Life is Strange True Colours featured Alex Chen as the main character in 2021 and it’s quite hard to believe that it’s been so long since we’ve had a new entry into the franchise. Life is Strange Double Exposure sees Max Caulfield return to the spotlight as the protagonist and it’s great to have her back.
So does Life is Strange Double Exposure deliver more of the same or is it something completely different and fresh?
Life is Strange Double Exposure
Players will take on the role of Max Caulfield once again and the story kicks off with Max and her new friend Safi, exploring an abandoned bowling alley. The game quickly gets you up to speed with its mechanics and you’re basically good to go within a few minutes of exploring. Life is Strange Double Exposure features less actual gameplay and has a lot of reading in it. If you’re not a fan of games that fall into the genre of “Walking simulators”, you might want to look elsewhere for your gaming fix.
This is a very story-driven game and you’re going to have to pay attention to conversations and environmental cues here.
Where Life is Strange Double Exposure excels lies in the way Max and the other characters interact. The emotional storytelling has been done exceptionally well this time around with characters responding differently to you based on your responses. While my memory might be a tad hazy, the original Life is Strange didn’t feel as “alive” as this one does and it’s great to see that the choices you make have some consequences, albeit not as much as I’d have hoped for.
The story of Life is Strange Double Exposure is broken up into five chapters and Max will interact with different characters in each chapter as she investigates a spoilerific something that happens early on in the game. Given that Max is older this time around, her personality shows a different side to her that we haven’t been exposed to before. College student Max is different to high schooler Max from the original Life is Strange and the voice acting by Hannah Telle is excellent throughout the game.
The supporting cast’s voice acting is also very well done but unfortunately, there are a few things here that are going to upset long-time fans of the franchise.
For some inexplicable reason, the game takes a dip in storytelling quality around say roughly 70% of the way through. Perplexing decisions and some bonkers unresolved plot points ruin what was otherwise a decent adventure.
Most of the storytelling in Life is Strange Double Exposure is thankfully not buried deep in text messages. The game respects your time as a player and feeds you tidbits of information as you go along. Reading the text messages and “Crosstalk” posts just adds more flavour to everything but is not absolutely necessary to enjoy the game’s narrative. However, again, there are so many perplexing decisions and character interactions later that it almost reaches parody level and you’ll just want to laugh.
The game pushes certain tropes and topics and honestly, it is a bit jarring to see this so front and centre, especially when the first Life is Strange game did things so well in comparison. Different players are going to definitely feel different things about the game’s characters and storytelling based on their responses to the conversations that happen in the game.
This isn’t necessarily due to the way the game is written but rather due to the fact that each gamer who plays this will have their own opinion about these specific topics. Things like divorce, parenting, relationships, etc. The game even features accessibility options to warn you about certain topics in advance but I left these disabled while playing. It’s good to have it available though and I’m happy that these options are available should you actually want to make use of them.
Life is Strange Double Exposure is going to be polarizing in a number of ways. Couple this with your decision-making as Max along with her new powers of reality shifting and you’ll see exactly what I mean as the game plays out. Many of the choices also feel like they eventually fall flat in the end. This is once again due to the last 2 chapters of the game feeling like something went wrong along the way.
Graphically, Life is Strange Double Exposure looks great with some really good character animations and environmental graphics. However, the game has some severe issues. From not being able to even run in the first place to crashing, to character models looking like they are super blurry or unrendered, the game needs to be patched quite heavily.
At the time of writing this review, I still get stuttery frame rates and my system (i7-14700KF, 32gb DDR5 RAM, RTX 3070TI) exceeds the recommended requirements of the game by quite a large margin. Deck Nine and Square Enix need to address the performance here with some patches. The Steam discussion forum is filled with comments from people complaining about the performance so it’s not just me that had issues with the game.
The voice acting in Life is Strange Double Exposure is very well done and where the game truly excels lies with the fact that the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. The music ties perfectly in with the game and really elevates the storytelling to a whole new level. It truly is a shame that the end of this game feels like it was a rush job because there are some moments here where the coupling of the music, the voice acting and the story itself really shines.
There is one major gripe to be had with the audio in the game though and that lies with the fact that at some points, the volume of a character’s voice becomes muffled or sounds like they are talking from very far away. This is very distracting and immersion-breaking and honestly ruins a lot of scenes whenever it sporadically happens.
Final Verdict:
Overall, Life is Strange Double Exposure is a very mixed bag. On one hand, it’s more Life is Strange and that’s great. On the other hand, it’s a messy perplexing “Walking simulator” mystery-solving narrative-driven adventure with some mind-boggling decisions. This is one of those games that you’ll have to play for yourself to see if you like it or not. If you’re on the fence, maybe wait for a Steam sale or discount before diving in.
If you’re a fan of Life is Strange and you’re itching to play more, be warned that this isn’t going to be as enjoyable as the first game in the franchise. It does still satiate your thirst for more Life is Strange but there are some glaring issues here that simply cannot be overlooked quite easily.
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The code was provided by the publisher.
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