Tails by the Foxfire

Tails by the Foxfire’s Life is Strange Double Exposure Review

Life is Strange: Double Exposure takes place 10 years after the first game and introduces us to a Max Caulfield who is celebrated as an artist in residence at the prestigious Caledon University in Vermont. That’s 10 years where Max has left her powers untouched, and 10 years over which she has forgotten how to use them. However, when her best friend Safi is murdered, Max’s powers return in a completely new way: she finds she can now jump between a timeline where Safi is alive, and a timeline where Safi is dead. Using clues from both, can she prevent Safi from being murdered a second time?

I’ll confess I’m a bit late to the party with Life is Strange: Double Exposure, and honestly, I regret that very much. I heard a lot about this game being a flop that ruins Max’s character and oversexualizes everything, which outside of a suspect Santa x Krampus sketch (you do you, Max) couldn’t be less true in my opinion. Lesson learned: don’t believe everything you hear!

Overall, I found Life is Strange: Double Exposure to be an interesting entry in the series with moodily, folky, ethereal music that continued the spirit of the first game. The new cast is great (with Moses and Amanda as my firm favourites) and the game got some laugh-out-loud reactions from me, while also feeling interesting enough that my husband (who doesn’t play Life is Strange games) and I were chatting about it by the end. Double Exposure features improved photo taking, but an inferior menu layout due to its presence of heavy black backgrounds and the absence of phone message timestamps. Accessibility settings in Life is Strange: Double Exposure are plentiful, including settings for trigger warnings. In total, the game provides around 14 hours of fun on a single playthrough and offers promising replay value with its large number of variables and two available romance options: Amanda and Vinh.

TL;DR: Life is Strange: Double Exposure Foxfire Review Scores

Price Point: 4/5
Fun Factor: 4/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Story, Characters & Worldbuilding: 4/5
Maps & Environment: 5/5
Music: 5/5
Recommended: Yes! (When Playing as a Pair with Life is Strange: Reunion)

You May Also Like
Life is Strange Remastered Review
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Review
Revisiting Home & the Games That Made Me

How Does Life is Strange: Double Exposure Connect to the Original Game?

Life is Strange: Double Exposure takes place 10 years after the original Life is Strange game, with Max Caulfield living as a 26-year-old artist in residence at Vermont’s esteemed Caledon University. She is still a passionate photographer, and has found her style in photographing derelict and abandoned areas that she feels tell a story. As you might expect, her acquired talent for breaking and entering comes in handy here, which I felt was a funny nod to the lengths to which she had to go while evidence gathering in the first Life is Strange game.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure reunites us with a Max who is still traumatized and grieving after the events of the first game: something I appreciated the game drawing focus to, as Max’s efforts to cope provided the heartache that players have come to expect from Life is Strange’s highly character-driven and emotional stories. However, Max’s trauma isn’t a defining factor: she still jokes with her friends, is a huge photography and camera nerd, and retains her strong sense of justice that acts as the catalyst for the game. She can’t help it: she has to get involved and do what she thinks is right, for better or worse.

Speaking of her friends, fans of the original game can catch some fun easter eggs in Max’s phone, where you’ll occasionally see texts and social media posts from returning players like Victoria Chase and Joyce Price. Warren is mentioned occasionally, but like many people Max went to school with, she has fallen out of touch with him. No more Going Ape, I guess.

How Does Life is Strange: Double Exposure Compare to the Original Game?

I initially slept on Life is Strange: Double Exposure because I heard it was a rehash of the first game that assassinates Max’s character. After playing it, I do not feel this is true. Max is still Max, but a Max 10 years on with a lot more baggage to handle. I found her to be believable and had no issue with her representation. In fact, she, Safi, and Moses reminded me of my own nerdy friend group, so I personally didn’t see an issue with the writing that other players did. In fact, I related to how much she’s grown and transformed since high school. Heck, I was in university myself over 10 years ago (*weeps existentially*), and I’m nothing like I was back then. For one, I’m happily married and have a healthy friendship group, while the me of back then didn’t even want to date and was scared to open up to anyone earnestly in case they didn’t like me.

