It’s now been around 9 years since the Life is Strange
series first debuted back in 2015. Originally created by French studio DontNod Entertainment,
these adventure games have been known for their warm and nostalgic vibes,
character-driven storylines, dark and often intriguing plots, highly
interactive environments, and of course the key decisions you make and their
consequences.
Now firmly in the hands of Colorado-based studio Deck Nine, who previously
worked on Life Is Strange: Before the Storm and Life Is Strange: True Colors,
the series has never quite managed to live up to the first
installment, which remains by far the deepest from a storytelling and gameplay
perspective. Even with that said, the games since have remained enjoyable in
their own ways; each one features a unique new power that the main character is
bestowed with, and though the gameplay has evolved very little over the course of
its existence, the immersive vibes of each game’s world, some great
soundtracks, and the intrigue offered by the storylines keeps things
interesting and has kept me coming back for more.
Life Is Strange: Double Exposure makes the somewhat bold
decision to return to Max Caulfield, the main character from the 1st
game, albeit many years later. Now she’s a graduate student at Caledon
University in Vermont, where she studies photography. And though her character’s now much older, Deck Nine has managed to write her in a way where she still feels
familiar to the high school-aged Max who we remember from the original game. Aside from some minor references to her adventures in Arcadia Bay, Double Exposure
largely tells its own new story and features an otherwise entirely new cast of
characters.
As with all Life is Strange games that came after the 1st
one, Double Exposure is somewhat of a mixed bag; it’s clear here, as it was
with 2021’s True Colors, that Deck Nine has struggled to evolve the series much
at all from the formula successfully established by DontNod’s Life is Strange
and (to a much lesser extent) Life is Strange 2. In fact, if anything the series
has been devolving, with Double Exposure featuring an even smaller world than previous
entries, and with the choices you make over the course of the story feeling
like they have less impact than ever before.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Life is Strange: Double
Exposure begins with a slightly strange sequence, with Max and her friend Safi
having broken into an abandoned bowling alley to take pictures. The dialogue between
the two characters suggests that they might be love interests on some kind of
date, which turns out not to be the case. But it’s an immediate example of one
of the more puzzling quirks of Double Exposure, which is that it’s often
difficult to discern what the writers were attempting to portray with the
characters in any given scene. Oftentimes I’d find myself staring at the screen,
confused as to why the characters were behaving the way they were behaving, and
what their relationship to Max was supposed to be.
Afterwards, Max, Safi, and their friend Moses are hanging out
up on a campus rooftop at night to stare at the stars, though the night ultimately
ends in tragedy.
I’m going out of my way not to spoil specifically what happens,
though the game’s marketing quite frankly doesn’t seem to care too much about keeping
the secret. Regardless, Caledon University finds itself gripped in the midst of
a murder mystery, with Max finding out that she has the ability to switch
between alternate timelines: one where the murder has taken place, and one
where it hasn’t.
The setup’s strong, and the mystery and atmosphere, along
with the possibilities offered by this new power, keep things pushing forward
for probably about 2/3s of the adventure. Though where it ultimately ends up
leading is a lot less interesting than where it begins, getting there’s an atmospheric
and fun ride for the most part, with the core Life is Strange gameplay and world
remaining fun, unique, and accessible for gamers and non-gamers of all skill
levels.
As illustrated in the opening sequence, where Life Is
Strange: Double Exposure struggles quite a bit is in the writing; as with the
other Deck Nine-developed entries, the choices you make all feel like they’re
monumental, but in reality have extremely little impact on the direction that
the story goes. Even the big choice you make at the end of the game only seems
to result in a different line of dialogue; never in a game like this have the choices
seemed to make such little difference. Double Exposure’s sometimes odd dialogue
and occasionally strange behavior of the characters often made it hard for me
to understand what the game was asking me to decide, with the results of my
choice feeling completely disconnected from the choice I thought I’d made. Ultimately
I was able to get myself to just go along for the ride, but the writing in
Double Exposure, more than in any other Life is Strange game, stands out as an
area that really needs work, especially in terms of character dynamics, which
are all over the place.
One area in particular that proves to be disappointing is the “romance”
aspect. As with the main character in many of the Life is Strange games, Max
is bisexual, which theoretically opens her up for romance options with either
male or female characters over the course of the game. That said, she has
almost 0 chemistry with any of the male characters, all of whom come across as
awkward or even (in the case of Vinh) a little creepy, while it seems like
almost every female character Max comes across is bubbly, flirty, and
personable. It’s so abundantly clear which direction the game wants you to go
that it doesn’t even seem worth it to go out of your way to explore any other
option. Though I ultimately ended up enjoying the dynamic between Max and the
person who I ended up with, this (like so many other aspects of Double
Exposure) only makes a very surface-level difference in the plot and fades so
far into the background that it sadly doesn’t leave much of a mark.
The world of Caledon University is pretty but definitely on
the small side; Double Exposure only contains a handful of explorable
locations, and while the campus feels big at first glance, it becomes clear
pretty quickly how limited it is. Though the snowy quad and the Snapping Turtle
Bar are beautiful and truly feel alive, a lot of your time is spent going back
and forth between two dreary academic buildings, which gets old. The
ability to leave campus and explore a nearby town (or anywhere else) would have
provided some much-needed variety.
Max’s new power to flip into the alternate timeline and back
again is the series’ most prominent since the first game’s truly innovative Butterfly
Effect-like time travel ability; the world pre-murder feels vibrant and lively,
while the world post-murder looks and feels more somber and eerie. Flipping between
them is jarring (in a good way) and provides for a handful of really cool
moments. While this power is ultimately relegated mainly to fetch quests
and truly mindless puzzles (door won’t open, switch to the alternate timeline,
door now opens) the times where it’s used well are really interesting, which led
me to wish that its implementation was for more exciting purposes than opening
doors and collecting objects.
And ultimately that’s what turned out to by my main takeaway
from Life Is Strange: Double Exposure. The series’ gameplay is back and is as
fun as ever. The world feels alive, the soundtrack’s ambient and really takes
me to a place, the characters are generally likable and fun to get to know
(some truly iffy moments aside) and it’s just impossible not to be absorbed
into the unique universe that is Life is Strange. It’s what keeps me coming
back every time, and it doesn’t disappoint. At the same time, Double Exposure
struggles quite a bit in other areas; the writing at times feels borderline
incomprehensible, especially in terms of how characters act and how they
interact with each other. This makes it hard to discern exactly what choice the
game is asking me to make and what the results of it would be. The eventual
realization that the choices I did make had almost no impact on the proceedings
(similarly to True Colors) is a big issue, and the plot really sputters out in
the final chapter. Max’s new power to alternate between two timelines similarly
offers potential and some cool moments, but ultimately that too feels more often
than not like a superficial layer over some pretty mundane fetch quests and “puzzles.”
But Life is Strange: Double Exposure is a game filled with
personality, as this series has always been known for, and though it’s one of
the lesser entries, and it falls short in numerous other areas, (especially the
writing) I still found it to be an enjoyable, often intriguing ride that I hope
will stick with me for a while. If Deck Nine can find a way to evolve the
gameplay, add more impact to your choices, and step it up in terms of the
writing, I think another great Life is Strange game is very much within their
reach.
3.5/5
