If you’re coming into the sixth instalment of beloved, angsty teen hipster drama series Life Is Strange expecting the emotional fireworks of other reunions – Oasis at Wembley Stadium, say, or the inevitable One Direction comeback – best touch some grass, brew a cup of CBD cocoa and whack on a retro cassette of Girl In Red.
The catch-up that plays out before Reunion kicks off is one wild sci-fi soap opera (think Final Destination crossed with an autumnal Donnie Darko). In previous, episodic games our hero Max Caulfield developed the ability to briefly rewind time and used it to save her hometown of Arcadia Bay from a devastating storm (kind of), bring her girlfriend Chloe back from the dead (kind of) and solve the murder of another squeeze Safi – a shapeshifter who can take on the form of whoever she wants – by merging living and doomed timelines in classic comic book fashion. Newcomers will need audio commentary from Brian Cox to get their heads around it all, but never fear, you’ll have plenty of time to ponder these concepts at length in one of the slowest 10-hour games you’ll ever play.
Not that that’s a killer criticism. The strength of the Life Is Strange franchise is its relaxed approach to unravelling Max’s involving story – existential guilt, pansexual love triangles, multi-dimensional hook-ups and all. Rather than put the player into the shoes of some fantastical war god or mega-pumped street fighter, it reaches out to your lived experience – a phrase that developers Deck Nine definitely have on a mood board somewhere.
What that means in gameplay terms – even with the three main players reunited in tangled emotional circumstances and Max’s premonition of a fatal college fire looming over the next 48 hours – is a lot of walking. Max now works as a photography lecturer, so you’ll find yourself taking pictures and thinking about staffing matters as well as the mysterious campus Abraxis society. There are lengthy stretches where the game is basically a conversation simulator with no major plot implications. If you can’t get the information you need out of someone, just find out what they want to hear, rewind time and start the chat over again. It does mean there are plenty of opportunities to sit on a bench, admire a vista and enjoy the wonderful, hazy indie rock soundtrack featuring series mainstay Tessa Rose Jackson, Foals, Daughter and Girl In Red though.
Little active participation is required throughout. The closed room investigative sequences in local grunge bars and college libraries are knotty but unchallenging – poke around the problem, find a solution, rewind time until the two match up, relax – and even the very few life-threatening action sequences play out at a relatively unhurried pace. Student trapped in a burning room behind a locked door? Chill out, guy! Just find something to break the lock and rewind time until they’ve not burned to cinders yet! Take a ticket, death, Max has got some objet d’art to muse over, she’ll get to you when she’s good and ready.
It’s a game you could easily have on in the background while you’re sketching out a philosophy essay. You don’t even really need to concentrate on the found documents and clues, besides a few points where remembering details will help you win a weird chat battle with NPCs. But as a study in character development and interaction, Life Is Strange: Reunion is a masterclass. Max and Chloe, particularly, are deeply and sensitively drawn: Max the guilt-ridden everyday superhero and Chloe the heart-of-gold rock star struggling with being a little bit dead. Even then, 10 hours of interior monologue and oversharing therapy speak can get a little too much.
In fact, it can all feel somewhat loose, to the point where finding any sort of solid focus to help you deduce who’s planning to start the climactic fire – pretty much the point of the game – seems an impossible task. There are teething bugs too: We played out an entire college party segment rendered in such bright contrast that it seemed like Max was pulling a whitey from the moment she stepped inside. Still, fans of cosy, mildly sci-fi teen drama shows will get a good watch.
‘Life Is Strange: Reunion’ is out now for Xbox, PlayStation and PC
VERDICT
More of a show than a game – imagine Alan Wake taking place in Dawson’s Creek – Life Is Strange: Reunion works wonderfully as an involving continuation of Max Caulfield’s web-like, multi-timelined story, for fans already engaged with the weaving franchise plots and concepts. Newcomers may feel dropped in midway though, and there’s little intellectual or skill-based challenge to keep you hooked. The stakes are low, the action slow and there’s little to get either pulse or brain cell pumping. Maybe wait for the TV show…
PROS
- Rich and realistic characters
- A couple of engaging sleuth segments
- A plot you can really lose yourself in
CONS
- Slow pace involving lots of inessential thoughts, diversions and conversations
- Dramatic sequences lacking much in the way of drama
- Only a handful of decision points have any effect on later gameplay