because my scathing review of life is strange reunion is too long for steam, i will post it here.
DISCLAIMER:
spoilers, obviously. this review was initially of the first gameplay experience based on the starting choices: friends with amanda, chloe died, romanced chloe, supported safi, romanced vinh. in the end it became a review of basically every starting point and outcomes there is. this turned out to be the first and only game in this game universe i did not enjoy at all. double exposure is my favourite game (in general), so i was doubly disappointed.
negatives:
- world felt completely empty (no npc conversations (which were a part of every life is strange game that had a set of 2+ npcs)(i loved listening to "dramatic abraxas kid" aka rowan's coversations so much, in double exposure), you could really get to know people if you cared to, now npcs feel like shallow husks), no crosstalk (which made the whole campus feel so alive; it was so much fun finding the matching faces from crosstalk by listening to conversations; npcs actually felt like they had a life of their own which you just weren't a part of) (it was also such a ridiculous cop-out to cut out social media for "more productivity"), missing important people (gwen, diamond)
- no npc relationships (romantic or platonic) (gwen & klaudia, diamond & reggie, loretta & reggie, marlon & rowan, alice & tim, derek & carla, ratih & isobel, diamond & moses, vinh & reggie, tony & moses, kyle & connor, shiloh & alexa and more ...)
- university inside was only half of admin and the observatory, no FAB / cafe, no faculty offices, no mail rooms, no north quad, no walkable overlook (path)
- NO CHOICES (conversations are just "click on different options" but none are consequential choices), path was forced, basically NO consequences from double exposure (especially chapter 5, starting point was the same for everyone in reunion; some things made no sense / lacked explanation if you got a certain consequence in double exposure) (the entirety of reunion had fewer choices than episode 1 of life is strange 2) (some actions (like "does vinh live?") have 2 of the same consequences listed, just worded differently)
- whether your relationship with ren is good or bad bears no importance because he won't trust chloe enough to tell her anything either way
- the "consequence" of amanda being in love with max still or not wasn't noticeable whatsoever, the only way i realised that that was a thing was by looking at the "choices" at the end; amanda and max don't even spend any time together
- assumptions on choices in double exposure were made which unfortunately weren't my choices (like lucas saying max was rude to him, which i never was)
- post credit plot twist from double exposure was unexplained and unused???????, what the hell was that phone call??? was that supposed to clear things up??
- why would diamond stay until may and then leave? as if it wasn't implied that her and safi left right away
- post storm amnesia, really???? 😒 (cop-out to not have to deal with the consequences of people knowing about max's powers)(ALSO, of fucking course max and vinh could never have worked out if you make him forget like 80% of the conversations he had with max due to him / everyone forgetting dead world ever existed!!!)
- BUT if safi dies in reunion living world never existed because safi was always dead??? then why did gwen leave (she only leaves in some double exposure outcomes), how did lucas get exposed, how did diamond get powers and where did she go?? etc????
- max forgetting just specific moments to do with chloe in the storm, really? 😑 (what would be the reason?, so we can pretend chloe coming back was planned??)
- max was mean, angry and simply .. different, she came across as someone with a superiority complex as if she's entirely perfect, max acted almost disgusted with vinh without explanation? why was she insulting him mentally at every given moment? also, how fucking dare she judge him THIS hard for trying to burn a 30 year old skeleton of a guy who accidentally killed himself, to help someone else, when she KILLED AN ENTIRE TOWN for one person???????????? it's entirely unfair on vinh because he doesn't know what max has done herself so he doesn't know how hypocritical she is judging him and he has to take what she says at face value (it also makes max seem entirely fake when it comes to vinh aka her actions, thoughts etc. do not align with what she tells him)
- no mention of consequences of chloe being back outside of chloe and max? nathan (in prison / dead?), was jefferson still arrested? david (his tattoo??, reason for moving to away / reason for divorce?), what about kate? (did she still try to kill herself, if so, which outcome was canonised?) etc.
- so, because no one remembers except max and chloe (why? eye of the storm? why was chloe / arcadia bay affected by safi's death-universe-split anyway? the "loose end" explanation is so .. stupid) it's as if chloe had always lived and arcadia bay was never destroyed (fun .........)
- reunion made double exposure romances entirely pointless (no explanation for the breakup with vinh? first time only ONE romance "option"), entirety of the relationships happened off screen and were condensed to one tiny conversation between max and moses (for amanda at least, vinh got nothing), we got no pictures, journal entries or anything
- vinh's entire character development was seemingly forgotten in the past 9 months and amanda was sidelined SO hard
- we spent more time with lucas than amanda (and maybe even vinh and safi), what the hell??
- why could we have chloe bond with lucas fucking colmenero???
- feminist, man-hating chloe price bonding with lucas colmenero makes me doubt if the writers even played ANY life is strange game before
- in double exposure you could almost freely explore 2 worlds, in reunion exploration was super restricted (for example max could't even go into her own bedroom, each character only got to explore half of hellerton house), most scenes were cutscenes, i had to use freecam to explore most places that were entirely rendered into the game (like the north quad)!!!
