The first Life Is Strange game since the original to feature both Max and Chloe is out today but suspiciously there’s no reviews to be found anywhere.
We’re afraid to say there’ll be no review for Life Is Strange: Reunion from us today or, we suspect, anyone else. That’s because Square Enix only sent out review copies in the last few minutes, after previously indicating that they wouldn’t arrive until launch day.
That means we won’t have a review until next week and that you should be very suspicious of anyone else that claims to have completed it already. Although there have been reports of people finding physical copies of the game in shops since at least Wednesday.
As always in these situations, we should emphasise that publishers are under no obligation to send out review copies and when they do, they do so entirely at their discretion. That said, not doing so is almost always a red flag, unless it’s a game so big it feels it doesn’t need the additional exposure, such as last year’s Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Life Is Strange: Reunion is hardly in that position though, having been announced out of the blue in January, only a year and a half after the poorly received Life Is Strange: Double Exposure – which also proved to be a significant financial flop. Apart from anything that’s an extremely short turnaround for a modern video game sequel and no explanation has been given for how it’s arrived so quickly.
Elements of the story have already leaked but it revolves around series regular Max Caulfield reuniting with Chole Price. This is the first game to feature both characters since the 2015 original, with Max using her old powers of rewinding time again, in what seems to be a game that is playing the nostalgia with a very heavy hand.
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.
Ashly Burch, the original voice actress for Chloe, is not involved and apparently only heard about the game at the same time as it was revealed to the public. However, Jonathan Zimmerman is the writer and he worked on Before The Storm – the first game since the franchise was taken away from Dontnod and one of the best entries in the series.
As such, there’s no guarantee that the game is a dud, but the actions of Square Enix are highly suspicious and in line with other publishers that withheld review copies until the last minute because they suspected, correctly, that they would review poorly – as happened with Starfield and the recent High On Life 2.
It is possible that Square Enix is just trying to avoid spoilers, but they’ve made no mention of that issue in any communication with us. Many publishers require reviewers to sign NDAs before receiving review copies and are very specific about what can and cannot be talked about, but that also didn’t happen in this case.
What’s curious is how the franchise got itself into this mess in the first place, as until Double Exposure was rejected by fans all the entries had proven to be critical successes. It’s especially odd as all of the games since Before The Storm have been developed by the same studio: Deck Nine.
However, the studio has suffered layoffs and there have been reports of a troubled development for Reunion in particular, so it’s unclear exactly what’s been going on behind the scenes.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
