It always comes back to Chloe Price and Max Caulfield. Through several games, branching narrative series Life is Strange has explored the consequences of love, friendship, and community, but the duo’s bond remains the beating heart of the overarching tale.
As Life is Strange: Reunion is said to be the final chapter in Max and Chloe’s story, it’s no surprise that both characters have returned, thanks to the cumulative events of Life is Strange: Double Exposure. Although some of the more significant decisions you’ve made from the first game, such as Max and Chloe’s relationship and the fate of Arcadia Bay, have carried over as well.
I spent some time with the game to dive into why fans should be excited about the partners-in-crime getting one last chance.
Some more familiar faces return
It’s not just about Max and Chloe making their comeback. Many characters from Life is Strange: Double Exposure appear, with Moses, a graduate, as a focal point because he is one of the victims of a fire that Max is trying to prevent. Dr. Yasmin Fayyad and her shapeshifting daughter Safi are present too, but Max’s friend Amanda was very much the focal point of the demo’s opening minutes. Which led to…
Ready to Rewind again?
My first task in the demo was to save Amanda from a demoralising heckler during her stand-up routine at the Snapping Turtle campus bar. It was a gentle reintroduction to Max’s Rewind ability, as once I failed my first attempt to stop the jeering troublemaker, I rewound our encounter with L1. Using the information I learned in our previous conversations, Max was able to talk to him again and make up a story that forced him to leave.
Max’s ability can be accessed at any time, but fundamentally, its use in the demo was to get around tight-lipped people, such as realizing that spilling beer over Double Exposure’s disgraced university professor, Lucas, is the only way to get a sneaky peek at his hidden documents.
The revelations from that action led Max to investigate the unsettling Abraxus House, triggering a more action driven use of Rewind. After bumping into another familiar character, journalism student Loretta, the two women were trapped in a creepy basement, under threat of discovery. Using a broom to barricade the door proved useless, but Rewind allowed me to find a far sturdier metal crowbar.
But the danger wasn’t over yet. With the house due for early demolition, I then had to use Rewind to find and disarm all the detonators in the right order under a strict time limit, a fun sequence that showed off the potential for where the game might go later on.
Chloe’s Backtalk returns
Given that Chloe is playable, it’s only fair that her dialogue-puzzle-based Backtalk ability from Life is Strange: Before the Storm is here, too. Although its introduction in the demo focused less on withering sarcasm to get her way, and more on charismatic persuasion by bending the truth.
After sneaking into the Snapping Turtle and then later being caught by security, I was asked to prove Chloe’s university credentials or risk her getting banned from campus. The Backtalk overlay popped up, offering a selection of replies under a time limit, with some responses carrying future consequences.
The key to successfully answering lay in the scene’s prior setup, with the game giving me a chance to observe items around the bar and interact with others for information, I had to remember to make my lie sound convincing. So don’t worry if you’re put on the spot – as long as you’re paying attention and quick on your fingers, Backtalk is a blast.
Both Max and Chloe are playable
Becoming both characters in the demo created an interesting situation when they were reunited at a climactic point of my game time. Rather than forcing me to choose who to control or keep them entirely separate, Reunion allowed me to decide what each character said to the other, shaping the ebb and flow of their conversation and creating immediate cause and effect in their dialogue.
Their journals are the perfect catch-up tool
We also have access to both Max’s and Chloe’s journals, which provide backstory and world-building through their scribbled thoughts, stickers, and other ephemera. The same menu allowed me to read incoming text messages between characters, along with their previous texts, providing a rich insight into their prior relationships.
You can take photos at any time
Similar to previous games in the series, there are photo hotspots to uncover in Max’s scenes, for collectible compositions that save in her journal. But pressing up on the D-pad at any time while you’re controlling Max reveals a much-requested addition to the series – the ability to take an in-game photo whenever something catches your eye.
Your personal snaps won’t be saved to Max’s journal, but are shareable with friends and via social media with a long press of the Create button.
My short time with the game left me eager for more as Max and Chloe’s adventure together was just starting to heat up. March 26 is when we’ll all be able to experience the likely heart-wrenching decisions of what comes next when Life is Strange: Reunion launches on PS5.
