Life Is Strange: Double Exposure Review – An Underdeveloped Picture

It solely feels proper to start this evaluation with a confession: I’m not somebody who noticed good purpose for there to be a follow-up to the unique Life is Strange sport. I felt that method when Beyond the Storm was introduced, and I felt that method once more when Deck Nine revealed they’d be persevering with Max Caulfield’s story with Life is Strange: Double Exposure. Though I loved the primary sport properly sufficient, I felt as if the following titles that each Don’t Nod and Deck Nine labored on–such as Life is Strange 2, Life is Strange: True Colors, and Tell Me Why–explored extra attention-grabbing matters and boasted extra compelling protagonists. To me, Max at all times felt a bit overshadowed by these round her–characters with intense flaws and robust personalities that drove the sport’s plot and imbued emotion into the story. And after enjoying Life is Strange: Double Exposure, and regardless of having excessive hopes that it’d persuade me, I sadly nonetheless really feel the identical.In Life is Strange: Double Exposure, Max as soon as once more feels solely as attention-grabbing because the characters surrounding her, making her a driving power that is not notably compelling and a reasonably flat protagonist. Even as the sport explores her grief following the lack of Chloe (both by way of a painful fall-out or her demise, relying upon your choice) and a brand new loss that happens throughout Double Exposure’s opening chapter, Deck Nine stumbles in giving these processes depth and emotional resonance.Despite this weak thread, Double Exposure is, admittedly, a visually spectacular sport with some well-executed narrative beats, an attention-grabbing twist on gameplay, and a few endearing characters. However, it in the end feels too much like its predecessor in a couple of irritating methods and suffers from inconsistent story high quality and writing; this makes for an total expertise that lacks a variety of depth and falls brief.Safi takes a selfie with Max and Moses.Set a decade or so after the occasions of Life is Strange, Double Exposure follows Max–now an award-winning photographer–during her residency at Vermont’s prestigious Caledon University. You quickly be taught that within the years between the primary sport and this new journey, Max has suppressed her capability to time-travel, as she is now all too conscious of the injury it could possibly inflict. We are additionally rapidly launched to Max’s two closest mates, the daring and charismatic poet Safi Llewellyn-Fayyad and meek geek-turned-astrophysicist Moses Murphy. Yet by the point the primary chapter involves a detailed, any sense of normalcy has been stripped away as we discover Max thrust into a brand new traumatic state of affairs: the sudden, violent demise of one in all Caledon University’s most-beloved college students.Ever the detective, Max takes it upon herself to determine what occurred. This is essentially prompted by her discovering a brand new energy that offers her a decisive edge in attending to the underside of issues: the power to warp between universes. Double Exposure, as its title slyly implies, sees Max enterprise backwards and forwards between two specifically. In the primary of those universes, the scholar who was killed stays lifeless, forcing Max to navigate each her personal grief and the way a sudden loss can shake a neighborhood. In the opposite, nevertheless, the character is miraculously alive, albeit nonetheless in grave hazard. The means of crossing between these two dimensions is what drives a lot of Double Exposure’s gameplay; Whenever Max hits a lifeless finish in a single universe, she is prompted to journey to the opposite, the place she could discover key items of data, necessary objects, or methods to avoid bodily boundaries that exist within the different realm.The resolution so as to add this mechanic moderately than solely relying upon Max’s capability to time journey is an efficient one; It’s enjoyable and modifications issues up simply sufficient from the unique Life is Strange whereas nonetheless feeling according to Max’s pre-existing energy. However, her fast use of it with subsequent to no hesitation did really feel a bit off, contemplating her acute consciousness of the catastrophe her time-traveling wrought. Though the participant is essentially liable for Max’s actions and beliefs, it is a recurring concern in Double Exposure, as Max in the end comes throughout as having no actual convictions or persona outdoors of a keenness for delivering Gilmore Girls-esque popular culture quips.Max reveals Safi one thing on her cellphone.Furthermore, this dimension-hopping feels much more inconsequential than Max’s time-traveling in Life is Strange, because it primarily simply permits Max to have conversations utilizing supernaturally accrued data and snoop round places of work. Perhaps this then explains her leniency with it, although I’d argue the injury it does to the general expertise is extra necessary than justifying her nonchalance.Whereas the unique sport leaned a bit too laborious into Degrassi-style melodrama, the stakes have been a lot higher and tense conditions have been plentiful, in the end making for a extra compelling expertise. Though Double Exposure has some stellar dramatic moments, a pair that hit house, and some attention-grabbing twists, they’re few and much between. And extra frustratingly, there exist a couple of moments that ought to have been extra dramatic, given the continued state of affairs, however merely aren’t.Another issue that results in this disconnect and the sport’s total lack of ardour, for lack of a greater phrase, comes from the truth that Max’s relationships with all of Double Exposure’s characters–and even Caledon University a whole–feel distant.Whereas Arcadia Bay felt like a house and its residents, a part of a neighborhood, strolling by means of Caledon University jogged my memory of visiting a school campus throughout the holidays: quiet and virtually liminal. Though I loved a number of the campus’ college members, notably the artistic non-fiction professor Gwen, interactions together with her felt largely stilted and her story didn’t go wherever notably attention-grabbing.Caledon University from above.The sport’s two romantic choices, Amanda and Vinh, are