Life Is Strange: Double Exposure Review (PS5) | Push Square

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After taking over development duties from Don’t Nod, Deck Nine really made the Life Is Strange series its own with 2021’s True Colours. Now heading up Double Exposure, the developer is reaching into Don’t Nod territory by bringing back everybody’s favourite hella awkward teen, Max Caulfield, now as an adult. With a twisting and turning narrative and plenty of supernatural hijinx, how has this latest outing from Deck Nine fared? Sadly, it’s not quite the homecoming celebration we were hoping for.

Double Exposure plants its feet firmly in Caledon University Campus, a prestigious fine arts school where Max Caulfield resides as a lecturer in photography. As fans of the original, it’s a lot of fun getting to see a grown up Max, still very passionate about photography and playfully commenting on everything she sees. The real juice lies in Max’s troubled past though, with despondent messages and a guarded secrecy showing the events of Arcadia Bay still very much haunt her.

Now though with a new small group of friends and an idyllic wintry setting, Double Exposure arrives with the level of cosiness you’d expect from the series. The old Victorian university campus is coated in snow, everyone is wrapped up in warm looking jackets with friendly smiles, and the inviting colour palette had us excited to cosy up to our PS5s. But of course, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows when a body is found on campus.

After the mysterious murder of one of her friends, Max must use her time abilities — something she’d vowed never to do again — to solve the mystery. Unlike the first series, Double Exposure ditches Max’s rewind powers in exchange for two timelines. Max can switch between a timeline where her friend is dead, and one where she is not. It’s an interesting multiversal murder mystery that sees you connecting the dots between different versions of the same cast of characters.

Double Exposure starts out strong, with an intriguing and sharp first couple of episodes – there are five in