Life is Strange: Double Exposure

Every time I finish a Life is Strange game, I am left bereft. The protagonists of these games are forced to make some utterly gut-wrenching decisions, which will forever alter the outcome of their lives, and the lives of all those around them. As players learned to their great regret in the original series, you can’t have it both ways. Even if life offers you second chances, there will be a wake of destruction trailing behind you. I’ll not go down a rabbit hole here about how I’ve found this to be true in my own life, other than to say that no matter how much I’ve tried to make the right decisions, there are indeed a lot of people out there that think I’m a horrible person. And there are a lot of people out that I don’t like that were probably just making the right decisions for themselves in the moment. It’s true for everyone, I suppose.

But equal to the regret I have about the choices I make is the slight, but very real, feeling that I'm just going to miss my new friends from the game. The interesting thing about Life is Strange – both the franchise as a whole and Double Exposure in particular – is how well it demonstrates this dynamic. The “gut-wrenching” part of the equation is totally earned in this series because of how clearly and dynamically it presents its characters. The people in this game feel like real humans, and by the end of the game, they feel like friends. So when you have to start making decisions that will destroy your relationships, it feels like a brick to the face. In a good way, of course.

And did I rock my Moogle hat through the entire game? Damn skippy, I did.

Double Exposure rejoins erstwhile Life is Strange hero Max Caulfield, now in her mid-twenties. She has left Arcadia Bay and her time-rewinding powers behind in favor of a calmer, more predictable life at a small liberal arts college in Vermont. As an artist in residence, she teaches classes and has a nice, quiet-but-satisfying social life, hanging around with her best friend Safi and crushing on the local bar owner Amanda. Max is sweet and funny, even if she comes off as a little damaged and mysterious to those that know her.

But then, during a night of meteor shower watching with their friend Moses, Safi wanders off from the group and is soon found murdered. The circumstances are bizarre, and Max and Moses seem like the most likely suspects, even though neither of them has any real reason to kill their friend. Max, of course, proceeds with her own investigation, and the deeper she digs, the more secrets she uncovers about Safi and her relationships with the other interesting people that inhabit their circle.

And that’s all I want to say about what happens in the game, other that to suggest that every player enter into Life is Strange: Double Exposure with as little knowledge about the story as possible. Don’t allow yourself to get spoiled on this game – the twists and turns that the story takes are totally jaw-dropping. Just when I thought I had figured out what was going on, the game zig-zagged, juked me out, and then dunked in my face. It’s a pretty great story, putting Max in some very unexpected situations, having to deal with things she never imagined she might have to deal with.

And of course, given the advertising for the game, it’s no spoiler to say that Max has some new powers to contend with this time around. When Safi is murdered, Max attempts to rewind time like it was the old days. Instead, she kick-starts a separate timeline, one where Safi is safe and sound, and life is proceeding as though no murder took place. Max can dip freely between these two worlds at liberally placed hot spots, allowing for some clever paths for puzzle solving and investigation.

Can’t find something in one world because that pesky professor won’t leave their office? Go dig around in the other universe. Need to make a quick escape from a dangerous situation? Zip across the dimensional divide. Max can also send out a little wave of temporal disruption, which allows her to quickly check in on what’s going on in the other world, which is great for eavesdropping – one of her favorite pastimes.

The path to solve these mysteries – and there are quite a few, in the end – is fairly straightforward, but the game does get mired at times in its adventure genre pixel-hunt roots. More than once, I found myself wandering around the campus wondering what I should do next, only to find that the path forward was blocked by a tiny detail that I had missed somewhere along the way. It wasn’t frequent, but it was maddening when it happened. Pro-tip: Look at everything, look again, and when in doubt, spin that damn family photo. You’ll know what I mean when you get there.

Much more effective are the conversational decisions that alter the world Max inhabits. The game neatly allows the player to establish the canon of their own Life is Strange experience at the beginning of the game, and then allows them to continue making earth-shattering changes to the world. By the time you get to the end of the game, the calls you are making are so nuanced and intricate that it feels like the game is looking into your soul. I actually had to sit there and weigh the ethics of my choices, and determine what I was comfortable with as a person. I'm looking forward to diving back in to see what happens if I take a different route - though that sometimes feels like a betrayal to my "true" Max. 

No matter what you choose, Max is charming and disarming, feeling like a genuine extension of the witty but pained teenager we all knew and loved a decade ago. And for players that sometimes get frustrated with convoluted plotting and think “this could all be solved if these people would just sit down and have a conversation”, the characters in Life is Strange: Double Exposure do just that, and the scene is utterly gripping. Even if it does just open another intriguing can of worms.

I also want to make mention of the way that Life is Strange continues to be a beacon of cultural representation in gaming. This franchise has always been known for its diverse cast of characters, and that graceful inclusivity continues in Double Exposure. What is nice is that, while the characters’ perceptions and reactions are colored by their backgrounds and experiences, they don’t fully define the characters. Everyone still feels human, relatable, and fallible. And if you are thinking “Oh, there’s no way this uber-liberal game would allow that trans character to be a villain, so it can’t possibly be her”, Life is Strange sits back with a half-cocked smile and says “Oh yeah? Are you sure about that?”. Nobody is above suspicion, and everyone is allowed to be lovable, prickly, shady, and totally real. The bottom line is – if you don’t love these people by the end of the game, you need your human card revoked.

There are a few minor technical issues that persist in the pre-release build of Double Exposure that I played for review, which I’m hoping will be cleaned up quickly with a post-release patch. Though the game is generally beautiful, it does tend to chug a bit when the camera decides to move too quickly. I also noticed some slow-loading textures, an issue that seemed to worsen as I got further into the game. I bounced back and forth between a Series S and a Series X for my playthrough, and didn’t notice a discernable difference between the two, so kudos to developer Deck Nine for getting the most out of my beloved “potato”.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure again proves that the franchise is in the best of hands with Deck Nine. Relax, Don’t Nod fans, I’m not saying that Deck Nine is better, or that this game trumps the originals. I’m just saying that Double Exposure still feels like Life is Strange, and spending time with Max feels like getting reacquainted with a wonderful old friend you haven’t seen for a while. It’s a delight, after you get through that period of initial weirdness.

Double Exposure is everything I wanted it to be. It’s warm, funny, gripping, sad, and wonderful. Most of all, it feels like walking into a warm bar full of friends on a snowy day, stomping off your boots, hanging up your coat, and settling in for a hot drink. It’s a great game, and one that fans shouldn’t hesitate to sink into. I can’t wait to play it again.