There are ways in which Life is Strange: Double Exposure fails to escape the shadow of its predecessor, however. For one, the game feels less self-contained despite the original’s episodic structure. Life is Strange: Double Exposure leaves a hook hanging for a sequel, but this assumes that players would return again without so much marketing relying on Chloe’s return. Had it not been for that, it’s hard to say whether I would have bothered. I won’t get into spoilers here, but I was a bit dissatisfied with aspects of Double Exposure‘s third act sequences, as they felt like they relied too heavily on aping the original game’s third act without earning those psychological and emotional beats. As expected with Max processing the events of Life is Strange, there are references made here, but feel more like the game grabbing us and saying, ‘Look! Remember this from the original game? Isn’t this a clever reference?’ without taking the time to properly weave them in or refer to them other than Max occasionally having said how traumatized she is up until that point.

Soulful Tracks by Dodie, Tessa Rose Jackson, Luciano Rossi, and More

It’s not all complaints and frustrations, though; far from it! One of the first things I appreciated in Life is Strange: Double Exposure was the music. If you enjoyed the original game’s moody, indie folk soundtrack, then Life is Strange: Double Exposure is a similar treat for the ears with sometimes ethereal, heartfelt, and heavy tracks by Tessa Rose Jackson, Chloe Moriondo, Luciano Rossi, Dodie, and more. The audio profile felt very true to Max’s previously established taste in music, and tracks like “Wake”, “So This is Lonely”, and “When I Called For Help” draw you firmly back into her world.

Caledon University is a Treat in Every Timeline, but You’ll Miss the Rewind

Players can wander through gorgeous vistas that will have you hitting the screenshot button, with the Dead and Alive timelines providing unique perspectives on different areas with individual lighting and details that drastically shift the ‘feel’ of each. Max will meet staff members and students (with Amanda and Vinh as romance options) who also differ in temperament and situation between timelines. I found it interesting to see the different sides of these people I was getting to know, though at times switching between timelines for puzzles can feel a bit tedious. It’s a neat gimmick, but can still feel a little linear or convoluted when a more intuitive puzzle would’ve done the job. Maybe it’s just showing Max’s faults, though, that she quickly starts relying on it for little things that overcomplicate things rather than thinking of a same-timeline solution. However, I found myself missing the ‘retry but different’ puzzles from the first game; listening in across timelines came close, but didn’t make me feel quite as clever; especially when much of Max’s alternate timeline puzzles boiled down to stealing something she probably could’ve just found an alternative placeholder/replacement for in her own timeline. As a stealth game hater, though, I did appreciate the ability to pop in and out quickly to avoid detection. If Max insists on being sneaky, jumping between timelines is how I prefer to do it. One more nag I have is about the sudden visual glitching that can happen during scene transitions. More than once I’ve changed areas to have one of the other layers flash up on screen for a half-second before the actual area loads, which breaks the immersion the gorgeous visuals work so hard to build. It reminded me of the shadows popping up in Lost Records: Bloom and Rage, but this time it felt less like a feature and more of a bug.

Life is Strange Spoiled Me with its Journal & Phone, but Double Exposure’s Photography is an Improvement

I didn’t have many issues with Life is Strange: Double Exposure, but the menu was one I did unfortunately not love. The developers missed the mark on designing Max’s texts and journal, in my opinion. Handwriting and pictures are present (though… some pictures raise questions like ‘where’s the eye bleach?’ Looking at you Santa x Krampus), but there’s something inescapably polished about it compared to the original game’s more authentically scribbled feel. As well, texts are no longer read on Max’s phone screen, but on a heavy black background that doesn’t even do us the favour of differentiating conversations with time- and datestamp, which makes reading the messages really confusing and unappealing.

However, to Double Exposure’s credit, it does a far better job of taking photographs! Instead of just pressing a button to gather collectibles, Max can now position the camera herself, pose her models, and use Double Exposure techniques to create interesting visual finishes on each piece.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure Offers Praiseworthy Accessibility Features

Lastly, the first thing I made a note of when booting up Life is Strange: Double Exposure was its wealth of accessibility features. I’m genuinely impressed by the selection, from Trigger Warning pop-ups to slowing down choice timers and even auto-playing difficult parts of the game. Life is Strange: Double Exposure does its best to be as inclusive as possible, but the camera controls could admittedly use some work, as even turned down I found them to be weirdly sensitive.

