Life is Strange: Reunion |

Publisher: Square Enix

Developer: Deck Nine Games

Release Date: 03/26/2026

Available On

We are at the end of a saga. Life is Strange isn’t just one of the best modern adventure series to date, but one that I grew up with in my early adulthood. 11 years ago the first game touched me personally in a way that a lot of games can’t. DONTNOD captured lightning in a bottle. Nostalgic lightning in a bottle, to be specific. They had a way to drag you back to your younger years and make you feel like a teen and kid again. The rural Oregon town, hanging out in abandoned places like junk yards and going to parties you aren’t allowed to. It wasn’t just the physical locations but the personal connections and weird happenings that occurred in those spots. Sitting around outside on a warm summer day, birds chirping, a slight breeze. Sitting on top of some junk, talking to friends about hobbies and interests. Walking for miles down a train track or abandoned road is your “regular spot.” Some people grew up with friends and did this routine for years. That was the magic that Life is Strange captured. The game had the superpower twist, but it was grounded and felt believable. Almost like when you always imagined going back in time and changing things, but that daydream became a reality.

While the reins were handed off to Deck Nine games the best were made by DONTNOD. Life is Strange 2 was a new take in the series but captured that same magic. I personally feel like Deck Nine did a decent job but couldn’t find that same magic that DONTNOD had. The series continued with Before the Storm, a prequel focusing on Cloe, whose events are completely ignored in the series, then onto another spin-off with True Colors, which was Deck Nine’s best work. Reunion is a direct sequel to Double Exposure, and I honestly feel like these two games should have been made into one. Double Exposure had a lot missing from what made Life is Strange truly great. Reunion finally captures some of that DONTNOD era magic and brings us a fantastic and touching conclusion to the end of the Max and Chloe saga.

The game starts out great just like all the games do. You are thrown into the life of Max and what she’s doing right at that moment. Sadly, you must play Double Exposure to even care about what’s going on here. All of the characters from that game are here, but the game plays like you already know what happened. There’s a short recap of the entire trilogy at the beginning, and you can make choices. This is great based on how you played these games all these years. I still remember the major choices I made from the original game 11 years ago, as it was that impactful to me. To newcomers, these choices don’t mean anything. As you play the game, you will get a lot of the same feelings from the original game. There’s more of a slice-of-life, personal level of intrigue to Max’s life. Double Exposure completely ignored these small everyday details and focused on too many characters and too grand of a plot. It was too fast-moving to feel like the original game. Reunion really tightens the reins and focuses on core characters, mostly Max and Cloe. With a lot of the introductions of the newer characters done in the previous game, Reunion can focus on moving forward. Max ends up in another time-manipulating conundrum. It starts to feel forced at first, but it’s another natural problem that she gets herself into without even knowing it. The school from the previous game is set on fire, and as you run around this initial scene, you glance at clues as to what could have caused this fire. A lot of students die and so do Max’s friends. The music here is also fantastic as ever. Both licensed and original music just feel like “Life is Strange“. The music gives you that feeling of longing for something in the past. A distant fun moment that makes you feel warm inside and makes you smile.

Max takes a selfie, and her double exposure power from the last game allows her to go into the photo and try to stop the fire. As usual, fate takes hold, and Max has the ultimate moral battle with whether or not her powers are actually being used for the good of others or just herself. There’s a lot of turmoil between Max and Cloe about this, and they talk a lot about the events of past games. This really feels like the climax to a long-running trilogy. Sadly, not much else has evolved outside of a slight visual bump. Gameplay is minimal, puzzles are almost nonexistent, and the game is reduced to object hunting, but that’s kind of par for the course for adventure games. They are either puzzle-heavy or object-hunting heavy. Dialogue choices are the main impact in this game, like it is with the entire series, and there are still many choices that don’t have immediate effects. The game displays the famous “This choice will have consequences” with the usual lovely chime. I wish there were more minute choices like in the original game that didn’t seem obvious at all. That’s one of the reasons why that game was so impactful. There are fewer major choices here rather than many small ones. However, despite this, the choices are very impactful and are great. There are a couple of scenes that a small sect of fandom seems upset with. Being able to kiss Cloe two different times. First off, this reaches back to the original game with you being able to romance Cloe or not. Second, it’s a choice. You don’t have to. Some feel just having the option is feeding into “Pricefield shipping,” but I feel this is a reach. Homophobia was a huge issue when the first game launched thanks to Gamer Gate, and it’s no different today. Cloe and Max have a very deep and beautiful relationship. There’s context leading up to these points. It’s not out of place or out of nowhere.

The game does a great job with worldbuilding by having you exmaine objects and listen to Max’s internal monologue. This was unique to Life is Strange and helped you connect with the small details of the world. Various media that characters like, art, school happenings, things like lunch menus. It’s all optional, but helps pull you in. With that said, Reunion is a fantastic ending to the trilogy. Not the groundbreaking finale I wanted, but Deck Nine did a great job. Despite how long it took them to get up to speed with DONTNOD’s storytelling quality, what’s here is great. We grew up with Max and Cloe and finally can see the end of their saga. There are many moments like in the original game with parties, school issues, and more adult issues that break away from the childhood antics of the original game. Life is Strange does something that a lot of games struggle to do. Make their characters feel human and personal.