Life is Strange: Double Exposure review – a bold step forward for a series unable to escape its past
Like its personal hero’s dabbling with time journey, Life is Strange: Double Exposure highlights the troubles of attempting to revisit previous recollections, whereas elevating unanswered questions in regards to the future.
In the direction of the tip of Life is Strange: Double Exposure, protagonist Max Caulfield insists she is not going to settle for one other unattainable alternative “between two shitty options”. She’s referencing, after all, the unique Life is Strange’s climactic dilemma, the place gamers had been compelled to select whether or not Max sacrificed her hometown or her closest ally. It is a second that has reverberated by each Life is Strange recreation since, and has come to outline a series centred round younger grownup drama and residing with the results of your actions. Max’s declaration she will not choose once more between two comparable no-win situations is meant to really feel triumphant: she has skilled that trauma as soon as, and is now older, bolder and wiser, so will as a substitute combat to forge a third path. It makes for a heroic scene, and raises expectations for the sport’s finally quite maddening climax. However it concurrently additionally glosses over the fact of that unique, heartbreaking determination: that its unattainable nature was the purpose.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure
- Developer: Deck 9
- Writer: Sq. Enix
- Platform: Performed on Xbox Series X
- Availability: Out twenty ninth October on PC (Steam), PS5, Xbox Series X/S. Switch TBA.
Whatever the possibility picked, Life is Strange compelled gamers to replicate on the connections they’d solid with its solid of characters – most notably, the charismatic fan-favorite Chloe, with whom Max might start a relationship – to discover a private decision that balanced emotion and chilly logic. The outcome? An ending that cemented that recreation in reminiscence, sparked years of fan discussions and debate, and mirrored one of many hardest classes of adolescence: that typically there is no right method forward.
Quick forward virtually a full decade, and Life is Strange: Double Exposure picks up the story of Max Caulfield with a comparable need by the sport’s developer Deck 9 to forge a recent path, successfully interesting to the nostalgia of loyal and lengthy-time period followers by returning to the franchise’s beloved unique hero, however taking part in down the results of that unique alternative so as to accomplish that. Double Exposure does its finest to unite the unique recreation’s two endings (whichever you select, Chloe is referenced however by no means bodily current) so as to inform a recent story, juggling the query of what Max did subsequent with the necessity to propel your entire Life is Strange franchise forward to some stunning and refreshing new floor.
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Life is Strange: Double Exposure’s superior entry launch was a large mistake.Watch on YouTube
Step up Safi, Max’s new finest pal and instructing colleague at Caledon College, whose presence lifts each scene she’s in. Double Exposure’s opening episode provides Safi simply sufficient display time to cement her burgeoning bond with Max (purely platonic, this time round) earlier than her homicide correctly kickstarts Life is Strange’s acquainted mix of thriller and investigative gameplay through magic powers. Safi’s subsequent absence is keenly felt – a testomony to the character’s introduction – whereas Max’s discovery she will journey to a parallel world by which Safi is nonetheless alive – for now, no less than – solely pushes the sport’s stakes greater. Max should seemingly now examine Safi’s homicide in a single timeline, whereas actively attempting to forestall it taking place in one other. A lot of Safi’s story is too wrapped in spoilers for dialogue right here, however suffice to say her characterisation – a fierce and fearless mixture of Marvel’s Agatha Harkness and Religion from Buffy – and her efficiency by newcomer Olivia AbiAssi is genuinely a pleasure to witness. (A shout out right here to Deck 9’s wonderful character animation, which stands up alongside PlayStation and Xbox first-occasion blockbusters.) After ending Double Exposure, I’ve gone again merely to rewatch a number of the key scenes between Safi and Max (as soon as once more performed effortlessly by the returning Hannah Telle) that are, by some measure, the sport’s highlights.
As Caledon College’s “photographer-in-residence”, Max’s position is obscure sufficient that you’ve freedom to examine Safi’s homicide throughout each timelines, and shortly uncover a internet of schemes, rivalries and unrequited loves throughout the campus, with secrets and techniques and facet-tales to uncover amongst each college students and college. Max has assist in her investigations from her pal Moses – a stoic and understated character who however supplies some actual heat – and college barkeeper Amanda, whose candy chemistry with Max can prolong past mixing drinks.
Not each character feels as nicely-rounded, alas. Vinh, the slimy principal’s assistant and head of the campus’ frat-like Abraxas Society, is notably uneven. His writing and portrayal veer uncomfortably between lecherous and contrite over components of his past. Later makes an attempt to soften his character nonetheless left me with the ick, and the weird determination to make him an alternate romance possibility for Max by no means comes shut to touchdown. Alderman, a detective briefly investigating Safi’s homicide, feels a cliched inclusion designed to supply an early-recreation antagonist, earlier than he disappears and is by no means talked about once more. I additionally felt incessantly perplexed by the sport’s therapy of Yasmin, Safi’s mom and Caledon’s principal. Within the timeline the place Safi is alive, mom and daughter share too few scenes to discover what is a key relationship, whereas on the earth the place her daughter is useless, the sport has Max inexplicably ignore messages from her, and Yasmin return to posting on social media about faculty affairs simply a couple of days after the trauma of her daughter’s homicide. There are a number of different examples the place the sport’s tone simply feels off, particularly throughout its early hours the place the timeline by which Safi lives is nonetheless to be established. Regardless of her pal’s loss of life, Max will nonetheless chirpily touch upon her setting or crack jokes when inspecting objects.