What are Max Caulfield’s New Powers in Double Exposure?

Nobody stays the same after 10 whole years, least of all teenagers who are still developing and defining their self-identity. Life is Strange: Double Exposure cleverly draws attention to this by using Max’s powers as a vehicle. At the game’s start, Max doesn’t believe she even still has powers, as she refused to use them again after the incident in Arcadia Bay a decade ago. However, when faced with her best friend Safi’s murder, Max can’t accept losing another friend. Her powers don’t just return: they evolve, and now allow her to switch between a timeline where Safi is dead, and a timeline where Safi is still alive. By jumping back and forth and using clues found in both timelines, Max hopes to solve Safi’s murder and bring her killer to justice before it can happen again. Interestingly, Max can also listen and look across timelines by double exposing one over the other. This is handy when she needs to listen in on conversations that might contain vital clues.

Does Life is Strange: Double Exposure Respect the ‘Bae’ vs. ‘Bay’ Choice?

Truthfully, I think Life is Strange: Double Exposure does its best to respect both of the original game’s endings without deciding one is any more canon than the other. Players are free to select which ‘version’ of Max they are playing (Bay or Bae) and impact on the rest of the game is minimal, with Max generally grieving Chloe’s absence in her life.

As you might have guessed, Pricefield shippers and Bae ending fans will probably be disappointed by the sequel tearing Max and Chloe apart after all they went through together, but I personally felt the divide still worked due to the emotional burdens both girls need to work and sort through. Maybe they just needed some space. After all, the girls were only 16 in the original game, so I don’t find it to be out of the realm of possibility that they needed some time apart to grow. Even the best relationships can be messy. However, I also tend to opt for ‘Bay’ endings on my own playthroughs (and so that was my selection when setting up my Double Exposure playthrough), so my feelings may differ from those of more hardcore Pricefield shippers or Bae players who preferred to imagine a happy ending for Chloe and Max. For those fans, I don’t think I would initially have recommended Life is Strange: Double Exposure even a year ago. However, with the new release of Life is Strange: Reunion bringing some fresh Pricefield content to our screens, I feel Double Exposure is now worth playing. You could just skip straight to Reunion and dive straight into Max and Chloe’s finale, but for me, Life is Strange: Double Exposure laid some important groundwork about Max’s mental state and new life that made seeing Chloe again feel like even more of a joy.

Does Life is Strange: Double Exposure Have Multiple Endings?

As with the original game, Life is Strange: Double Exposure features one final big choice that determines which ending you get overall, with smaller ending variations (e.g. which characters are present, or how they feel about Max) influenced by Max’s relationships: who she opts to date, who she completes certain quests for, etc. Overall, I was decently impressed with the amount of variables available in Life is Strange: Double Exposure and found it offers promising replay value.

How Life is Strange: Double Exposure Sets the Stage for the Reunion Sequel

With Life is Strange: Double Exposure, I went from thinking, ‘Why does this sequel need a sequel?’ to, ‘Wait, there’s so much left to figure out!’ once I actually played it. The biggest is Chloe, whose shadow hangs over Max throughout Life is Strange: Double Exposure in one way or another (depending on which ending you chose for the original), and the end of Double Exposure shines a light on far-reaching consequences across time caused by the evolution of Max’s powers in the last act. The very existence of the ‘Dead’ and ‘Alive’ timelines caused by Safi’s murder poses questions by themselves, leading some players to wonder what this split meant for other significant choices made in Max’s past. Chloe is a question that must be answered in order for Max’s story to find a final, satisfactory end, and I don’t feel it’s unreasonable for a game’s worth of time and attention to be paid to whether and/or how Max moves on from her grief, so Chloe can finally be laid to rest in one way or another. Stay tuned for my upcoming Life is Strange: Reunion review for more!