Life is Strange: Double Exposure Review – An Uneven Composition

“The beast rose and stared into me. It became me. I had always been the beast.”

It’s been nearly a decade since Dontnod’s Life is Strange hit the episodic adventure game scene with the story of young Max Caulfield, a high-school photography student with the supernatural ability to rewind time. Throughout the original game’s compelling story, players watched their socially inept protagonist fight against fate in a heavy narrative that dealt with love, loss, suicide, grief, and murder. After the first game’s success, developer Deck Nine was quickly tasked with creating a prequel centering around Max’s friend and potential love interest Chloe, further fleshing out the events that led up to the original game’s central plot points. Dontnod themselves went on to develop a sequel in the greater universe of Life is Strange, and Max’s story was seemingly left behind.

Flash forward to today, and Deck Nine has effectively taken over as lead developer on the franchise. After nine long years, they’ve finally decided to return to our beloved photographer and pick up her tale at Caledon University, a prestigious college in Vermont where she’s been working as a photographer-in-residence. She has new friends, new powers, and a new outlook on life, but how do they stack up against the qualities of the first game that got players to fall in love with her to begin with? After my time with Life is Strange: Double Exposure, I am pleased to say that despite some wobbly plot points and a somewhat rushed ending, I had a thoroughly enjoyable experience stepping back into Max’s shoes and seeing how the series has evolved since the mid-2010s.

The Road(s) Ahead

Double Exposure’s gameplay centers around a fascinating new power. The death of one of Max’s closest friends reawakens her long-dormant abilities, but instead of rewinding time, Max now finds herself capable of jumping between two parallel timelines: one where her companion was killed and another where she survived. While the reality-swapping ability is used in a limited scope early on, later chapters of the game quickly open themselves up to possibility, allowing you to solve all sorts of puzzles through thoughtful hops back and forth through the rift between the two worlds. Max also possesses the power to peek into the other side without actually swapping over, which enables her to eavesdrop on private conversations and gain intel she might not have access to otherwise. This central gameplay loop feels well thought out, though it admittedly never crosses the threshold to allow for truly creative problem-solving. The story the team wants to tell is still rather linear. Unfortunately, that holds the mechanic back from ever reaching its fullest potential.

Layered beneath this new power is Life is Strange’s signature decision-heavy gameplay. Throughout the game’s roughly eight-to-ten-hour playtime, you’ll be asked to make several important choices that will affect how the story plays out in significant ways. These range from small personal changes for Max such as romance options to heavy decisions that can alter the path forward entirely. Cradled in the gaps of these weighty moments are numerous smaller stories and dialogue trees that help to flesh out the game’s universe and give you an intimate peek into the lives and psyches of Caledon’s diverse cast of characters. I found myself regularly going out of my way to pick up little flourishing details wherever possible, even going so far as to get invested in a group of undergrads’ intense game of assassin that transformed into a charming little love story. This content, while entirely optional, breathes life into the world that Max inhabits and feeds into the sense that life on campus doesn’t stop when you leave a scene. The game rewards you for paying attention and finding secrets by providing payoffs to a lot of these little storylines, and I appreciate that at no point are you required to pay attention to them if you’d rather indulge in a self-centered playthrough.

The Rule of Fifths

Double Exposure’s main narrative follows a fairly standard five-episode structure, each with some sort of revelation or twist to leave you eager to hop into the next. The early game does a phenomenal job of building a strong sense of intrigue and mystery. The odd circumstances surrounding the death of Max’s close friend combined with the mysterious return of her unique abilities make for a murky lake begging to be dragged. Every new factoid adds to the suspense, ultimately culminating in a whirlwind final act. It’s a shame, then, that the game’s finale feels a little undercooked in comparison to everything set up before it. Many of the answers to the questions I found myself asking during my playthrough were underwhelming, and the game’s strongest twists made themselves apparent far earlier in the experience. Additionally, the reveal that acts as the impetus for the events at the end of the game feels almost like a throwaway. It’s a bit of a letdown given the compelling foundation the game set early on.