Nosebleed? Time traveller. | Picture credit score: Sq. Enix
After which there’s Chloe. Once I wrote about Double Exposure’s “advanced access” launch a couple of weeks in the past, I highlighted the nonsensical and grubby-feeling determination to launch the sport’s first two chapters early to those that forked out for the privilege. (These followers additionally get a few interactions within the full recreation between Max and a pet cat that those that do not pay further will miss – one other weird instance of how this undertaking’s launch feels nickel-and-dimed.) In follow, although, the primary response to Double Exposure’s early chapters was a monumental wave of displeasure from a few of Life is Strange’s most passionate followers at its dealing with of the franchise’s fan-favorite blue-haired lady.
Those that selected to save Chloe within the unique recreation – and particularly, those that nonetheless fervently consider she and Max ought to be a couple, seemingly, ceaselessly – revolted at Double Exposure’s instant reveal that Chloe’s absence, if alive, is down to the very fact the pair have cut up. I’ve watched the backlash proceed to unfurl over the past weeks and been stunned to see the extent it has unfold throughout the fandom – sufficient to provoke convincing-trying nameless responses from former Double Exposure employees with excuses for why it was all dealt with this manner, in addition to pointed posts on social media suggesting displeasure by members of Life is Strange’s unique improvement staff, earlier than the series’ unique director lastly waded in to name for calm.
To me, Max and Chloe breaking apart is wholly plausible. A decade together with your teenage sweetheart is a very long time, and that is with out the myriad further pressures of accepting a accomplice with particular powers who sacrificed a city-stuffed with lives (together with your personal mum). Chloe is nonetheless repeatedly talked about, and Max is not compelled to romance anybody else. There’s little room for Chloe on this story – and there are good causes apart from nostalgia and fan familiarity for why a solo return to Max is fascinating. Nonetheless, might this inevitable response have been dealt with higher by the sport, had the will seemingly been there? Certain.
Max and Safi – by far, this recreation’s stars. | Picture credit score: Sq. Enix
Double Exposure’s second half is stronger, and even those that performed its early chapters could also be stunned the place its story finally ends up. (Although maybe not – as I write this, I am watching one other consequence of the sport’s “advanced access”: datamined audio from the ultimate episode being made public.) With out spoiling something right here, it is honest to say there’s extra occurring in Double Exposure than initially meets the attention – sufficient that I have been compelled to replay sure moments after a key reveal – and the sport’s penultimate chapter, particularly, rockets alongside. It is right here, lastly, we see Max sit down and replicate on her powers in a dialog in contrast to every other within the series to this point, setting in movement story components wider than simply this recreation.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure accessibility choices
Longer alternative instances, digital camera help, digital camera shake toggle, means to skip gameplay, hotspot pinging, focal circle, content material warning pause (particular warnings accessible for brightness, blood, violence, suicide themes, abuse, medicine, sexual content material, transphobia), dialogue subtitles, closed captions, subtitle colors and backgrounds, elevated trace frequency, digital camera sensivity.
As somebody who adored the unique Life is Strange and caught with the series ever since, I’ve to admit a actual pleasure to checking again in on Max all these years later, to really feel and listen to the similarity within the character – but in addition see the pure adjustments in her as she’s grown within the interim. There’s a lot for Max to get to grips with right here, and what initially seems like an intriguing endgame alternative to make. If Double Exposure begins feeling too acquainted to the unique Life is Strange (Max in a faculty-like setting coping with creepy academics, a useless pal, and a longer-useless pal-of-theirs), its latter half surprisingly brings again echoes of Do not Nod’s much less-beloved Life is Strange 2, and the complexities of coping with a scenario your personal skills really feel unable to management.
Double Exposure ends with what can solely be described as a bold path for the way forward for the franchise, one which’s definitely going to spark debate, however one which additionally comes at the price of a fuller conclusion now. That ending alternative is ripe to reverberate additional – however its ripples stay frustratingly unseen. It is one more odd narrative determination from developer Deck 9 – and one which’s solely made extra conflicting by in gentle of a report this 12 months that highlighted the corporate’s inside storytelling struggles, together with the departure of a key artistic, troubling intervention by writer Sq. Enix, and its seeming incapability to expel an worker inserting fascist imagery into its information.
Life is Strange nonetheless holds an essential place in lots of followers’ hearts – if nothing else, the past weeks’ backlash proves that. However regardless of Double Exposure’s finer moments and startling imaginative and prescient to transfer the series forward, what’s right here now would not really feel as assured a step as I would have favored. Whereas visually polished, there’s one too many narrative tough edges and never sufficient decision when all is mentioned and carried out. I am nonetheless eager to see what occurs subsequent, notably how Double Exposure’s ending is acquired and mentioned by followers over the approaching months and years, and whether or not the influence of Max’s first outing – which resonated so strongly, and for so lengthy – can ever be repeated right here or elsewhere down the road. Persevering with Life is Strange has by no means been easy, however then, typically there is no right alternative to make.
A replica of Life is Strange: Double Exposure was offered for review by Sq. Enix.