"Life is Strange: Reunion" is pure fan service

Rainer Etzweiler

30/3/2026

Translation: machine translated

Time travel, a reunion and plenty of nostalgia: "Life is Strange: Reunion" concludes the saga of Max and Chloe.

The story of Max and Chloe didn't really need a sequel. The video game-turned-Polaroid advert came to a successful conclusion in 2014. Two endings were possible, both suitably sad, regardless of whether you sacrificed Arcadia Bay or Chloe.

Add to that: I'm bothered by the fact that few franchises these days have the courage to have an ending. Anything that even remotely works gets twelve sequels, four spin-offs and two «Fortnite» skins. In this context, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed «Life is Strange: Double Exposure». The follow-up chapter of Max's life is so charmingly unobtrusive that I couldn't help but fall in love with this awkward hipster all over again.

The setting helped: Caledon University is delightfully cosy and my new place of longing for a virtual winter getaway. The fresh cast is likeable and believably written. Cringey dialogue that sounds like a marketing executive trying his hand at teenage slang is largely a thing of the past. Max has matured and the people who bring her to life have understood that.

Colleague Cassie tested the game at the time and gave it four stars. A rating that I can agree with and a steep template for «Life is Strange: Reunion».

Old friends, new problems

In case the intro hasn't already made that clear: «Life is Strange: Reunion» is a direct sequel to «Double Exposure». The sequel not only brings back the series heroine, but also her ex-girlfriend and fan favourite Chloe Price. I won't spoil how this ties in with the ending of the debut. However, anyone who has played «Double Exposure» can guess in which direction it goes.

The game starts in the backstage of a punk club in Indianapolis. Chloe is the first to show that she has lost none of her winning personality over the past ten years. After a verbal altercation with the resident booker, she collapses for seemingly no reason and wakes up in a surreal environment where she is plagued with visions of her own death. Not for the first time, as her reaction reveals.

Chloe can't place what is happening to her. But she is certain that one person knows what it's all about: Max Caulfield.

A reunion between the two will have to wait for the time being.

Back to the past

Scene changes to Vermont. Max stops off at a viewing platform on the way home from her weekend trip. However, the neo-lecturer can only enjoy the panorama for a short time - in the distance, she sees flames rising from her university. Apparently, the cosmos still has a score to settle with our protagonist.

But what are the combined forces of fate against the stubbornness of a snapping time traveller?

Max gets back the superpowers she thought she had lost in «Reunion». As in her debut, she can manipulate time and travel to certain points in the past via photos. She now has two days to prevent the fire, save her friends and solve a conspiracy along the way.

(Almost) everything as before

Franchise fans don't have to learn anything new for the gameplay. As Max, you try to elicit information from other people. If a conversation goes wrong or you have chosen the wrong answer, you turn back time and try again. You also explore the campus and look for clues as to what caused the catastrophe - as long as you're not reading the text messages your friends are sending you.

Furthermore, you have to find objects and occasionally solve little rewind puzzles that don't really make you break a sweat. The fact that «Reunion» constantly imposes verbal training wheels on me despite the low level of difficulty quickly gets on my nerves.

«The bar probably has a back door.»... «The bar probably has a back door.»... «Probably has the ..» GIRL, chill! I'm looking for collectibles. If I want to be told what to do next every two seconds, I open Outlook.

Although the hint density can be reduced, the co-protagonists will regularly remind you of your main mission even if the function is turned off completely. Regardless of whether you are controlling Max or Chloe.

Comeback star Chloe doesn't have superpowers like Max, but she does have a big face. This is used in the Backtalk feature. You have to choose the right answer during dialogues under time pressure to catch your opponent off guard. This works in exactly the same way as in the prequel «Before the Storm».

New, however, are the conversations between Max and Chloe. The decisions you make here set the tone for the relationship between the two. I like the fact that «Reunion» gives me control here, even if it is ultimately very unsubtle fanservice.

Technique and sounds

Visually, not much has changed since «Double Exposure». «Life is Strange: Reunion» is an AA game, and it shows. Thanks to the pretty, slightly comic-like graphic style, however, this doesn't carry much weight.

The numerous graphic errors, on the other hand, are annoying: textures pop noticeably later into the picture, hair disappears in facial animations, and edges and backgrounds flicker again and again.

Nothing to complain about regarding the music. A few months ago, I wrote about the use of licensed songs in video games. You can read here why I think that a game soundtrack can hit just as hard, even if it wasn't composed exclusively for the game.

I was also referring to the music from the «Life is Strange» debut. It's no less important to my gaming experience than the story or the characters - and fits perfectly with the tumblrcore vibe of the game.

«Life is Strange» IS indie rock and «Reunion» dutifully continues this tradition.

Did it have to be?

I was delighted when it was announced that the story of Max and Chloe would continue. Depending on who you ask, though, it's definitely a hot take. I can well understand why.

As mentioned at the beginning, the story of «Life is Strange» didn't need a sequel. «Double Exposure» also contained some narrative elements that were - to be generous - questionable, but objectively just stupid. At the end of the game (spoiler incoming), when Safi gives a pathos-ridden speech that sounds like Nick Fury rounding up the Avengers, I felt so physically ashamed that I had to get some fresh air for a moment.

If you want, you can also find numerous inconsistencies in the newly established canon. However, when time travel and multiverses become dramaturgical tools, this can never be completely avoided anyway. As soon as you intervene in time, cause becomes effect and effect becomes cause. The logic argument then only works to a limited extent. Which is why I'm convinced that it's largely up to the players themselves to decide whether «Life is Strange: Double Exposure/Reunion» works.

I can either look for gaps and question the coherence, which inevitably leads to the foundation crumbling away. Or I can choose to enjoy the finale of one of the most beautiful and sentimental stories in gaming.

My choice is the latter.

«Life is Strange: Reunion» is available for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. I tested the PS5 version provided to me by Square Enix.

In a nutshell

Once again with feeling

A comeback for Max and Chloe was a risk from the start. On paper, there were a thousand reasons against it and most of them are legitimate. Developer Deck Nine didn't give a damn and tried it anyway and I'm grateful to them for that.

"Life is Strange: Reunion" closes a chapter that I didn't realise was still open. Of course, it's hard-core fanservice, but is that such a bad thing? At a time when the gaming industry seems to be deliberately bypassing the Community, it's almost subversive.

The saga of Max and Chloe comes to a poetic end with "Reunion". It is full of intimate and sensitive moments that will stay with me longer than any graphic bug - or the functional gameplay.

It's not perfect and that's a good thing. "Life is strange" - life is strange and so are video game reviews sometimes.

Pro

• Max & Chloe
• great soundtrack
• Successful conclusion to the story
• beautiful setting ...

Contra

• which, however, recycles a lot
• Various glitches and graphic errors
• No challenge
• relatively short

Video games

−78%

EUR49,99 was EUR229,–

Square Enix Life Is Strange Reunion

PS5

1

Rainer Etzweiler

Freelance Editor

rainer@rockstar.ch

In the early 90s, my older brother gave me his NES with The Legend of Zelda on it. It was the start of an obsession that continues to this day.

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