Life is Strange: Double Exposure (2024)

Kinda feel like a mark for being interested in the upcoming sequel to this, LiS: Reunion. Double Exposure was just okay, bringing Chloe back feels like the most cynical possible direction they could be taking the series, and there's frankly zero chance they do a better job covering the subject than the comics already did years ago. I'd much rather they continued with the original anthology concept they had going, or give Alex and Steph another bite at the apple.

On the other hand, Max and Chloe are still one of my favorite queer couples in games, having Hannah Telle and Rhianna DeVries play them together for the first time is pretty exciting, and they've apparently re-hired key writing staff from Before the Storm and True Colors.

So I guess I'll be there day one, like a mark.

Entirely subjective ranking of the Life is Strange series:

1. True Colors
2. Before the Storm
3. Middle volumes of the comics
4. LiS1
5. LiS2
6. Double Exposure
7. First volume of the comics

Been keeping the last few volumes of the comics around for a rainy day, might finally be time to read em and see how they compare to Double Exposure.

The ending wasn't so bad as I feared! Despite some pacing issues it just about works thematically, and I dug that it explicitly rejects the nonsense false choice from the end of LiS1. But it also sets up a sequel that I'm deeply uninterested in, and covers a lot of ground that the comics addressed with more tact.

Overall it's a pretty uneven game, with weaker character work than I've come to expect from the series, and far too much time spent on dull inventory puzzles. Max and Safi's actors give fantastic performances, but Max is stuck doing chores for much of the game and Safi is severely underutilized. And it suffers constantly for being stuck in the first game's shadow. LiS1's ending made such a catastrophic impact that multiple creative teams have now spent a whole comics run and an entire game writing their way out of the hole it left them in. But it does seem like the series may finally be able to move forward, even if it's in a direction I don't personally care for.

Double Exposure's good fun but has been hewing awfully close to Life is Strange 1's original playbook, so I'm feeling a mounting sense of dread as I near the climax. The supernatural aspect of the first game's ending still bugs me to this day, and I'll be real bummed if this new game feels the need to rehash the storm and its bogus false choice.

This feels maybe a little overfamiliar so far, but it's really fun to be back playing as Max! All the vocal and mocap performances are excellent, there's a solid mystery brewing, and I love that Deck Nine brought back the game-spanning stories that True Colors had for minor NPCs. This time around there's a cryptid hunt, a nerf gun war, and a teacher strike all happening in the background of Max's investigation, which really helps her impossibly idyllic Vermont town feel more like a real, lived-in place.

Also Max's phone uses light mode in the happy reality and dark mode in the sad world, which is a very cute touch.

loved it! my favorite little dork is back aaaaaaaa!!!!!!!! 5/5

i wish chloe had made more of an appearance in this game, but i can tell that they're soon gearing up for that in the next one! :) only downside, i didnt really feel any chemistry between max and her new love interests ;( ughh.

dodie's song fit perfectly on the main title screen <3