- introduced characters i think i was supposed to care about but didn't at all because i never had the opportunity to get to know them; i got to know double exposure npcs SO MUCH more and they weren't even story relevant
- focus was 3 people and the rest didn't matter (max, chloe, moses (even moses turned mostly into mr. science guy who helps max and chloe and stopped being his own person))
- abraxas was batshit crazy, it was better as this mysterious society, suddenly it felt like everyone was a part of it, anxious panicky reggie as leader?? (why didn't vinh run again, especially now that diamond's gone?), in double exposure abraxas was described as people mostly doing childish pranks and performance art, not .. this (even by people IN abraxas, like diamond; diamond definitely would have spoken up about all this stuff), also every abraxan we met was a big goof and super sweet, not sinister at all (vinh, reggie, marlon, rowan ,,,)
- plot wasn't explained well at times, people knew and said things and i was like??? what happened?? when did they realise this?? they suddenly knew who the suspects were?
- "suspect" vinh made NO sense because there was no premeditation, it was pure "luck" if max suspected him
- no calm, intimate or fun moments with / between anyone (except intimate ones between chloe and max) (every other game managed to include those despite there being a tense atmosphere and pressing matters)
- dramatic moment with chloe at the observatory felt redundant or even ridiculous because it was entirely obvious she'd be fine
- heartless reactions at the memorial???? (max shrugged off the death of a "close friend" she dated and still hooked up with), no difference in max's demeanor when people die vs when everyone lives
- if vinh dies during your first playthrough, it's SO confusing because it's not explained one bit what happened, all yasmin does is mention "vinh's horrible actions"
- max says to reggie "i know you and vinh used to be close" if vinh dies as if max hasn't dated him as well? it's like they did not even plan for that possibility
- open ending .. again (someone died, give max the photo) with SO fucking MANY unanswered questions
- too much / only forced rewind, didn't feel like it was much use otherwise (when i tried to / wanted to rewind during some conversations i FUCKING COULDN'T because it was yet another cutscene or a secret save point in the middle of a conversation)
- either i am not smart enough to trigger it (button from the first game does nothing) or they removed the ability to "fast forward" if you accidentally went back in time when you didn't mean to and you have to go back entirely
- backtalk was supposed to be chloe's power but it was barely even used at all AND it worked differently than in before the storm??, i didn't even have to succeed the amount of times it showed to "win"?
- first game where we have max's old powers but we didn't have to focus (on) a photo ourselves
- when did chloe start drawing?? graffiti, yes, but drawing?
- couldn't pick which clothes they wear (has been a thing in before the storm, true colors, double exposure and technically even captain spirit)
- loretta must be reeeeeally cold since she's wearing the same thing in september as she did last december, reggie ALSO wore exactly the same outfit and don't even get me started on vinh ...
- bae ending felt entirely forced on you (chloe didn't even ask about her death except for one question, how was that NOT at least an hour long conversation???), it was basically shrugged off by her, all she focused on were her bae memories
- life is strange characters got even less mentioned in reunion than double exposure
- david got mentioned for HALF A FUCKING SENTENCE, and only if chloe died
- no mention of chloe and victoria's new friendship if chloe lived (did that even happen now??)
- if you know me, you know i hated warren but even he deserved better than being "that guy warren" when it's possible max kissed him and he was the second person to find out about max's powers
- max's entire character development from double exposure went out the window (let the past go, i've been incredibly happy here, tired of being sorry, can be okay without chloe), she "realised" it was all a lie, it was a big fuck you to any positive moment from double exposure
- finally got a game during an mc's birthday and still didn't celebrate??? no texts, nothing, except a card from her parents and … chloe of course
- where was chloe's humour or even max's??
- chloe didn't even ask about rachel?
- speaking of rachel, calling her and chloe "FRIENDS" in 2024 (or 2026 in real life) is diabolical
- did they downplay their relationship on purpose for the sake of centering max & chloe?
- CHLOE CHLOE CHLOE, nothing else mattered to max 🙄 (seemed super toxic and codependent)
- made the big decision in life is strange entirely inconsequential, took away all of its emotional impact (also took away emotional impact of david in lis 2 and steph's trauma in wavelengths because none of it technically happened now)
- it changed part of sean's story in 2 with no way of knowing how it turned out now; same for steph, what happened to steph & mikey, did they reconnect - did they ever even grow apart?
- no difference between friend chloe and girlfriend chloe - forced girlfriends ending even if you choose for them to be friends only (burn the photo & people died -> kiss photo despite having been friends during gameplay)
- even if max lived through the 9 months in-between games, you need to explain to US what we missed, especially if it's about people we care about (where is gwen, (not everyone had the outcome of gwen leaving in double exposure), what happened to veggie, if they reconciled in double exposure? how did the langfield breakup go down? etc.)
