Life Is Strange: Reunion arrives on PlayStation 5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC, with the version tested on PS5. Developed by Deck Nine and published by Square Enix, it brings back Max Caulfield and Chloe Price, the two teen leads first introduced in the 2015 original, and gives players a chance to see their journey through to what is presented as its final chapter.
When Life Is Strange first appeared in 2015, it stood out for two reasons: its female protagonists, still a relatively uncommon sight in games at the time, and its unmistakable strain of millennial awkwardness. The French creators behind the series may not have always nailed the slang of the period, but they understood something more important to a coming-of-age story: the relationships at its centre.
That was what made the original game resonate. Max, the shy time-travelling aspiring photographer, and Chloe, the wounded punk-rock rebel, had a friendship that felt vivid and intensely felt. Their bond became the emotional core of the game, and more than a decade later, Reunion returns to that connection with adults who have lived through the consequences of everything that came before.
A reunion shaped by time
The appeal of Reunion lies in how it reopens that relationship after 11 years. Max and Chloe are no longer teenagers, but the history between them still shapes every interaction. The game treats their reunion as more than a nostalgic callback. It is a chance to revisit the feelings, choices and losses that made their story matter in the first place.
For many players, Max and Chloe always read as more than best friends. The original developers did not make that romantic interpretation explicit in 2015, but Deck Nine later introduced a romantic dimension in 2024’s Life Is Strange: Double Exposure. Reunion leaves room to play the relationship either way, though that choice creates some awkward ambiguity in places. Even so, the game remains firmly focused on the idea of first love and the way it lingers, no matter how much time passes or how life changes.
Emotional payoff
That emotional thread is the main reason Reunion works. It is not simply trying to recreate the feeling of the first Life Is Strange. Instead, it asks what becomes of a defining relationship once the people in it are adults, carrying old scars and unfinished feelings. The result is a story that aims for closure while still acknowledging how messy closure can be.
There is a clear sense that this is the end of a long arc. Max and Chloe’s reunion gives the series a chance to answer a question that has hovered over it since 2015: what happens to a connection that once felt all-consuming when the years have had their say? Reunion does not pretend that time erases that bond. If anything, it argues the opposite.
The game’s strongest quality is its ability to make that idea land. However familiar the characters may be, and however much the series has changed hands since the beginning, the emotional pull of Max and Chloe remains potent. Reunion may not resolve every possible interpretation cleanly, but it does deliver a conclusion that feels sincere.
By returning to the relationship that made Life Is Strange memorable in the first place, Deck Nine has created a finale that is rooted in feeling rather than spectacle. For fans who have followed Max and Chloe since 2015, this is the long-awaited chance to finish their story. And, at least on the evidence of this review, it is hard not to be moved by that.
