Life is Strange: Double Exposure Review (Xbox Series X)

STAFF REVIEW of Life is Strange: Double Exposure (Xbox Series X)

Friday, November 1, 2024.
by Chad Goodmurphy

Life is Strange: Double Exposure Box art

Approximately nine years ago, DONTNOD and Square Enix introduced us to the world of Life is Strange, in which a teenaged girl named Max Caulfield had magic powers. As a student at a prestigious high school, we were tasked with using those abilities to discover what happened to a missing girl, why another young woman committed suicide and what the reason for an apocalyptic vision was. The result was a very good, standout and memorable narrative experience, in which one could affect the plot by making important choices.

Although Life is Strange 2 didn’t live up to the precedents set by its predecessor, and didn’t feature Max and her blue haired friend, Chloe, we did receive a prequel called Before the Storm. The late 2017 release actually preceded the numbered follow-up and its technical showcase demo, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit. It was also developed by a different team; that being Deck Nine, who went on to design 2021’s very good Life is Strange: True Colors, which I thoroughly finished on both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S, thanks to the library and GamePass.

Now, Deck Nine and the Life is Strange series are back, and so is Maxine Caulfield. This new narrative adventure game is called Life is Strange: Double Exposure, and it’s not the sequel you’d expect. That’s because, instead of continuing the story of Max and Chloe, it takes place years later in what seems to be a rural part of Vermont. There, a twenty-something Max is enjoying a residency at liberal arts school, Caledon University, where she’s been given the teaching post thanks to a photography award and sharing her photos with the head of the scholarly institution.

This interactive story begins as Max and her friend. Safi, whose mom is the aforementioned head of Caledon University, break into a derelict old bowling alley to take photographs. Then, after unforeseen events, the two go stargazing with a friend who happens to be in the school’s astronomy department. Safi has something she wants to share, but won’t, and then goes off by herself. Minutes later, a gunshot is heard and the young woman is found deceased. It’s unclear who killed her, though, and thus begins the mystery at the heart of Double Exposure.

While grieving the loss of her newish friend, with the help of a potential love, friends and others at Caledon, Max discovers something new. That is, the fact that she has different powers, which replace the rewinding ability that has since become dormant. At the same time, she discovers that there’s an alternate dimension in which Safi is alive and well. Her power allows her to hop between the two timelines by using certain spots that hum and sparkle.

The goal of Life is Strange: Double Exposure is to use Maxine’s abilities and social skills to uncover the mystery behind Safi’s murder, as well as other things that are going on at Caledon. You’ll hop between timelines, explore each and interact with two different versions of several important characters and potential love interests. This is often done inside the school (which has an administrative building and a faculty building, complete with offices, artwork and a café), on the quad, at Max’s house and at a bar. In fact, the same locations repeat a lot, so you’ll get quite used to them.

Of course, as is the case with this type of game, and this series, you’ll make decisions that affect a things progress. These choices will also affect your relationships with other characters, leading to different opportunities and outcomes. There are some pretty big decisions to make herein, although it seems like the ending is similar regardless.

Your first decision involves which of the two Life is Strange endings to carry on from. One has Chloe deceased, while the other creates a backstory where Max and Chloe toured the country together but parted ways. There’s a trophy, or achievement, for completing the game using both.

I enjoyed the new location, and the characters who inhabited it, for the most part. Although variety was lacking in what is a centralized plot, that was also the case with the original title. The important NPCs felt real after a while, and I liked getting to know them and being able to romance two of them, though I didn’t particularly like a character named Vinh. There were also some pacing issues, as well as parts that were a bit too wordy.

I was also taken aback by the ending and after credits scene, which sets up something that I never expected from this franchise. It worries me about where the developers are going to go next, as the idea doesn’t seem to match what this franchise began as and has been since then. A good game is sullied somewhat by this ending, and at least one twist.

Changing between the two timelines felt a bit overwhelming at first, but quickly became old hat. I always tried to explore each environment thoroughly in both, in order to find the hidden Polaroids, interact with the unique opportunities (like readjusting upside down artwork, completing a gingerbread house, helping someone get the bathroom key and checking out student art projects), take optional photographs and more. At times it was a bit difficult to keep each version of the side characters (and what they said or did) straight, but that comes with the territory.

It’s important to also mention one other mechanic, which involves pressing RB to ‘pulse.’ You do this to see echoes of the other dimension, and can even follow and listen to the ghostly avatars that reflect those living within it. This provides an interesting way to gather information, solve problems and the like.

Like those before it, this game also features its own version of Twitter and text messaging between characters. You can read their updates and message them, though not at will. It’s only possible to do so when need be, or if you have the opportunity to reply to an important text message. It can be distracting, but isn’t vital for the most part. Max does post the photos she takes, and it can be fun to experiment with the double exposure option, which leads to interesting looking photos.

You’ll do all of this over the course of five chapters, most of which are quite lengthy. I was surprised by the fact that the first two took me several hours to complete, though I did take my time throughout.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure takes place around Christmas time, so you’ll explore a Vermont campus covered in snow. It helps create a beautiful landscape, in what is a very nice looking and quite colourful game. The visuals have their own unique look, as do the character models, providing a nice mixture of realism and cartoon. The characters are also very detailed, and emote incredibly well, leading to them feeling real.

The soundscape is also quite rich, with a mixture of well above-average voice acting, great indie music and rich sound effects. It sounded really good through my headset, outside of the odd time where dialogue was lower than normal, or where too much was going on at once. I particularly liked the voice acting and music, and was happy that there was always some sort of background sound going on. It made the world feel alive and real, despite it being quite insular and not featuring too many NPCs.

There was the odd time where the movement felt a bit janky. I also encountered a glitch where I could see the options available to me, but no button prompts. This was easily resolved by reloading the last checkpoint, which wasn’t far behind.

Overall, Life is Strange: Double Exposure is a rather good game. Although it’s held back from being great by an almost too confined campaign, repetition and some pacing issues, it’s a quality release that should appeal to most, if not all, fans of this series and its genre. It’s worth checking out if it intrigues you, and is deserving of recognition, though I wouldn’t say it’s the best game in the series. I personally enjoyed the original and True Colors more.

It’s an interesting story, and it goes places you won’t expect. I’m just not sure it ends on the right note. Expect some polarizing opinions on that.

**Life is Strange: Double Exposure was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**

Overall: 8.1 / 10
Gameplay: 8.0 / 10
Visuals: 9.1 / 10
Sound: 8.0 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of Life is Strange: Double Exposure (Xbox Series X)

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