Life is Strange Double Exposure Review
“Polarized” Written by: Ethan (@ChaoticAether)
Life is Strange holds a very special place in my heart, as I’m sure it does for most of you reading or watching this review. It’s been a ride or die franchise for me since the very beginning, and despite falling out of love with it during Life is Strange 2, True Colours brought back my lost adoration with its wonderful world and beautiful story. This series has a way of attaching to people, and despite their rough edges and sloppy writing, each entry has emotionally resonated with me and the franchise holds a special place in my heart. That’s doubly so for the original Life is Strange.
It was 2016, I had just turned 19 years old, and I was feeling particularly lonely during my second year of university. A friend had recommended to me Life is Strange six months prior, but I couldn’t get into it for whatever reason and after going through the first scene in Jefferson’s classroom I uninstalled before I had even left the room. That December I was in a really dark place, and after looking up atmospheric games and seeing a familiar face stand out to me on that list. I decided to give it a second chance. Boy am I glad I did.
Life is Strange is one of those few games that I believe, without sounding too hyperbolic, changed my life. I was instantly hooked to everything about the game. The moving soundtrack, charming indie aesthetic and beautiful performances moved me in a way few games had at that time. I was in love with Max, her world and everything the game set out to achieve. It wasn’t perfect, but since that December Life is Strange has always been a comfort for me, and at the heart of that was Hannah Telle’s performance. Since then I’ve come to realise that I have a lot in common with Max. Maybe it's that we have similar personalities, that we are around the same age, or maybe it's something deeper. Regardless, she’s become one of my favourite video game characters of all time.
Fast forward to 2021 and leaks start to appear for both True Colors and the early development of a fourth entry centred around an older Max Caulfield post Arcadia Bay teaching at a University. These rumours resurfaced every 8 months or so, and every time I tried not to believe them. I thought Deck Nine would never choose an ending, and that any ideas for a sequel may diminish the original in some way. Fast forward to June 2024, and those rumours were mostly true - except for the fact that they seemed to go back on choosing one of the original endings. Life is Strange Double Exposure was announced.
To see Max again, an older Max, and know how she’s doing. To see her thrown into a new situation with new powers. To see if and how she moved on from the events of Arcadia Bay. To see what happened with everyone else and how they would approach both endings. I was really excited. Looking back now there was no way this game could have lived up to my expectations, but what we ended up getting has been one of the hardest games I’ve ever had to review.
I liked Life is Strange Double Exposure, but I also can’t lie to you and say that I wasn’t disappointed. The final product is filled with excellent performances, charming story moments, and an wonderful soundtrack. Heck, the first three episodes are some of the best episodes of Life is Strange I have ever played. It’s just a shame the second half tries so hard to undo everything that makes Life is Strange so special.
Image Credit: Deck Nine, Square Enix
Double Exposure takes place in December of 2023, just over ten years after the original Life is Strange. You return to the shoes of Max Caulfield, a 28 year old photographer and Resident at the prestigious Caledon University, who hasn’t touched her rewind powers since the day she made that fateful choice with her best friend Chloe. We join her mid-escapade, taking photos for a project in an abandoned bowling alley with her new best friend Safi. Alongside her other friend Moses, the three of them form the core of Max’s new life, finally finding somewhere to belong after a decade of moving from city to city post Arcadia Bay. One night while at the observatory, Safi receives a mysterious call and wanders into the woods. By the time Max catches up and reaches the outlook, Safi has already been shot dead.
I suppose this is an appropriate time to tell you my final choice for the original Life is Strange, as within the first twenty minutes Double Exposure asks you to remake that choice for yourself. I’ve always believed that the right ending was to save Arcadia Bay. As much as I love Chloe, the cyclical narrative of time catching up and to cherish the extra time you're given has always moved me far more than sacrificing the entire town. The extra time Max and Chloe had was special, a moment shared between two best friends, the perfect chance to say goodbye. I don’t chastise anyone who picks the other option, but I often think about how perfect that ending is and the beauty in letting her go.
That’s why in my version of the story the events with Safi hit so close to home. Once again her best friend is dead, and this time she wasn’t even able to try and stop it. Past trauma starts to resurface and Max can’t handle going through the same situation again. It’s powerful. I’ve tried replaying parts of the game with the other option and it just doesn’t hit the same. Breaking Chloe and Max up doesn’t please anyone on that side of the fence, nor does it leave any emotional weight for the current storyline either. I don’t know if the leaks were true and the story was changed to fit both endings, but a majority of this story feels like it was made for a post sacrificing Chloe Max Caulfield.
