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Life Is Strange: Double Exposure – Review

The first Life Is Strange game debuted almost a decade ago, back in 2015. Over the following decade, the series was expanded with prequel Before the Storm and sort-of-sequels Life is Strange 2 and True Colors, all of which focused on different protagonists. In this regard, the latest entry in the series, Double Exposure, is the first true sequel, as it brings back the original lead. Of note is that her life has passed in real time between Double Exposure and that first game. Not only that, but Double Exposure‘s episodes are released all at once, unlike the previous titles. The series has always been on this reviewer’s radar in one way or another, but we’ve never actually played a Life Is Strange game. Until now, that is. We finally took the plunge, but was it worth it? Story A decade has passed since the events of the first Life Is Strange. Players are reunited with Max Caulfield, the heroine of that game. She’s a young artist who used to possess the power to travel through time. Somewhere in the decade preceding Double Exposure, however, Max has repressed this ability. Of course, there wouldn’t be a whole lot of interest in Double Exposure if Max didn’t end up having some kind of powers. This time around, Max is able to shift between the world of the living and the world of the dead. The catalyst is the murder of Max’s best friend Safi, with our heroine determined to find out the truth about what happened. Given how story-driven Double Exposure is, we can’t really reveal a lot more, because it is a game that is best experienced going in as blind as possible. That said, we can tell you that Double Exposure definitely feels like a sequel in that there are seemingly a lot of references, callbacks, and in-jokes. Not having played any Life Is Strange game prior to Double Exposure, a lot of that was lost on us. For longtime fans of the series, Double Exposure will probably be a rewarding and welcome return to these worlds. For newcomers who don’t have an established emotional connection with Max, the storytelling can feel somewhat alienating, however. Graphics Much of Double Exposure’s worldbuilding employs the “show, don’t tell” principle, communicating atmosphere purely through visuals. This is of course most noticeable in the stark contrast between the two worlds that the game is set in. The world of the living comes across as a warm, bright, and cheerful place whereas the world of the dead is drenched in cooler, muted tones. A more subtle way Double Exposure uses visuals for storytelling is through non-verbal communication, in the way NPCs respond through body language even when in the background. Character animations are fluid and bring the cast to life. Sound Hannah Telle makes her return as the voice of Max, and while we can’t outright contrast and compare her performance to the younger version of the character, her performance stands out. That’s saying a lot because the entirety of the voice cast does an admirable job with their dialogue. Then there’s Tessa Rose Jackson’s atmospheric soundtrack, which lends even more cinematic air to Double Exposure. Gameplay Like its predecessors in the series, Double Exposure is a story-driven episodic adventure game first and foremost. This translates into a game that doesn’t necessarily offer the deepest or most engaging gameplay mechanics. Even within that limited technical scope though, Double Exposure does a lot with little. A significant chunk of Double Exposure plays out like an interactive five-episode-long miniseries, with the majority of the actual gameplay delivered through environmental puzzles. The game goes for a linear on-rails approach, with a handful of choice-driven moral dilemmas that affect the direction of the narrative. The impact of these is fairly limited though, and the vast majority of players’ Double Exposure experience will be nigh identical. That’s not to say that those moral choices are insignificant, because they all matter. However, the in-game conversations flow in such a way that there is a clear “right” choice for the kind of person Max is, and deliberately making other choices feels unnatural. The impact of choices that don’t seem to matter in the grand scheme of things, like trying to woo someone, feel like they have much more of an impact as there is a notable difference between a platonic relationship and a romantic one, with an NPC. The big gimmick here is of course Max’s ability to switch between two worlds, something that ties into the environmental puzzles. These aren’t complicated and often simply require you to hop from the living world to the dead and vice versa to find items or sneak through stealth sections. The overall vibe reminded us of the Another Code games, and if you liked those, chances are you’ll enjoy Life Is Strange, although the different balance between puzzles and narrative aspects might be off-putting for some. We appreciated the game’s straightforward approach ourselves, as it was easy enough to solve conundrums with deductive reasoning, without getting in the way of the story’s pacing. In typical adventure game fashion, Double Exposure’s puzzles share a lot of DNA with the kind of challenges that an old-school point-and-click title would serve up, like figuring out what item an NPC needs and then bringing it to them. Of course, we’d be remiss if we left Max’s phone, a handy dandy tool that adds so much depth and fleshes out the relationships she has with the different characters. That being said, we did get annoyed by the amount of notifications that kept coming in during our time with the game. Clocking in at around 12 to 15 hours, Double Exposure is a fairly short title. We did expect the replay value to be higher because of the choice-driven nature of the narrative. However, in practice, it seems like this is the kind of game that you’d play once and maybe return to again two or three years down the line. It’s certainly something we intend to do, but only after we’ve gone back in time ourselves to give the previous Life Is Strange games a spin first. The €49.99 RRP may seem a tad excessive, although the high production value does a lot to justify the asking price. Conclusion While Double Exposure probably isn’t the best entry point into Life Is Strange, it speaks volumes that it piqued our interest enough that we want to give the original game a try at least. The series isn’t the most challenging when it comes to puzzle solving, but the gorgeous atmospheric visuals, expressive cast, and beautiful soundtrack allowed us to immerse ourselves into the game, even if we undoubtedly were missing a lot of key information. Fans of the first game in particular will certainly know what to expect in terms of gameplay and will likely be happy to be reunited with Max.