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Review

Review: Life is Strange: Double Exposure

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Max Caulfield returns in Life is Strange: Double Exposure, embarking on an adventure where timelines blur.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure was developed by Deck Nine Games (Life is Strange: Before the Storm and True Colors) and will be released tomorrow for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and via Steam for PC. Meanwhile, the Nintendo Switch version is still being worked on. The adventure starts ten years after the events surrounding Max Caulfield and Chloe Price in Arcadia Bay in the first game, which was created by Don’t Nod (Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, Life is Strange 2). Each of the two endings of the first Life is Strange is taken into account and while you do have to make this difficult choice again at the beginning of Double Exposure, you feel the effects throughout the entire game. No matter what you decide, Max only talks about Chloe throughout the game and she is denied an appearance – the fans don’t exactly find that “amazeballs”. Although Double Exposure is set in a completely new location with new characters, it is definitely worth knowing at least the original game and possibly its prequel Before the Storm, especially for the later part of the game, however we couldn’t find any reference to events of LiS 2 and True Colors, as these games have their own respective casts.

Max stayed true to her passion for photography and after an extensive road trip, she became an artist in residence at Caledon University in Lakeport, Vermont. One night, Max is traumatized by yet another event: During stargazing with the astrophysicist Moses Murphy and the aspiring poet Safiya Llewellyn-Fayyad, a shot is fired and someone dies – it is Max’s best friend Safi. Although Max was able to rewind time in the first game, she no longer used her powers after the dramatic events in Arcadia Bay. In Double Exposure, Max’s powers continue to evolve: she can switch back and forth between two timelines. Both worlds are almost identical except for one important detail – Safi lives in one reality and not in the other. Max sets out to find out the how Safi died and tries to prevent that from happening.

The characters from Life is Strange remain in our memories to this day. In Double Exposure, Max also meets a colorful ensemble of characters who are sometimes written more and sometimes less three-dimensionally. While Moses and teacher Gwen Hunter experience discrimination because of their skin color or gender, they are not reduced to that, they are three-dimensional characters with rough edges. Gwen doesn’t get much screen time, but her background can also be explored in photos, notes and letters in her office. Moses takes a more central role in the story and quickly grows on us. The university professor Lucas Colmenero initially appears as a stoic egomaniac, but becomes more human as the game progresses. The situation is different with Detective Vince Alderman, who, as a tough cop, makes little impression in his brief presence and is quickly forgotten. The situation is similar with the head of the university and Safi’s mother Yasmin and her assistant and president of the Abraxas student association Vinh Lang, who initially comes across as a compulsively loose-looking slimeball, but later becomes even more creepy in an attempt at rapprochement and with whom we, alongside Amanda, form a relationship. Amanda is a stand-up comedian who works at the local bar Snapping Turtle. It quickly becomes apparent that she has a thing for Max. Incidentally, it is up to you whether you enter into a romance or not. In addition, the game also presents you with smaller decisions in dialogue, the important moments are highlighted as usual in a freeze frame.

The story really picks up in the second half of the game, notably after the two chapters from Advanced Access, which has been available since October 15th for a hefty surcharge (€80 instead of €50 (PC) or €60 (console) for the Standard Edition). In particular, the conversations about the effects of the characters’ superpowers in Life is Strange finally go into a little more depth. With many twists and turns that we won’t go into for spoiler reasons, the substance behind them sometimes falls by the wayside. The series is going in a new direction with Double Exposure and it will be interesting to see how the story continues.

In terms of gameplay, Double Exposure fits well into the series’ tradition. We are allowed to explore the university campus, but the game dictates which areas we are allowed to access at any given moment. At certain spots we are allowed to switch from the world in which Safi is dead to the “living” world and back. We use this to solve optional environmental puzzles, for example to locate collectibles, but above all to advance the plot. At any time, we can switch to an intermediate world in which the characters and objects from the other reality in the immediate vicinity are represented in outlines. With this ability we can eavesdrop on conversations unnoticed or follow tracks. Of course, Max keeps a diary again that reflects your decisions and includes your photos, which can be taken with the titular double exposure. Notifications about new text messages and social media posts are constantly bombarding you, even during cutscenes, which pulls us out of the dense atmosphere time and time again. A more subtle form of notification would be suitable. There are numerous accessibility options included: we can activate content warnings for violence and discrimination, limit camera movements, give us more time for decisions and even skip the gameplay entirely.

  

Max’s house is the game’s second location. Here we browse through memorabilia from their time in Arcadia Bay, feed our cat or tomcat and change our outfits. Or we make ourselves comfortable in front of the fireplace and listen to her inner monologue while one of the numerous licensed or specially produced songs plays. The background music is often way too loud compared to the voices and unfortunately we didn’t find a way to adjust this outside of the cutscenes, which were well mixed. The animations of the characters in Double Exposure are definitely among the prettiest in the history of the series and so the doll-like faces of the first parts are slowly being forgotten, although True Colors was already a big step forward. On our test PC with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, the game ran smoothly for the most part, but the frame rate often fluctuated between 60 and 120 frames per second and occasionally it dropped to 30 frames per second in the intermediate world. A few visual errors such as textures that load too late and shadows that flash across faces in a low stop motion-like frame rate are to be criticized, but they are not particularly significant. A play time of around ten to twelve hours is similar to the previous entry. As in its predecessors, the different endings promote replay value.

 

Conclusion

On the one hand, Life is Strange: Double Exposure has the courage to take the series into a new direction, but on the other hand it is also deeply rooted in its past. While the story motivates you to continue playing from the second half until the surprising end, the same does not apply to gameplay. The switching back and forth between realities feels fresh at the beginning, but wears out over the course of the game due to very gamey fetch quests. We would have liked a little more creativity on this aspect. The locations are also very limited in number and scope compared to its predecessors, possibly due to the complex time-travel mechanics. Regardless of in-game graphics or cutscenes, Double Exposure looks great apart from a few minor flaws and the original dubbing and music underline the high production quality. If you haven’t warmed up to Life is Strange yet, you won’t necessarily have a better time with Double Exposure. We can recommend the game to fans of the series and those who fancy interactive narrative experiences with the limitations mentioned above.

Publisher Square Enix provided us with the PC version of Life is Strange: Double Exposure, which we used to capture the screenshots.