Recent reviews by Virgil

Life is Strange: Reunion is a nice, if unexpected, wrap-up of the story arc started in the first Life is Strange. More on that later.

You should definitely play "Life is Strange" and "Life is Strange: Double Exposure" first. There is an introductory summary, but without the full background on the characters and setting you'll be missing quite a bit. Reunion is set a year after Double Exposure in the same location, a decade after the original, and contains two parallel storylines - one a new crime/mystery to be solved, and one tying the previous two storylines together. ("Life is Strange: Before the Storm" will also give more background, but isn't directly related to the new events)

If you've played those previous titles, or more generally any of the Deck Nine series entries, you probably know what you're getting here. The writing and main characters remain interesting and well-written, and the voice acting is solidly professional. The gameplay is a slower-paced adventure that rewards exploration, with very few time-sensitive segments, and regular "scenic view" pauses. The music is a particular high point - while not integrated as much into the story like "Life is Strange: True Colors", Deck Nine has real skill in bringing emotion into the game through the soundtrack, and that repeats here.

Tech-wise, the game is serviceable, but not remarkable. It generally looks good, and the art is well-done, but the Unreal implementation does have some issues with pop-in, shadow and blur artifacts, and some awkward animations (especially for tertiary characters). It's not the most impressive engine, and it lacks native support for high-end features (DLSS, framegen, path tracing, etc). For the game it supports, it's fine, but I hope some of this can be addressed in future entries in the series.

- POTENTIAL SPOILERS -

I mentioned that this game was unexpected, and that's because Reunion puts a hold on the loose ends from Double Exposure that were clearly being set up for a sequel. Instead, it elects to connect back to the critical decision in the original game, when the player makes a final choice with no "good" ending. It was bittersweet and memorable, somewhat divisive, and probably a constant problem for any writers trying to build on that story. I don't know if this decision was driven by fan service, a need to unify the storyline before moving the series forward, or both.

After playing through a few times, I think how Reunion was structured was an elegant way to do it. The story works well regardless of what "branch" of the story you start with, and does give a satisfying "unified" ending to the arc. But I still have mixed feelings, because that original choice was a very powerful one, one that set the tone for the whole franchise, and I don't know if tying things up nicely this way devalues it.

Still, I did enjoy the game, and the same setup from Double Exposure is put forth again at the end of Reunion, paving the way for the series to continue. I'll be looking forward to it.

Fantastic modern interpretation of an adventure game. Interesting characters and setting - the best description I can come up with is The Longest Journey meets Twin Peaks, but in a high school setting. Really looking forward to the next episodes.

It's a gameplay throwback to the less-forgiving RPG days of Baldur's Gate. The elemental and landscape interactions make battles interesting, and I feel like I can win battles through strategy even when I'm out-classed (or vice-versa, if I do something stupid). The story is interesting enough to keep me playing, and some of the quest lines are hilarious, but really the game just shines in its mechanics - I want my characters to progress so I have more things to play with.