close
close

Life is Strange: Double Exposure review: Framed

Life is Strange: Double Exposure review: Framed

Like most Life is Strange fans, my attention was immediately captured when Deck Nine Games announced that the latest game in the series, Double Exposure, would see the return of the series’ original protagonist, Max Caulfield. My heart was happy after stepping back into this world and experiencing Max’s latest adventure. However, my experience with Life is Strange: Double Exposure was unfortunately marred by technical issues and odd design choices.

via Looking Max

Max Caulfield stands in front of yellow police tape.
Source: Square Enix

Set ten years after the events of the original Life is Strange, Double Exposure finds Max Caulfield working as a visiting photographer at Caledon University. After the murder of his close friend Safi, Max sets out to discover the identity of his killer. This murder mystery takes a supernatural turn when Max gains the ability to access a parallel timeline; This also has an important difference: Safi is still alive.

Deck Nine Games manages to spin a compelling narrative in which Max once again uses his powers to help the people he cares about most. The game follows a new cast of supporting characters, and they all feel fleshed out with unique motivations and ties to Max. My personal favorites of the group were Moses and Amanda. Still, there are plenty of callbacks to the original game, especially via social media feed and messaging app, that will make fans smile.

Games like this live and die by the quality of their story, and Life is Strange: Double Exposure managed to surprise me with a handful of unique twists throughout the campaign, and I stayed on board as the story continued to lean on the fantasy side. Deck Nine has respect for Max Caulfield and his return was not in vain.

Nearly every conversation you have in Life is Strange: Double Exposure allows you to choose from multiple answers. This mechanism remains unchanged, but I noticed some inconsistencies during conversations offering various options. This was especially noticeable during exchanges, where you could exhaust multiple dialogue options before finishing the conversation. Characters would react to something in one way, and as we parted ways, they would completely change their tone of voice. This has always been part of the cheesy movie aspect of these games, but it still put me off for a few minutes.

two different worlds

Max uses his Pulse ability to observe the Dead World.
Source: Square Enix

Rather than rewinding time to fix past mistakes, Life is Strange: Double Exposure’s gameplay revolves around navigating separate timelines, aptly named the Living World and the Dead World. This is done through the Strike and Transition abilities. Pulse gives Max a glimpse into the other universe, so Max can see and hear what’s going on there without interacting with them. Shift alters timelines, allowing him to physically step into the other universe. The latter can only be used at fixed points in the world.

Many of the game’s puzzles and objectives rely on this dimension-hopping feature. Is there an authority figure occupying an area you want to keep an eye on? Check out the other timeline. You want to eavesdrop on someone without being seen, to listen from the safety of another dimension. The differences between characters and locations across worlds can range from minimal to radical, and it’s nice to have such close juxtaposition.

One of the most impressive details is the environmental design and art direction of the worlds of the Living and the Dead. The Living World is noticeably more vibrant, with warm colors, holiday decorations, and happy students. Dead World is an extremely gloomy game with a stark cold color palette reminiscent of Until Dawn. In this world, there is a lack of holiday decorations and social spaces are less used. It perfectly summarizes how collective grief can affect a society.

Max is being interviewed. The on-screen dialog options are:
Source: Square Enix

As great as Max’s new powers are, it’s a shame they’re completely bogged down by technical issues. Almost every time I enabled Pulse, my game’s performance took a hit, with a noticeable frame rate drop on my Xbox Series X. This also occurred when loading into new areas of the map. You’ll notice random background textures appearing when talking to characters or watching cutscenes.

There are also a few instances where character models oddly snap into different positions when you initiate a conversation with them or clip them with other items in the world. Once, I was talking to a character standing in the middle of a table. Finally, my game completely crashed three or four times during my playthrough.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure’s technical problems are truly frustrating. As someone who has a good tolerance for non-critical performance issues, these issues are hard to ignore and took me out of the story many times. It also reduced my desire to activate Pulse unless a purpose required it.

Fatal snapshot

Max and Moses are looking at something off the screen.
Source: Square Enix

The original Life is Strange was enough to solidify Max Caulfield as one of my favorite modern video game heroes, and Double Exposure offers a fine continuation of his journey. He’s still the fiercely goofy and empathetic artist we fell in love with almost a decade ago, and this new adventure further explores his personality and beliefs. Returning to his story after all these years felt like meeting an old friend.

On the other hand, it’s impossible to progress through Life is Strange: Double Exposure without performance issues hindering the experience. The fact that the Living and Dead worlds serve as metaphors for what it’s like to play through the latest Life is Strange game ironically dovetails with the game’s theme of duality.


This review is based on Xbox Series X code provided by the publisher. Life is Strange: Double Exposure will be released on October 29, 2024 for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC.

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His earliest memory of gaming is playing Pajama Sam on his mother’s desktop on the weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential games that sparked his love for video games. After interning at Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a degree in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He’s a huge movie fan and will talk to you about movies and games all day long. You can follow him on Twitter @Donimals_