As much as I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the Life is Strange series’ forays into new stories with new characters and powers, returning to the world of Max Caulfield feels like a special moment – doubly so when the Chloe-led prequel lap skirted the supernatural quirks of Don’t Nod’s original series. Now, not only are we back with Max in her adult life but looking at a whole new paradigm shift when it comes to her abilities, in the aptly-titled Life is Strange: Double Exposure.
After being fortunate enough to spend some time with a select portion of the game, it’s clear that the team at Deck Nine (which also developed the aforementioned Before The Storm as well as the most recent entry, True Colours) is gunning for those that fell in love with the series at the ground floor, but I’m also feeling confident that there’s enough here to make this a compelling title on its own.
My preview of Double Exposure kicked off toward the tail end of the game’s second chapter – which is about as far as the superfans that pre-order the game’s Ultimate Edition for its split “early access” benefit will be able to play ahead of the full launch. Here, Max and her colleague, Moses, are anxiously waiting outside of one of their offices at Caledon University as detectives conduct a search for a piece of evidence – a camera – taken from the scene of their friend Safi’s recent and mysterious death.
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As it turns out, Moses is responsible for the missing camera (though naturally adamant that’s the extent of his involvement), confiding in Max that it’s in the very office about to be searched. Max, being the good friend she is, takes it upon herself to recover the camera and does so by use of a brand-new power she’s already discovered prior to this point in the game – the ability to shift into an alternate reality where Safi is still alive.
From the get-go, things feel pretty familiar here for Life is Strange fans. After going through some conversations with both Moses and a detective where I was able to make some loose dialogue-based choices, I was able to move around the space a little, investigating things of interest in the environment. To actually get into the (locked and guarded) office though, I’d need to start flexing those new powers, finding a pre-ordained point in the area where it was safe for Max to tear open a rift into the other dimension away from prying eyes.
Once I was on the other side, noted in-game as the “Living” world based on Safi’s present status, I was able to casually walk into the office, where an oblivious alt-Moses was busily working away on something science-y. To my delight, it’s here where things moved straight into puzzle territory – I had to put together clues from this reality’s environment and version of Moses to figure out where my Moses might have hidden a camera. This led me on an investigative path spanning both dimensions, involving star maps and awkward conversations, that was overall fairly straightforward but definitely hinted at the potential in this concept for later in the game.
Probably even more interesting at this point was seeing how the studio is using this concept to add more flavour to the storytelling, gifting Max access to a rare level of insight into the people and places around here thanks to these glimpses into another reality. It’s much easier to know exactly how someone would’ve felt or what they would’ve done were they “still with us,” when they very much are. I didn’t get the opportunity to speak directly to Living world Safi in this section of the game, but I’m incredibly intrigued as to where those conversations will take me in the full game. The differences between the two worlds are also illustrated wonderfully in moments like this where Moses’ office is dark and gloomy in the “Dead” world, but lit up and busy in the Living one, or with the way that the conversation UI changes colours to remind you of which version you’re in at the time.
As the preview was coming to a close, one final moment in the scene saw Max’s camera-recovery mission rudely interrupted by the detective on-site finally stepping inside the office, meaning I was at risk of being caught trying to steal the already-stolen evidence. This kicked off the most dynamic bit of reality-shifting I’d experienced so far as I had to, in real-time, sneak around the cop and get out – which involved slipping between realities to create distractions and using Max’s secondary power to quickly peer into the other world to make sure I wasn’t going to expose myself. This sequence wasn’t overly difficult and the solution seemed fairly rigid, but like many other ideas here it gives me a lot of hope for how these things develop.
Adding to that, the demo also capped off with some even bigger implications for how Max’s newfound power will develop even further, and some even bigger mysteries within the story that imply that dual realities may not even be the strangest thing to come in Double Exposure.
While what I played was brief, I’ve come away from this early look at the next Life is Strange game suitably excited to see more. It’s got all the standard trappings that series fans will be accustomed to by now, but also promises to shake things up in new and exciting ways thanks to Max’s exciting new abilities and multiple games’ worth of innovation since the last time we saw her.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure launches on October 29th for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Digital pre-orders get access to the first two chapters early on October 15th. It’s available for $79 with free shipping from Amazon.
