Game review: Life Is Strange: Reunion (Xbox Series X)

The first Life Is Strange game was released in 2015, and it featured an emotionally charged story. It follows the characters of Max and Chloe, with the former having the ability to rewind time. 

In the original game, Max has to make the impossible choice to save either Chloe or their hometown, called Arcadia Bay. It's up to the player what type of ending they want. 

Many years later, in 2024, a direct sequel called Life Is Strange: Double Exposure was released. Chloe isn't in this game, but Max now gains the ability to travel between two different timelines. In this sequel, she has to solve the murder of her new friend, Safi. 

In 2026, the final chapter of Max's story comes to an epic conclusion in Life Is Strange: Reunion. This new game sees Max reunite with Chloe for the first time in a decade, but things aren't rosy for the two best friends. 

This is because Max witnesses a huge fire at Caledon University that kills her colleagues and other best friends. Thanks to Max's powers, she literally enters a selfie photo she took moments before the fire to travel back in time, hoping to prevent the fatal fire from ever happening. 

The fire is the main focus of the story because Max has to find out who might be responsible and why it started in the first place. Chloe, on the other hand, wants to find out the reason for her nightmares. In her nightmares, she fears that Max shoots her and causes her permanent death. 

The entire game's storyline takes place in the span of just three days, so Max has to gain as many clues as possible before the deadly fire devours the entire University on Sunday. At the start of the game, she travels back to Friday, but she needs to alter history to make sure her friends survive this time. 

Speaking of the start of the game, you have the option to choose what decisions Max chose in the previous games. For example, you can choose whether or not Max and Chloe are lovers or if they are just friends. Another example is choosing the ending of the first game. You can say Max saves Chloe, or saves Arcadia Bay instead. 

I've played many decision-based video games in the past, and usually, the choices you make are permanent. If you make the wrong choice, you're usually stuck with it unless you play the game all over again to redo your actions. 

Life Is Strange: Reunion is slightly different thanks to Max's special powers. If you make a wrong decision during the game, Max can rewind time to redo her choices. This saves you from needing to reload a previous save to replay certain wrong choices. 

That said, you cannot rewind time if you are playing as Chloe in the game. This is due to the fact that Max is the only person in the game with time-travel abilities. Chloe is just a normal woman, but she's more rebellious, and her feisty attitude helps Max find out more clues about who might start a fire. 

In terms of gameplay, Life Is Strange is really dialogue-heavy, and you cannot skip cutscenes whatsoever. If you're the type of gamer who likes non-stop action, then this is not the game for you. However, if you love a game with an interesting story, you'll love what Life Is Strange: Reunion has to offer. 

What I like most about Life Is Strange: Reunion is its replayability. Depending on the choices you make in the game, you can have a good ending or a very bad ending. If you are a bad player, multiple people could die in your first playthrough. On the flipside of this, you might achieve an ending where everyone survives if you make the best choices possible. 

My first playthrough was nearly perfect because I made a lot of great choices. I wasn't able to prevent the death of one character in the game. The entire game can be completed in around nine hours, but you can get more gameplay hours if you want to see every different outcome or get 100% completion rate. 

Graphically, Life Is Strange is identical to that of Life Is Strange: Double Exposure. Caledon University and the local bar are the game's main locations, and they look exactly as they did in the previous game. I was a little disappointed that the game doesn't introduce many new locations. 

Another thing that disappointed me is that the game's choices aren't as dramatic as they could be. In comparison to another game like Heavy Rain, you cannot end the game early by killing the main characters off at the beginning of the game, or something like that. I always thought Heavy Rain was very humorous because the possibilities were more endless in that game. 

That being said, I still think Life Is Strange: Reunion is a decent game if you played the previous titles. It's nice to see Max and Chloe finally reunite after 10 long years, and the story can go many different ways depending on your choices. Like I said before, only gamers who hate dialogue-heavy games should avoid Life Is Strange: Reunion. 

Verdict: 8.0/10