Max tries to grieve the situation as best as possible, but struggles to come to terms with losing someone again. Once again she takes a murder case into her own hands, and begins to explore the campus to find any potential leads on who may have killed Safi. After learning of a cancelled book deal and the mysterious death of a girl called Maya, Max once again starts to experience nosebleeds and migraines. Seeing visions of Safi she tries to once again use her rewind power, only to hop from one timeline to another. One where Safi never died.
This leads me to the main mechanic of the game: the two realities. Double Exposure plays just like any other game in the series, having you walk around Caledon, talk to various people and solve light puzzles in order to progress the story. From episode two onwards there will also be sparkling points you can interact with, allowing you to swap to the alternate timeline and discover new information. Max can also listen into the other reality by holding the trigger, allowing her to eavesdrop and gather information from the other side. From here everything changes, with the alive timeline featuring a warmer colour palette and festive decorations, and the dead timeline featuring a cooler colour palette and a melancholy tone. Texts and social media posts may be different, characters may have differing relationships with Max between the two realities, and it's a really cool mechanic visually.
Image Credit: Deck Nine, Square Enix
There’s some interesting concepts at play here, but they unfortunately don’t live up to their full potential. Most puzzles involve only swapping a handful of times, mainly to get into locked rooms or to get a specific piece of intel from one of the realities. Characters do have differing personalities between realities, but this doesn’t really impact the story at play whatsoever. I can only count on one hand the times where I actually thought the mechanic was used well, which is a shame as I really thought the mechanic had potential.
As for Caledon itself as a playspace, it’s a really atmospheric area to explore but I can’t help but feel it's smaller than past entries. A majority of the game takes place between three locations: The campus grounds, a main building and the bar. These areas are fun to explore for the first few episodes, but once you realise that they are going to be reused throughout, they start to get old. Match this with a lack of change in social media between the two realities, and the whole game left me wanting more from its exploration and discovery.
From episode two onwards the game opens up and you’ll go through the many twists and turns Double Exposure has to offer, and for the first half it's excellent. The first two episodes have you interviewing various suspects and exploring both realities in order to find the differences and figure out the truth behind Safi’s murder. A majority of the side characters are done well enough, with Moses and Gwen being standouts to me in a cast of mostly throwaway characters. It all culminates in episode 2’s cliffhanger which is in my opinion the strongest cliffhanger in Life is Strange history. It changes the direction of the narrative in a completely unexpected way, but once the game alters its course Double Exposure’s narrative never seems to truly recover.
It stays consistent for a while though, and episode three keeps the story strong in its new direction, and allows you to spend quality time with various characters and romance either Amanda or Vinh, who both unfortunately miss the mark. After True Colors having in my opinion the best romance options in any of the games, Amanda and Vinh really do nothing for me. I didn’t even realise Vinh was a romance option until far later in the game and he honestly doesn’t click with Max as much as he should. Amanda on the other hand is an alright romance choice, but the option comes up so early in the game I wasn’t really ready to commit. Little did I know this was the only chance to make this choice and it was too little too late when I had a clearer outlook. Episode 3’s ending is pretty strong, with one of the creepiest sections in these games to date. If there’s one compliment I can really give the narrative, it absolutely nailed its tone. Double Exposure constantly has you feeling tense, with dark and creepy situations around every corner. Unfortunately, it's also at this point where the plot takes a turn for the worse.
