Life Is Strange : Double Exposure was released on October 29th, 2024 right before Halloween is the fourth installment in the Life Is Strange Franchise. It is a direct sequel to Life Is Strange from 2015, where we follow an older Max Caulfield as she explores her powers further now that she is a University faculty. It is available on all PC, Xbox and PS5 with a Nintendo Switch release that is planned for later.
The Changes We See In Max
Even though Max is in her 20s now and while it is expected that she may be vastly different from where she was in Life Is Strange (2015). She is still the lovable overthinker observing her surroundings and thinking how she would’ve done it differently if she was in anyone else’s shoes.
Throughout the game we see Max coming to terms with adulthood, trying to understand that she isn’t a teenager anymore. We also see her question some of her old decisions and statements that she now finds cringeworthy or just plain idiotic now. That is one of the most relatable things about her now and anyone playing the game will understand.
This game is aiming to bring back the magic and intrigue of the game from 2015 as throughout its 5 chapters the choices you make significantly matter. We can see the response of the characters change, sometimes they even remind us of our actions which leads to interesting interactions with them.
For example, initiating a romantic relationship with a character in the first playthrough changed how that character treated Max compared to when Max just wanted to be friends. The characters act vastly differently in these choices which always incentivizes replays.
Not Afraid To Cover Difficulty And Emotions
The overarching story covers a lot of heavy topics such as dealing with a loved one’s passing by suicide, divorce and its impact on the individuals and how different people can express grief and different ways. The voice actors show a masterclass in delivering lines racked with emotion and anxiety along with the game’s excellent facial animations, something Ubisoft could take a few hints from.
The directions that these heavy topics take never felt forced or unnatural which shows how well thought out the interactions and dialogue are. Each interaction felt natural and original, this was due to the fact that making choices this time wasn’t a paranoid experience of saying the wrong thing, making the choices this time felt much more worthwhile and rewarding regardless of whether it was “wrong” or not.
Same But Different Powers
In the previous game Max had the ability to time travel with how she would rotate her palm and travel back in time to give herself the ability to choose the correct dialogue option. Here we see a proper change in Max’s powers. Instead of her having the on demand ability to time travel back, she now has the ability to travel between two similar but hauntingly different timelines.
There is the timeline of the living and the timeline of the dead, Max is able to travel between them at certain points across her University. As the names suggest they are realms that are polar opposites to each other even down to the soundtracks that are heard when traversing through them.
The powers work perfectly for the story this time, as the story is a more definite and more detailed whodunit but this time the puzzles make you traverse between the realms solving different puzzles leading to finding critical clues.
A Narrative Masterclass
The game is short compared to its contemporaries but this essentially feels like a breath of fresh air, while its peers usually have twenty to thirty hour plots but the narrative in those games have really shied away from presenting difficult topics, most modern triple-A titles we see are those pushing some agenda but also trying to everything kid friendly.
This way of presenting stories really takes away from what the art form is capable of, but with Double Exposure it clear that there are studios out there who are more than willing to tackle and present difficult topics and aren’t afraid of making their players uncomfortable in their seats, this in my opinion makes Double Exposure a worthy sequel and a worthy title for every one’s gaming library.
