Life is Strange: Reunion Review ★★★☆☆
Life is Strange: Reunion, my girls are back, but for how long?
The saga of Max and Chloe, and the fate of Caledon, is yours to decide! Play as both Max and Chloe as an all-new story builds towards an epic climax. The fire will force Max and Chloe to make devastating decisions. Can they find a future together… Before everything burns?
- Gameplay: Exploration and conversations with vital choices
- Visual presentation: Scenic views
- Audio/Soundtrack: Indie-rock tunes to vibe with
- Storytelling: Told through your choices and cutscenes
- Language: Several uses of the F word
- Violence: Arson, possible gunshot
- Player discretion: There is a point in the game where someone may kill themselves
- Accessibility:
- DLC:
- How long to beat: HLTB states the following:
- Main story: 8.2 hours
- Achievements: 29 Steam achievements
- Adventure
- AI-less
- Choices Matter
- Emotional
- LGBTQ+
- Medium Playtime
- Multiple Endings
- Mystery
- Romance
- Singleplayer
- Supernatural
- Time Management
- Voice Acted
Pros:
- Chloe is Back
- Scenic environments
- Indie-rock soundtrack
Cons:
- Loretta is a me-personality
- Some choices seem the same
- Don’t understand Abraxas
- Some bugs
- Never really had a relationship
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Explanation to Negative Feedback
Loretta is a me-personality
I didn’t like Loretta when she first came into the picture, because she was always snooping and trying to throw Max under the bus for brownie points and to enhance her podcast.
Well, she’s exactly the same in this game.
She wants to talk and help only when it’s going to benefit her in the end.
Some choices seem the same
At times they’ll give you two choices to make, and sometimes the wording for them are the exact same, despite being written differently and it makes it really confusing on which one to choose, because clearly there’s going to be two different responses given whichever one you choose.
I just wish devs who make choices matter games distinguish two choices from each other more clearly.
Don’t understand Abraxas
It’s a secret society, but everyone knows about it. Wouldn’t that make it not a secret society? Wouldn’t that make it more of a secretive society more than anything else? And people act like they just can’t up and leave it if things are getting too hectic for them there.
Did they swear themselves in like some kind of blood oath or what?
And why do people cling so hard to this society anyway when it’s more like a club that people have parties and meetings in and such.
It’s just…weird to me.
Some bugs
There were only a couple bugs I encountered.
One where the game crashed entirely after making an important choice, which had me laughing at the irony of it choosing that moment to do so.
And another when I completed a section, but the voiced lines for it were still happening in the background. It stabled after cutting to another scene, but it couldn’t get very far anyway with the lines and what it wanted me to do.
Never really had a relationship
I chose to not go the romance route for one of the characters, and that’s all fine and dandy, but for everyone else, I did choose a romance route. But while playing the game, everyone felt like they were holding Max at a certain distance and didn’t hold a lot of interest toward her.
Like with Vinh.
According to Max they were more on again off again rather than in any kind of real relationship, and he never really seemed like he was genuinely happy to see and talk to her of all the times he did, so…I don’t know.
Chloe was the only real romance character for me in the end, and with having so many options available…it didn’t really feel like romance was really here for us.
Explanation to Positive Feedback
Chloe is Back
How long has it been?
Way too long? I mean, Chloe got her big debut in one other game, aside from the first that we met her in, if I’m remembering correctly. God it’s so good to see her again and hear her edgy type of humor.
Though she doesn’t seem exactly warm to the idea of coming back and seeing Max again, so I was a little iffy on how it would play out for the two of them.
Still, I always did like Chloe more than Max.
Scenic environments
It’s just a shame that you can’t capture everything on your camera, but you can of course always screenshot these marvelous scenes.
And they really are beautiful to stare out into when you’re given them, and gone almost all too soon.
Indie-rock soundtrack
As per usual, Life is Strange has the most chill soundtrack that you can just vibe to when you’re sitting in random locations and listening to it. Not to mention you get to take in the environment around you while listening to the music for as long as you want.
Though this game does allow for you to choose a different soundtrack for the game so as not to get copyright claimed.