compelled and half-baked. While Amanda is a sweetheart, the quirky bartender finally ends up feeling extra like somebody who’s merely round, as she does not have a lot of a job within the sport and does not really feel like somebody Max is especially drawn to. A variety of the time they spend collectively feels virtually awkward, and a few moments–such as Max suggesting she spend the night time after a fast kiss–come off as weird given the vast majority of their interactions have concerned Amanda being irritated at Max blowing her off, or her attempting to present Max house to grieve. Vinh, alternatively, performs a bigger position within the narrative and does have his personal vulnerabilities which might be teased out by means of the sport. But he’s additionally primarily a frat bro who repeatedly hits on Max till you may select to be endeared (or worn down) by him.And regardless of being advised Safi and Moses are shut mates, you do not see her exhibit a deep connection to both of them. There are sure belongings you’d suppose she’d learn about her companions and loads of belongings you’d suppose they’d learn about her, even outdoors of her tragic previous and powers. This is made extra disappointing as a result of Safi and Moses are two of the sport’s most attention-grabbing characters. Safi specifically has a variety of persona, a compelling backstory, and loads of connections to the sport’s main gamers; she in the end drives the sport ahead which, whereas not an issue in itself, makes for one more aspect character who utterly overshadows Max. And I perceive that a part of that is intent, I actually do. But it’s irritating, in a narrative-heavy, emotional sport, to really feel like I’m controlling a car moderately than a personality.Another concern with Safi outshining Max is that, in some ways, it makes it fully clear that Double Exposure is essentially a retread of Life is Strange. It’s a bit awkward, contemplating Deck Nine is creating the title moderately than authentic studio Don’t Nod. But even when I place that little bit of distaste apart, it was unusual as a participant. I do not wish to give away main plot factors, however suffice to say that if I described in broad phrases the plot to each games–relatively spoiler-free highlights being a school-based homicide thriller, a looming storm, and an angsty feminine buddy with points and lifeless greatest buddy shrouded in mystery–you’d be laborious pressed to slim down which Life is Strange I’m speaking about.The relationship that felt essentially the most tangible and actual to me, unusually sufficient, was one which was barely seen all through the sport and has prompted some outrage from the unique sport’s followers: Max’s relationship with Chloe. You will not see a lot of this play out in the event you state that Chloe died within the first game–and to be trustworthy, you continue to will not see a lot even when you choose that she survived. That stated, there was one thing that felt so actual concerning the pair having drifted off, their trauma bond over enduring such a life-altering collection of occasions proving not fairly sufficient to maintain two individuals with such drastically completely different needs and personalities collectively.You see Chloe on-line on social media, even posting from time to time. She sends over the occasional textual content and checks in on you after seeing a troubling information report, proving that regardless of their variations, she is going to at all times look after Max. Whereas some discovered Chloe’s lack of a spot in Max’s life considerably insulting, I could not assist however relate to that kind of bittersweet dynamic, having been in relationships like that earlier than. Though she shouldn’t be round, Chloe serves as a kind of shadow that hangs over Max, which is exactly what I’d count on.Amanda glances over at a centered Max.Double Exposure additionally deserves reward for its visuals and motion-capture, each of that are improved from earlier Life is Strange titles. Better lighting and motion-capture know-how that is ready to replicate micro-expressions superbly make for a heightened sense of realism, and permit the sport to convey higher emotion than its stiff predecessors. However, the studio makes the good name to not lean too far into that realism, in the end favoring the collection’ tendency in direction of extra stylized characters and high-saturation environments. Though I may not have beloved a lot of the story, I used to be drawn into Double Exposure’s world by means of its artwork.I additionally think–and I urge you to skip this paragraph in the event you want to keep away from bigger spoilers!–that the place Double Exposure leaves issues and expands the broader Life is Strange universe makes for an thrilling promise. In reality, it is so interesting–and pertinent to my total feelings–that it feels necessary to carry up despite how laborious I’ve tried to maintain this all spoiler-free. In the identical method that Remedy’s Control made it clear that the occasions in Alan Wake, and Alan himself, should not these remoted forces, we see that kind of enjoyable realization happen on this sport as properly. This additionally splendidly harkens again to Life is Strange 2, which started to arrange this premise. Though I wasn’t thrilled to see “Max Caulfield will return” on the finish of the sport, the trail that two different characters embark upon is compelling and makes me excited by a spin-off title following one or each of them. Suffice to say, I see the potential for an actual Magneto-Xavier dynamic sooner or later, and I feel that might be a improbable place for the collection to go.And but, potential for a extra attention-grabbing story does not fairly enhance the general expertise Life is Strange: Double Exposure. There’s part of me that wonders if going into the sport with a higher fondness for the unique would have made the expertise extra gratifying. There’s one other a part of me that wonders if the other is true, and I’d have been higher coming in with out ever having skilled the primary sport. But as each a continuation and a separate title, Double Exposure appears to fall brief. Though it presents some attention-grabbing narrative beats, nice visuals, and some endearing characters, it fails to ship the persona, drama, or emotion it’s completely reliant upon.