The Life Is Strange franchise is at its best whenever Max Caulfield is around, so Double Exposure already has a leg up on its predecessors. The latest narrative entry on PS5 marks only the second time the popular protagonist has played the lead role, and Deck Nine Games isn't purely leaning on her welcome return to sell copies. With a new superpower and a murder case to solve, Double Exposure proves compelling across two timelines — and her friend Safi is dead in just one of them.
Set years after the events of the original title, Max is attending university and has found a new home with a fresh group of friends. She's stopped using her powers — actively suppressing them — until she witnesses the death of a pal named Safi. Max attempts to tap into her original power and rewind time to save her, but fails and instead creates an alternate timeline in which Safi is still alive. This event forms the core structure of the narrative: using the two timelines, Max has to figure out who killed Safi and clear any innocent names.
Our demo, running on an Xbox Series X dev kit, picked the action up at the start of the second chapter, with Max and her friend Moses raising the suspicions of a police officer. Moses took a camera from the crime scene, and if it's found by the cop, then he might become prime suspect number one. Max can shift between the two in-game timelines by interacting with sparkly spots in the environment, and doing so removes her physical presence from the place she was just in. With the policeman trying to enter the locked office belonging to Moses, you shift to the other timeline when he's going about his day with an open door. By asking the Moses in this timeline about where he might hide something, we work through the scenario by phasing between the two existences, narrowing down where the camera might be. You can take objects and keys from one timeline into the other, and also plant distractions for the police officer after he's had enough of waiting for the door to be unlocked.
As long as you do not fail the scene, it concludes in a choice between accepting the help of the cop or refusing to work with him — this decision is also where our demo ended. It's made quite clear they strongly suspect Moses is behind the murder, so the dilemma is all about protecting your friend or getting the heat off Max.
Gameplay-wise, Double Exposure is structured just like any other instalment in the series. You'll explore many locations and environments — in the case of the demo, it's a classroom themed around astronomy — looking for interactive objects, and generally rummaging through people's belongings. Max will comment on almost anything, and sometimes claim something for herself that might help you progress. In essence, if you've played a Life Is Strange game before, you already know what to expect. Double Exposure by no means rocks the boat in that regard, instead allowing its powerful and personal storytelling to do the heavy lifting.
That's okay, though, because with Lost Records: Bloom & Rage now making room for the Life Is Strange heavyweight in October, these sorts of games make for perfect palette cleansers in between the bigger RPGs and action-adventure titles of the world. Life Is Strange: Double Exposure is another Life Is Strange game in every possible way. That's exactly why we're looking forward to jumping back into the shoes of Max Caulfield in a few short months.
Life Is Strange: Double Exposure launches for PS5 on 29th October 2024. Are you excited to play as Max Caulfield once more? Let us know in the comments below.
Comments 14
I'll be there, day one.
Really looking forward to this one. I’m sort of stoked that we’re getting a bunch of smaller releases this fall that seem tailor made to my gaming tastes, but LiS is perhaps the biggest one for me. This one looks better and better each time I see it. And if it doesn’t deliver how I want it to? Lost Records looks poised to try its best too. Great time for this genre with two heavy hitters coming out so close to each other
@somnambulance agreed. Very excited for both of those, Life is strange and Lost records. Mixtape looks fantastic too. The hipster trifecta
@Batesy125s Definitely getting Mixtape too. Gotta wonder if Chloe will have any type of cameo in the new game
Really looking forward to both games as well. Like the article said, these games are perfect for palette cleansers, and are generally more reliable. Out of Life is Strange alone, I haven't disliked a single one.
I would argue that True Colors was good enough to contend with the original, so technically the series may not always be at it's best with Max as the main character. Still, I am glad she is getting another game with this one rather than another new character.
They should have stuck with the original pastel-ish graphic design, but it looks great anyway. Day one, for sure
The original walking simulator.
@KilloWertz same. Liked all of them, all the lead characters have their own strengths.
Liking the setup already. I might get up getting this day one.
@somnambulance that would be cool. I absolutely loved True colors, one of my favourite games of the past few years
The plot makes the game sound pointless. If you've created alternate timelines, finding the killer in the original timeline is utterly redundant. There will always be more potential timelines where the killer exists and gets way with it. And timelines where there is no killer. And timelines where different people are the killer. And what about the alternate version of Max in the other timeline? How is that not a factor?
If everything is exactly the same in the timeline Safi is alive in, just live there once you accidently create it, Rick and Morty style.
@PSme True. Life is Strange 2 is easily my least favorite of the series, but I still liked it. Issues I had with it were more with his younger brother than the main character. Yes, I even liked Chloe in the original and Before the Storm, unlike a decent amount of fans that found her annoying.
@Batesy125s I agree wholeheartedly! I’ve got a t-shirt for True Colors.
Why did they remove the rewind mechanic though?really fun part of the first game that was sorely missing from subsequent games in my opinion. Would have been an easy win to just have that but they've changed it for what looks to be a less compelling power.
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