted Youngsters (something that will never be addressed, mind you). In any case, Max is seemingly holding her at gunpoint in said vision, leading to our green-hair punk-rocker to seek out her former best friend/romantic interest, depending on your choices.
It's not an entirely awful premise to hook you into the game, but the majority of the first half of it is wasted on this unnecessary slog that is trying to figure out how Max's powers work from a "scientific" point of view. It hits you with the most generic gibberish of alternate timelines and paradoxes that you just know will lead to absolutely nothing because we've seen it so much. So. Damn. Much. Everywhere.
The first game's narrative was heavily inspired by David Lynch (there's a neat Twin Peaks reference for those eagle-eyed fans that kinda makes its return in Reunion). That esoteric approach to storytelling fed the aura of mystery; things felt bizarrely engrossing, and when the game pulled a fast one on you to show you the consequences of Max's consistent tampering with the fabric of time and reality itself, it really did show you.
Reunion is at its best when it embraces the spiritual rather than trying to root everything in reality. The second half is when I truly felt the game was going places with the mystery surrounding Abraxas, a very secretive social club that is at odds with the new Caledon president for reasons Max has yet to figure out. But because Reunion has to deal with that, and Chloe's existential crisis, and a few other loose ends left from Double Exposure, the entire thing just falls flat on its face.
It's a shame, really, because player choice really does seem to matter in Reunion. If you've grown fond of this cast of characters, there's a very definitive sense of finality, and you'll have to pay attention to every little detail if you want the best outcome. That said, the biggest tangible mystery of trying to find who the arsonist is gets resolved in perhaps the most mind-numbingly boring way possible. It's so devoid of impact and so far removed from everything else the game had been building towards that it actively made me angry.
There is stuff to love about Life Is Strange: Reunion. Max and Chloe's interactions are heartwarming (particularly if you choose to sacrifice her), and Deck Nine seemed to have nailed player agency as I was genuinely shocked at the massive consequences some of the decisions I took had in the game's ending. But all the goodwill gets bogged down by an overtly ambitious story that doesn't get close to sticking the landing, and a general feeling that bringing back Chloe was a corporate mandate to see if Square Enix could sell a few more copies of Life Is Strange before plunging the franchise into obscurity.
And that's it. Stick with us at Gfinityesports: your go-to source for all things Life Is Strange.