Life is Strange: Double Exposure Review
thesixthaxis.comIt’s always a risk when a series brings back a character whose story was complete and made way for other leads and stories. Sure, it can absolutely be a fan-pleasing follow up, but it can smack of desperation at times – see Marvel bringing back Robert Downey Jr. – or see character shifts as a new writer takes the helm. You never quite know how it will land. I might not have personally cared for Max Caulfield in the original Life is Strange, but developer Deck Nine has brought her back in Life is Strange: Double Exposure complete with all her awkwardness, incessant photograph taking, and interfering with the lives and business of a host of new characters.
We pick up with Max after the events of Arcadia Bay in her new life as an artist-in-residence at Caledon University. She has, since those events, lost her ability to rewind time and the aftermath of the events of her previous adventure weighs heavy on her with flashbacks from time to time littered throughout the story of Double Exposure.
One thing I must highlight that impresses me about Double Exposure is how it handles the absence of Chloe, who was obviously very important in the first game. Instead of Deck Nine picking a canonical ending, they put the choice in your hands, asking what part of the world you elected to decimate in the final moments of Life is Strange. There’s a deft touch to how they explain Chloe’s absence in either scenario.
The story here does take a while to get going, but it really impresses upon you the friendship between Max, Safi and Moses as they simply hang out and chat in a bar or gaze together at the night sky. It doesn’t take long before a murder kicks the story into gear, that initial warmth of the world giving way to multiple plot threads following the intrigue around power held by the Abraxas group within the university, lecturers barely hiding secrets, and the hapless students seemingly stuck in the middle.
The central mystery is a bit of a slow burn, but there’s other plot threads and
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