With the events in Arcadia Bay and her powers behind her, Life is Strange: Double Exposure, published by Square Enix and developed by Deck Nine Games, finds familiar protagonist Max Caulfield (Hannah Telle) in a new place, trying to rediscover herself. But like the series title indicates, Max’s life will be anything but normal here. After their previous hit in the series, Deck Nine has challenged itself by returning to the franchise’s roots with Max. However, the developers are ready to deliver another engaging journey if the first two chapters are any indication.
The Life is Strange franchise has always been about emotion and choices. To deliver an emotional story you have to craft great characters. One of the most important ingredients to great characters is writing that brings out those characters and makes the player invest in them. I have rarely become more invested in a pair of characters quicker than I did in Max and her friend Safi (Olivia AbiAssi) in the opening moments of Life is Strange: Double Exposure.
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The game kicks off its story as Max and Safi break into an abandoned bowling alley for Max to get some photographs. Max has become an artist in residence at the local college where Safi also teaches, and getting these photo shoots done is part of her job. Albeit, one she certainly enjoys. As the duo moved through the rumble and found promising photo ops, they bantered with a smooth playfulness that made me wonder if the voice actors were friends in real life. The writing captures the back and forth of friends who know how to rib each other but never take a joke too far or to places it wouldn’t be welcome. The voice acting delivers these heckling moments wonderfully.
The environment itself is also skillfully crafted. The area designers did a great job of making a space that is interesting to explore while also not making it frustrating. It feels like the random debris of a long abandoned building, but there is a structure cleverly hidden in it.
Once the urban exploring is done, Max and Safi head over to the local watering hole, The Turtle, to relax. Here, Max gets her first chance to flirt with Bartender Amanda and opens up a bit about her past when Safi inquires about the picture in her wallet.
As someone who didn’t play the original Life is Strange games, I don’t have any direct connection to Max’s past. Despite this shortcoming on my part, the game does a great job of emphasizing how much Chloe and the events in Arcadia Bay impacted Max without making me feel like I was missing out by not knowing the details. Telle pours everything into Max’s responses during this brief exchange, selling even unknowing players on the depth and importance of what happened before this game.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure soon sees the duo off to another location, the college observatory, to watch a meteor shower with their friend Moses (Blu Allen). As the trio chatter, we get even more fantastic, natural character-building. Moses is shown to be a fairly awkward individual, which makes him a great contrasting personality to Safi’s outgoingness and Max’s glowing charm. There is some surprising depth at this moment as several random topics are touched on as the meteor shower plays out overhead.
I’ve talked about gorgeous locations and writing, but I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss the characters’ visual designs. The characters throughout look fantastic as they talk and interact with their surrounding world. Faces are extremely expressive, and I never noticed lips failing to keep in time with dialogue. Clothing also looks great, as each character is presented with a coherent sense of style in their wardrobe. The only place where the look of characters did occasionally fall short was when pictures were viewed.
If you are reading this, you probably know that the good times come to an end with the unexpected murder of Safi. As one would anticipate, the game’s tone swiftly and drastically changes as the college campus shifts into mourning. Max takes time to grieve and receive some support from her friends, but she can’t rest long. While trying to get her bearings back, she begins to suffer terrible headaches. These moments of pain culminate in the reveal of Max’s new power: being able to interact with an alternate timeline.
At first, Max can only see and hear things from this new timeline. Shortly after, she can “pull” open holes between the two dimensions, letting her cross between them. Seeing Safi alive but seemingly in danger still, Max figures she can use information from both timelines to figure out who likely killed her Safi and keep the other Safi alive as well.
Max’s new power is initially interesting but quickly begins to feel like a gimmick. There are set places where Max can use her inter-dimensional teleportation, indicated by glowing balls of light. These spots are always safe for Max to use and indicate that whatever is going on will require the ability to solve the oncoming puzzle. Once Max has her new powers, she cannot do anything without them. I appreciate that it’s the big gameplay mechanic, but constant use doesn’t help the novelty hold up. This can make some puzzles feel burdened by the mechanic more than innovative.
The other thing that holds back some of the puzzle moments is how liberally Max goes unnoticed by people. There are a few scenes where Max has to put stealth first. While it’s admirable to add another layer to solving them, it’s not executed as well as it should in an environment that is created with such precise detail. There is no way anyone around her wouldn’t notice her doing something she clearly shouldn’t be doing.
While the above complaints may make the gameplay side of the experience sound negative, their hiccups don’t make it too bad. I did enjoy getting Max through the challenges the game tasks her with, the road just gets a little rocky at times. If you are coming for the emotional content, character interactions, and story beats, none of the gameplay’s shortcomings will dampen that.
The final thing to talk about is the story. No Spoilers, of course.
The early moments of Max’s investigation are intriguing, as are the cast and circumstances surrounding the events in both timelines. The game also leaves clever clues for players through the story that it doesn’t directly point at but trusts them to pick up on. Finally, Chapter Two’s ending delivers a big twist that I didn’t see coming and instantly intensifies my need to know more.
When discussing the story in a Life is Strange game, we have to talk about choices. Numerous times, the player gets to choose how Max interacts with those around her, with bigger choices being easily identifiable thanks to some dramatic UI design making these moments stand out. Each occurrence certainly feels weighty, as the player can easily discern how each option could affect the larger plot. However, as this is only the first two chapters, whether they play out that way remains to be seen.
Walking away from my first look at the early sections of Life is Strange: Double Exposure leaves me excited for the game. While the gameplay has hiccups, the story and characters that Deck Nine has created more than makeup for them.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure is coming to PC, Xbox Series S|X, and PlayStation 5 on October 29th.