- how did max change SO MUCH in 9 months if nothing happened that's worth mentioning??
- no fun details like the statues, platypus facts, soup poll, worst pick up lines etc (no small "useless" things to do that make all life is strange games so personal and individual)
- how are they ignoring the fact that after chloe comes back to life (again), she immediately dies (AGAIN) when that was a sign she shouldn't be alive the first time?? i wouldn't be surprised if another storm happens because of it (why doesn't it? it's the same as last time? why were there NO consequences? they mention it but nothing happens?)
- reunion made me (even retroactively) dislike max and resent chloe which was definitely not the intention
- why were decisions made for me based on general popularity? e.g. max seemed to hate vinh (despite saying they're friends); it's like max doesn't remember anything of what she learned about his personality in double exposure, when chloe called vinh a dick for no fucking reason and max said nothing to correct her it made me so mad
- izzie's new voice actress didn't sound even remotely similar to her old one (i LOVED her old one; i know why she was replaced but still ...)
- so, max went through ALL THAT in double exposure to save safi to just leave her behind without a second thought knowing she was ready to let herself die just days before??
- max did some fucked up ridiculous things like finding the time to comment on vinh's "big ego" when loretta was about to burn alive in a fire
- NO varying conversations / thoughts based on relationship statuses, they're all the same
- non-episodic gameplay made it feel like an 11 hour long movie with no breaks, took away end of episode cliffhangers and amazing montages; gametime was definitely NOT comparable to true colors and double exposure like they said it was similar to; was it that they took away the episodic gameplay so we're less likely to notice just how short the game is? - the thing is, before the storm was short, yes, but they didn't need more time to tell everything they needed and wanted to tell, reunion needed at least twice the time than it got
- max built that incredible life in lakeport (friends, an amazing job, house etc) just to leave it all behind? (she said she wasn't sure if she'd come back after it was rebuilt)
- issues that chloe & max had in their relationship are suddenly all gone?? (bae ending)
- why did safi just forgive yasmin? there was no reason to; did yasmin even remember who safi really is? (probably not due to post-storm amnesia but it was never explicitly said)
- break-up with amanda was literally the reason for the chloe / max break-up recycled???
- every conversation seemed to have a reason, an ulterior motive instead of max just .. wanting to have a conversation with someone, everyone was just a means to an end
- no social commentary unlike in double exposure (racial profiling, anti-trans rhetoric, gun violence in america, white privilege, yasmin being distrusted because she's a female arab in power etc. [and other games (especially 2)]
- npcs acted completely different from what we learned about them in double exposure (cop amit (this makes me question if the writers of reunion even played double exposure; they portrayed amit as this "if you're acab, fend for yourself" guy instead of this goofy, sweet, compassionate guy who said he'd leave lpd to study at caledon while berating right wing relatives), kyle & marlon specifically)
- there are so many consequences to almost every past game because chloe is alive / the storm never happened and they never address any of it; so many logic mistakes occurred but we're not supposed to think about any of them
- it's like they wanted reunion to be playable without having to have played double exposure so they kept references to it to a minimum, which is not how a sequel is supposed to work
– small plot hole compared to others but in double exposure moses had a stuffed iguana in his office because a heat lamp would have been a fire hazard, but in reunion he suddenly has a real one, so apparently it's no longer an issue?
- reunion is supposed to be the other half to double exposure but it feels like double exposure is one universe and reunion is an entirely different one, they don't feel like they belong together whatsoever
- reunion felt small, empty, quiet and cold compared to double exposure
- all in all i mourn what this game could have been if they'd stuck with what they implied in-game in double exposure and what i think the original plan was and if they had not spent so much time trying to erase double exposure from existence
questions:
- why was the pride flag removed from the turtle? now it's just an empty spot
- some art raises questions if certain things were planned but never used (north quad art looks like a screenshot from the game, vinh from the concept art is the only character that wears a outfit he never wore in-game; it's entirely different from anything he ever wears, in fact)
- why did the ending consist of bad looking concept art photos instead of a cutscene?
- why is it, that for max & chloe to be happy together, everyone else needs to suffer or make concessions?
- how the hell do you create such a freaking short game and spend most of the time forgetting every mechanic used since 2015, erasing the game that's half of the story and only focus on ONE FORCED relationship while answering NO leftover questions and creating a million more by throwing all logic out the window and not caring to talk about all the thousands of consequences that undoing bae AND bay had???????????
- how many peoples' lives is chloe worth? if you chose bae then an entire town, thousands of people, died for her and in reunion you can have yet another (max. of) 7 people die just for chloe to be alive / happy
positives:
- everything about vinh
- i grew to like safi even more
- some scenes with reggie were cute
- caledon was (still) pretty
- charlotte's sculpture
- puerto lobos keychain
- 1/3 of my positives are (easily missable) references to other games, that's not how it's supposed to be!!