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What the last episode lacks in epiphanies, however, it makes up for in heart. Without spoiling too much, episode five primarily acts as a character study, giving Max and her friends ample room for self-reflection and a facsimile of Socratic dialogue on whether supernatural capabilities should—or even if they can—be used to change the outcome of reality. It’s clear that Deck Nine intends to build a larger narrative around this universe that’s been a decade in the making, and I applaud their ambition. It’ll take some time and further sequels to conclusively say whether such an endeavor will pan out. Either way, the more intimate scope of Double Exposure’s writing in its final hours was satisfying enough to come away with a positive opinion of the overall tale this game wanted to tell.

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

Deck Nine proved their ability to evolve on Life is Strange’s stylized realism with their last title, True Colors, and they’ve gone above and beyond for this latest entry. Half of the reason I found Caledon so interesting to explore was the allure contained in each of its carefully painted environments. The campus feels genuinely lived-in: scattered stationery, cluttered bulletin boards, and sticker-studded backpacks are littered throughout nearly every room. The cozy glow of Max’s fireplace at her home illuminates her airy living area and messy kitchen. It stands in stark contrast to the cold sunlight of the snow-covered quad, which bounces off the brick walls of the Fine Art Building’s imposing exterior. Little touches of real-world detail dance in tandem with the game’s painted objects to cover a canvas that I loved existing in. I found little to no artistic shortcomings in my thorough search of this world’s every nook and cranny.

Facial animations have also been improved tremendously from previous entries. Every single interaction between characters feels hand-crafted, barring random conversations between unnamed extras. I could read the subtleties of Max’s nervous attraction when speaking to characters she could romance, and I felt a genuine connection in the heartfelt conversations between close friends. These little details go a long way when 90 percent of the game centers around them. Deck Nine clearly understood the importance of this. It not only made the required interactions enjoyable and easy to tune into, but it also incentivized me to seek out the game’s plethora of optional dialogues to soak up every bit of hard work the team put into making them feel worth my time.

It bears mentioning that years of practice have also helped the language in Double Exposure to feel much more natural than in previous entries. Sure, Max is still dorky and awkward, but her characterization is intentional as opposed to a byproduct of poor writing. None of the cast ever veers too far into Hollywood college student stereotypes. Text messages and social media posts available to view on Max’s phone all feel natural, and each character uses modern lingo and euphemisms without triggering any sort of excessive cringe from the reader. Granted, the series has always been about artsy kids written by artsy kids, so certain audiences might not find themselves able to resonate with the setting as a whole. If you’ve ever enjoyed the world of Life is Strange and the eccentric characters within it, though, they’re written better than ever before here.

Verdict

Life is Strange: Double Exposure’s return to Max Caulfield is one I would ultimately consider a success. While a few distinct choices hold it back from reaching any all-time heights, its heartwarming friendships and multifaceted story on love and loss kept me invested all the way through to its conclusion. I believe that if everything goes Deck Nine’s way, this game will be viewed as one part of a greater chronicle down the line. Given everything I experienced in my time with Double Exposure, I can safely say that the team deserves the chance to reach for their full vision and bring it to reality, however that may manifest. In the meantime, it’s worth getting in on the series’ new ground floor with Double Exposure, if for no other reason than to be reminded that real friendship is complicated, and the bigger picture of any relationship can only come into focus with trust, honesty, and forgiveness. Loneliness’s destructive vortex can turn any of us into a monster, but together, we can weather the storm.

Score: 8/10

Pros:

• A deeply personal story full of interpersonal nuance
• Gorgeous art, environments, and facial animations
• A killer soundtrack
• Plenty of intriguing side stories

Cons:

• A lackluster final reveal
• Unique mechanics never live up to their full potential
• Fairly repetitive and simple core gameplay

Life is Strange: Double Exposure review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.

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