I finished playing the most recent Life is Strange game recently ('Reunion', featuring the return of Chloe!) so I wanted to write something about it. Contains spoilers for this and the last game ('Life is Strange: Double Exposure').
'Life is Strange: Double Exposure' was extremely rushed at the end after most of the developers were laid off, and it showed: Unlike with previous games, the ending was largely the same no matter what you did; the cat plotline that you got if you preordered the game and spent like $40 to get the deluxe edition was barely present; and the ending didn't really make a ton of sense. With that said, I did find the first bunch of chapters engaging and solid. It was an exercise in nostalgia -- the return of Max, the decision whether or not to save the life of a friend even if it puts the town at risk, and other similarities between that game and the original -- but it was about as good an exercise in nostalgia as you would want, with the new game commenting on the old one, playing with expectations, and giving tantalizing hints of what your choices in game #1 had on everyone in the intervening years. So looking back on it I liked a lot of things about the game, and I had some hope that the weaknesses in how it ended might be resolved or fixed in the next game.
Having played Reunion, I think that these were goals the developers had also. My decisions to try to be Safi's friend in 'Double Exposure' finally had consequences in 'Reunion', and I could actually more or less befriend Loretta in this one (Double Exposure really refused to find Loretta at all likable, in a way I found hilarious). Safi's decision to go off and try to form a Legion of Super-Villians at the end of Double Exposure, which I expressed extreme reservations about at the time, was largely ignored in this game, which is not totally satisfying but which I think was probably for the best. (We never learn what Diamond's power is!)
With that said, I thought Reunion was a pretty weak entry in the series. The decision to replace the 'main character sits around listening to indie music' interludes with the character listening to podcasts was funny, but I missed the musical interludes. You could easily skip them in the earlier games, but I always thought that, if you did, you were missing a big part of the game vibes-wise. The podcasts were funny but I want my tunes!
It was nice to see Chloe again, but I felt like she was underused. I think there were only two cases where her 'backtalk' power from 'Life is Strange: Before the Storm' came into play (and I blew one of them.) I also think that Chloe is a trickier (though more rewarding) character to play as. Throughout the series, Max is kind of a 'go along to get along' character, so the choices you make for her more or less work out the way you expect. In 'Before the Storm', you play as Chloe and she is smart, sarcastic, and kind of a shitty teen; you can try to be nice to her hated stepdad, but she'll still say something kind of shitty. It's great! As an adult, Max is still basically Max, but I didn't quite get the sense of who adult Chloe was as a person. This might have been mostly because there wasn't enough time to get to know her; and the game is largely Max-centered, despite the sections where you get to play as Chloe.
A lot of the incidental details from the last game -- the ability to listen in on random peoples' conversations for instance -- were cut down on substantially, causing the world to feel less rich. And, I didn't find the overall mystery of who started the fires and who wanted to destroy the secret society and why as engaging as previous stories' side plots.
That all sounds quite negative, but I still enjoyed the game! It was fun to see Max and Chloe again, and I'm curious as to what differences various choices I made had, so I'll try to watch some other playthroughs. Still, if you played it (or watched someone else played it) and found it overwhelming, I would recommend trying again with one of the earlier entries in the series. My favorite is "Before the Storm," and for a non-Max or Chloe-centered game, I know @ragekagegames liked True Colors a lot (I haven't played that one yet).
