Adventure Corner ~ Life Is Strange: Double Exposure

Welcome to Adventure Corner, a column where members of the RPGamer staff can give their thoughts, impressions, and pseudo-reviews for various adventure titles that don’t come under our usual coverage. Adventure Corner is aimed at delivering opinions on a wide range of titles including visual novels, point-and-click adventures, investigative mysteries, and so forth.

In this edition of the column we take a look at Deck Nine’s latest addition to the Life Is Strange series, Life Is Strange: Double Exposure, which sees Max Caulfield returning to the protagonist role.


Life Is Strange: Double Exposure

Platform: PlayStation 5
(also available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch)
Release Date: 10.29.2024
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Deck Nine

 

I was skeptical when Deck Nine announced the return of Max Caulfield as the protagonist for the new Life Is Strange. On the one hand, I was curious about Max after the events in Arcadia Bay, and on the other hand, the girl had suffered enough during the events of the original Life Is Strange. While it’s nice to be back in Max’s mind, Life Is Strange: Double Exposure is a game of mixed results overall.

In 2023, Max Caulfield finds herself as a photographer-in-residence at Caledon University. While attempting to escape the mistakes from her past, Max swears never to use her time travel powers ever again. After an evening of stargazing and drinking with her friends Moses and Safi, Max begins to feel a change in the air and her powers stirring again. When Safi goes to take a phone call, Max questions why she’s been gone so long, only to find her friend shot dead on the ground, and no sign of the culprit. Grieving the loss of Safi, Max’s powers ignite once more, only this time she can pulse between a world where Safi lives, and one where she is dead. It’s between these worlds that Max begins her investigation into Safi’s death and these new powers.

Part of the Life Is Strange series’ appeal is its storytelling. With Max being older in Double Exposure, it feels strange that she has matured enough. She behaves far too young and doesn’t really fit the role she’s in, acting far less mature than her position would demand, including being besties with all of her students. Max’s personality throughout the five episodes, though at times awkwardly charming, is at odds with her position of power at Caledon, and that lack of maturity undercuts any belief in the supposition that Max has grown since the events of the first game.

Loretta is such a pain.

It also doesn’t help that the writing in Double Exposure is a mixed bag, and part of that comes from the story not fully knowing what direction it wants to go. The consequence of many decisions, especially the larger ones, don’t feel like they fit the situation properly. The earlier episodes are much more strongly written, with tons of great touching moments, while the latter half lacks cohesion, causing confusion and having emotional moments that don’t quite hit right. When the game is focused on Max’s grief and her struggle to connect with others, that is when the writing shines its brightest.

The new characters Max encounters lack dimension, especially compared to the strong and memorable cast of Deck Nine’s previous offering, Life Is Strange: True Colours. Safi is difficult to connect with as she is nothing but raw anger throughout the narrative, bartender Amanda is “quirky” and empathic, and Vihn exists to climb the university ladder and isn’t a nice guy. A lot of these characters have a specific trait, but all have that awkward dad humour that is prevalent throughout Double Exposure. All the characters needed a lot more fleshing out to be memorable and fully three-dimensional. There are also two romantic options in the form of Amanda and Vihn, however, Vihn has an obvious interest in another character and the story bashes the player over their head that Amanda is the best choice.

Given the game is called Double Exposure, there is duality at play both in the narrative and in the gameplay. Max will need to bounce between both worlds to gain new clues to solve Safi’s death or find information about characters and events that have occurred in the different timelines. For example, in one timeline the player learns that one of the school’s professors, Lucas Colmenero, is having one of the most successful years of his life, with one of his books being auctioned for a film. In another timeline, however, players learn that Lucas doesn’t have a relationship with his son and has filed a restraining order against Safi for reasons that the game explores. How Max alters things in each world, based on her decisions, can change so much of the characters and landscape.

A rip in time and space.

A lot of Double Exposure‘s gameplay involves a lot of investigating and manipulating the different areas that Max explores, whether it is changing the position of an object or having the ability to see individuals in the other world. The areas that Max frequents look lovely, but there is only a handful of locations across the five episodes and they all get reused frequently. There is also the managing of Max’s social media across both worlds, which can be confusing at times, as Max can respond to texts from characters in the Dead World while acting in the Living one. There’s no difference in the interface and it would have been nice for some more obvious cues as to which world the texts were coming from. The interface for the social media elements is very cumbersome, not well implemented, and honestly doesn’t add a lot to the game overall.

Double Exposure looks gorgeous on PlayStation 5. The characters are wonderfully animated with a full range of expressions. While there are not a lot of areas to explore, what does exist is well designed, with the Living World showcasing warm and bright colours, versus the Dead World’s much darker colour palette. Since Max is a photographer by trade, the game encourages players to take photos, even giving a double exposure function, which makes taking photos and messing around with them a lot of fun.

Isn’t it great to have such terrifying powers?

The game also has a fantastic soundtrack, with the songs being a highlight. The original songs by Tessa Rose Jackson such as “This Is So Lonely” are that perfect blend of haunting and melodic, while dodie’s “Someone Was Listening” is an amazing earworm. The game’s entire score deserves much praise, as its indie folk rock tracks do a great job of encompassing what is happening in the story and stick to mind long after the game has been shut off. Hannah Telle returns as the voice of Max and continues to breathe wonderful life into her, while other actors such as Olivia AbiAssi do a great job of bringing sarcasm and raw anger into Safi’s character. The voice work overall is excellent, although there are a few odd sound mixing issues that occur in ambient sounds, but don’t deter from the overall experience.

I actually enjoyed my time with Life Is Strange: Double Exposure. However, while a fine enough return to the franchise, the more I thought about it, the more I realized the glaring holes that make it a disappointing return for Max Caulfield in particular. Some plot points end with interesting sequel hooks that are still intriguing, and I am curious where the story intends to go, even if many of the story elements were not paid off in Double Exposure. Hardcore Life Is Strange fans likely won’t find Double Exposure to be as strong as they hoped, but there is promise here, even in its messy interior.

Disclosure: This article is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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