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Deck Nine managed something special with Life is Strange: Reunion. After leaving us with an Avengers-styled ‘Max will return’ in 2024’s Double Exposure, Reunion brings Chloe back to reunite the series’ two fan-favourites for one final adventure. I was understandably apprehensive going in, yet after the credits rolled, I couldn’t have been more satisfied. Life is Strange: Reunion is beautifully written, well-paced, and peppered with moments that will stick with fans long after it’s all over.
Reunion picks up a little while after Double Exposure, as we return to Caledon University and take the reins of Max once again. After the wild climax of the previous game, things have calmed down a bit – Max is back teaching photography at Caledon, Moses is doing his usual thing in the observatory, and Safi is off on her quest to find others who have abilities like hers. Everything’s about as normal as you could imagine, until a huge fire engulfs Caledon University while Max is on a weekend work trip, taking students and some of Max’s closest friends with it. After discovering what’s happened too late, Max uses her power to rewind time to the beginning of the weekend to try to piece together what happened and why.
Life is Strange: Reunion does an excellent job of setting up the stakes of the story early. While it wasn’t perfect by any means, Double Exposure also did an excellent job of setting up Max’s new life and the people in it, and coming back to this world and seeing the fire engulf everything – and everyone – Max cares about hit hard. I also like the way the game, like earlier entries, pushes you to piece together this mystery rather than offering everything up on a platter. There is a range of endings in Reunion, some of which are dire, and it’s up to you to explore the environment, ask the right questions, and make the right decisions to figure out the events leading up to the fire and what can be done to stop it.
Of course, this isn’t just Max’s story. Chloe Price is also back, and I was surprised – and delighted – to see how well she was integrated into Reunion’s narrative. Whether you’re a ‘Bae’ or ‘Bay’ person, the way Deck Nine weaves her into the story makes sense, while shining a light on the guilt Max felt, and continues to feel, after that key decision in Life is Strange all those years ago. Seeing Max and Chloe interact again was a huge highlight throughout Reunion, with undeniable chemistry between voice actors Hannah Telle and Rhianna DeVries making every interaction feel special and worthwhile. There’s huge emotional weight under everything Max and Chloe do – and say – here, and they easily stole every scene they were in together.
You’ll play as both Max and Chloe throughout the game, with each bringing their own flavour to conversations and scenarios to piece together the mystery around the fire.
Max’s rewind power is in full force in Reunion, foregoing the dimension-jumping abilities she had in Double Exposure. While the latter was a fun change, I really like the way rewind is used here. Much like the original Life is Strange, you’ll piece together fragments of conversations with others and then rewind to use that newfound knowledge to engage in new conversations. With the stakes so high, the ability feels well utilised throughout the game, and I enjoyed the slight puzzle element it provided. You really need to listen and analyse conversations to figure out what could get people to talk, and, conversely, what could get them to tell you the truth.
Chloe has a neat little conversational minigame too, called Backtalk. By analysing relevant conversations and information in her surroundings, she can convince characters to do what she wants. That said, it’s a back-and-forth type of minigame, and wrong answers end in a fail state that you can’t retry. I liked this as it made me focus on the little things, and winning a Backtalk section felt like a nice victory of wits.
In traditional Life is Strange fashion, you’ll be out exploring the environment, talking with characters, understanding their motives, wants, and needs, while making key decisions that affect the world around you. Those key decisions really do shape how everything plays out as the weekend progresses, and I was impressed with the way the story kept a good pace while allowing characters and their relationships the chance to breathe. At around nine hours for a full playthrough, it felt just about right – not overstaying its welcome while not being too short.
There’s a lot to unpack in Reunion, and I was also impressed by how well the writing resonated with me when compared to previous entries. I cared about each of the main characters and their individual stories, with the looming threat of the fire keeping me on my toes as I got closer and closer to the end. This was further accentuated with the excellent soundtrack, which continues to be a big highlight of the series.
Not everything wowed me, though. I was surprised to see a range of technical issues hamper the overall experience of the game. Whether it was stutters between scenes, strange aliasing on depth of field objects and characters, or more pop-in than I’ve seen in any recent release, on a technical level, Life is Strange: Reunion is a bit of a mess. Animation work is a bit stiff too, with secondary characters looking – and moving – a lot less life-like than the main characters, which makes quite a few scenes relatively jarring.
Even so, as a long-time Life is Strange fan, it’s hard not to look past all of that thanks to how good Reunion is at most other things. It’s easily Deck Nine’s best Life is Strange game, and it somehow managed to do the impossible by bringing Chloe and Max back in a way that makes sense. I felt the full range of emotions throughout my playthrough, and that’s a testament to the writing and strong character work. But most importantly, I also felt closure for Max and Chloe’s story. It’s not without its issues, but Life is Strange: Reunion is a well-realised love letter to fans of the series.
Whether or not you liked Max’s last outing in Double Exposure, there’s no doubt Reunion makes up for that and then some – it’s an exceptionally good game that I can’t recommend to Life is Strange fans enough.
