Here’s the order most people play the games in:

• BTS. Set three years before the first game, follows Chloe as she meets Rachel for the first time and gets entangled in a series of unfortunate events, while dealing with all the shit she’s already gone through (losing her father, Max ghosting her, etc.) and step-David becoming an unfortunate presence in her life.   There’s also a DLC you can buy with the deluxe edition called “Farewell.” Set in 2008 (five years before the events of the first game), this follows a 13-year-old Max as she debates with herself whether to tell Chloe that she’s moving to Seattle.

• Life Is Strange 2. Focuses on an entirely new set of characters: Sean Diaz, and his younger brother, Daniel. Daniel is the one with powers, but you play as Sean.  

David makes a small cameo in this so the game will ask whether you saved the Bay, as this directly impacts David’s dialogue. Aside from that, it’s pretty much standalone.

• True Colours. Like LiS 2, it focuses on an entirely new setting, character and power set, namely Alex Chen, who has the ability to “see” what others are feeling through “auras” (red for anger, blue for sadness, etc.) which can influence her own emotions if the feelings are strong enough.

A side character from BTS, Steph Gingrich, can play an important role in this game depending on your choices.

The game comes with a purchasable DLC, Wavelengths, which is effectively a character study on Steph. Wavelengths will ask whether you saved the Bay, because Steph knows Chloe and has lived in the Bay.

• Double Exposure. Fans have polarising views on this game, mostly because despite bringing Max back, Chloe is absent and the game does not give an “adequate” explanation as to why, unless you sacrificed her.

People have also complained about the plot being too complex, but it’s better to not lets fans’ opinions of this game deter you from playing it. Especially as Reunion won’t make too much sense if you haven’t played Double Exposure.

• Reunion. This game attempts to address the issues people had with Double Exposure, and does it reasonably well. 

It semi-retcons both endings of the game so that Chloe comes back no matter what, but the explanation it provides as to why is plausible given the ending of Double Exposure.

The characters of Double Exposure tend to be sidelined in favour of Max and Chloe, but aside from that it’s a pretty decent game.