It’s always a risk when a series brings back a character whose story was complete and made way for other leads and stories. Sure, it can absolutely be a fan-pleasing follow up, but it can smack of desperation at times – see Marvel bringing back Robert Downey Jr. – or see character shifts as a new writer takes the helm. You never quite know how it will land. I might not have personally cared for Max Caulfield in the original Life is Strange, but developer Deck Nine has brought her back in Life is Strange: Double Exposure complete with all her awkwardness, incessant photograph taking, and interfering with the lives and business of a host of new characters.
We pick up with Max after the events of Arcadia Bay in her new life as an artist-in-residence at Caledon University. She has, since those events, lost her ability to rewind time and the aftermath of the events of her previous adventure weighs heavy on her with flashbacks from time to time littered throughout the story of Double Exposure.
One thing I must highlight that impresses me about Double Exposure is how it handles the absence of Chloe, who was obviously very important in the first game. Instead of Deck Nine picking a canonical ending, they put the choice in your hands, asking what part of the world you elected to decimate in the final moments of Life is Strange. There’s a deft touch to how they explain Chloe’s absence in either scenario.
The story here does take a while to get going, but it really impresses upon you the friendship between Max, Safi and Moses as they simply hang out and chat in a bar or gaze together at the night sky. It doesn’t take long before a murder kicks the story into gear, that initial warmth of the world giving way to multiple plot threads following the intrigue around power held by the Abraxas group within the university, lecturers barely hiding secrets, and the hapless students seemingly stuck in the middle.
The central mystery is a bit of a slow burn, but there’s other plot threads and smaller mysteries for you to unpack that help the the game’s moving along, many of them meshing back into the overarching story as well.
Life is Strange would be nothing without its characters and would definitely not be without some very mixed character work. On the “bad” side, we have the nosey investigative reporter Loretta who rubs Max the wrong way almost immediately, and Vinh’s secrecy and slimy flirting with Max that feels distinctly uncomfortable. But then, on the other hand, you have the fantastic writing of characters like Safi and the instantly likeable potential love interest, Amanda.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure plays pretty much like any other game in this series. You explore each chapter, interacting with an array of characters, solving small puzzles in the world, and making anxiety-inducing decisions that come complete with the terrifying words “This action will have consequences” appearing on screen. A lot of these decisions, even though they’re simple A or B choices, have lasting impact on the story and game that you might not see for hours, if you even remember choosing it.
At the end of each chapter, you’ll be given a little breakdown of all the things that you could have impacted on and what you did if you did find them. What’s more, it puts each of these things with a little percentage of players of the game that made each choice. These can be as innocuous as fixing the alignment of some paintings, or as game altering as permanently making an enemy of a character. I must admit that, more than anything else during the review period, this revealed that I’m a terrible person when I play games.
However, this wouldn’t be a Life is Strange game without an interesting gameplay quirk to it and this time Max comes with a brand-new set of powers to replace the ability to rewind time, giving her the far less cool power to move between realities. The main way this ability manifests is being able to physically move between the timeline where your friend has died (known bluntly as the Dead timeline) and another where they are still alive (the Living timeline), allowing you to interact with characters and the world in each.
Sometimes you will need to locate and speak to the same characters in both timelines to progress or bring items or objects from one to the other, but there is this constant interplay between the two timelines that is used in some clever ways. One particular use that comes to mind was a segment where you need to listen in on a conversation, moving into a different timeline and then reaching back to hear what they’re saying without them noticing.
I’ll admit that this can be a little overwhelming at times, as you have essentially two timelines worth of characters, plotlines and events to contend with. Thankfully, the game has a simple objective system that not only keeps you focused on what you need to do, but also will clearly state which timeline you need to be in to complete the objective. Also, if you need a reminder on the current goings on, and you can bear to read the cringe of it, Max also keeps a handwritten journal of the story so far.
As another thing to praise about Double Exposure, this game has some of the most robust accessibility options available that I think I’ve ever seen. I only dropped into the Options to mess with the sound levels (I like my music loud and my voices not), and there are so many useful toggles allowing you to make subtitles clearer, add warnings about potentially harmful content or even – a life saver for someone as oblivious like I am – add an auditory chime for when you’re close to interactive areas.
It’s great to see games embrace accessibility generally, but this game should be put up there with the best in this regard for the wealth of considerate options here. Also, the ability to toggle whether you want a clear instruction on whether you want to make a particular decision is another excellent addition for me personally. I haven’t had the problem of previous games of accidentally selecting something then having to live with those consequences.
As is the case with the series, Life is Strange: Double Exposure hits a very specific aesthetic, blending lowkey chilled Americana with soft indie rock. The university campus is a fresh location but feels distinctly homely and lived in immediately. The cast might look a little too uncanny at times, but they mostly fit in with the environment perfectly and have some phenomenal voice acting. The music too is excellent, even though not quite as prominent as I would like (or as prevalent as it was in Life is Strange: True Colors).