Image Credit: Deck Nine, Square Enix
Episode four is a mess, having roughly half the run time of the prior three episodes, and has only one great scene surrounded by filler. For a game so set on giving the player an abundance of questions, episode four decides to ignore all of them to dive into a side-story that doesn’t even make sense if you start to question it. Episode five borders on cliche, and despite its return to series tropes, seems to be fundamentally opposed to what makes Life is Strange so special. It comically villainizes characters, makes a mockery of its timelines and attempts to rush to the finish line by any means necessary. There are some nice callbacks and creepy moments that I think are done well here, but the overarching narrative is so weak it ruins any impact those pieces may have. By the time I was done with Double Exposure, it left me wondering what the future will hold. And not in a good, optimistic way either…
The ending left me polarised. On one hand I can see a future where the idea works, and maybe in three or four years I’ll be writing a review and laughing at how worried I was right now. But at the same time I can’t help but feel like the ending misses the point of Life is Strange entirely. I don’t feel it too spoilery to say that this game doesn’t wrap up neatly, that it spends its time setting up for a future we may never get to see. It takes a franchise that at its heart is a story about people and makes it more about the powers themselves. I honestly have no clue where this story will go, or if we will ever get to see it. I just hope that when that time comes the quality of the narrative is higher and it matches closer to the series’ previous mood and tone.
I’d hate to end on a downer so let's talk about two of the highlights of the game: The performances and the soundtrack. The performances in this game are outstanding, with Hannah Telle’s return as Max being the standout. I was thrilled earlier this week when she was nominated for best performance at The Game Awards and it's well deserved. She was underappreciated in the original Life is Strange and she’s even better here. Max has grown more comfortable with herself and you can really tell-e that from Hannah’s performance, but she’s still the goofy introvert we all know and love. The rest of the cast bounce off her perfectly, with Gwen, Moses and Amanda being my standouts. There are a few rough performances, the cop and Diamond did nothing for me, but the game mainly stays clear of the cringy performances seen in games past. It’s all surrounded by great sound design (when it works) and a phenomenal soundtrack. I’m starting to think this may be one of the stronger soundtracks in Life is Strange history, with its haunting undertones and atmospheric themes working wonders for Caledon university.
Image Credit: Deck Nine, Square Enix
Summary
Life is Strange Double Exposure has been an extremely tough game for me to review. I adore the original game and Max is one of my favourite characters of all time, so there was a lot riding on this game’s story and what it would entail. After all’s said and done I truly believe there is a lot to love in Double Exposure. Its first three episodes are excellent, it has one of the strongest and creepiest atmosphere’s in the series, and has a ton of great character moments that had me smiling from ear to ear. It was a joy to see one of my favourite characters back in action and to hang out with her for so long, and I really believe that the first half of this game is a masterclass in narrative game design. I was enthralled, asking questions on a dime and fell onto its plot twists hook, line and sinker. But as much as I loved these moments and can look past all its faults, the second half of the game misses the mark.
Its narrative takes a nosedive, character motives become sloppy, and it stops answering questions and wastes its time setting up a future for the series filled with uncertainty. By the end it resorted to every cliche in the book and has the blandest final choices I’ve seen in this series to date. What I originally believed was a story about trauma became a game solely focussed on the powers themselves, which almost feels antithetical to the whole idea of Life is Strange. Match this with its lack of commitment to the original games’ choices, and I can honestly see why this game has been so polarising to many of its players.
Despite all the praise I have for Life is Strange Double Exposure, I can’t help but feel hesitant on recommending the full game. I want to make it clear that there is far more good here than bad, and the high points are worth experiencing regardless of its larger faults, just maybe get it on sale. You may come off feeling more polarised than me, but there was so much I enjoyed with this game I really don’t regret buying it. I’m so grateful we got to spend more time with Max Caulfield, I just wish Deck Nine went with the smaller, more personal story that the game was advertised on. I feel like a lot of the discourse online is overblown and there is so much to love here, but with its 12 hour runtime and $50 entry fee, I can’t help but feel that Deck Nine bit off more narrative than they could chew.
There’s nothing blatantly wrong with Double Exposure, but the cracks in its narrative show that if they are planning to do what they have begun setting up for the future, they need to understand what truly makes Life is Strange so special. As it's not the powers, villains or the massive choices that make these games work, but the characters and tone. Life is Strange does a wonderful job of zooming in on the ordinary thrown into extraordinary situations. They’re about love, loss and taking in the atmosphere. The power isn’t what matters, it's the effect it has on its characters and what they learn about themselves in the process. They may still pull this narrative back to what makes this series so special, but I feel like some of these core traits are lost in Double Exposure. This is the first Life is Strange game that didn’t hit me close to home. There were no tears, no feelings of loss, and by the end I couldn’t help but miss that melancholy feeling. There’s still a lot of potential with this franchise, and I still look forward to whatever happens next, but I can’t help but be more hesitant for this franchise I used to love no matter what.