Time is a concept that mankind has grappled with for… well… a long time. Is it just another dimension? Is it something that we perceive differently to other unknowable beings? Can it be manipulated? Certainly, that last one was proven true within the original Life Is Strange some 11 years ago. A stand-out moment for interactive fiction and storytelling, Max Caulfield’s tale was personal, fantastical and overwhelmingly emotional, and in the process, completely rewrote developer Don’t Nod’s fortunes. We’ve since had a decade of those personal, unique stories, with sequels and off-shoots populating this world with a vibrant and diverse set of characters and journeys. Now, Deck Nine is ready to complete this particular time loop, returning once more to Max Caulfield’s tale in Life is Strange: Double Exposure.
Just as with the original, music plays a huge part of the game’s appeal, and any preview that has you sitting at the opening screen just to listen to the song has chosen the right tone. Each chapter’s music is listed below the title, just in case you weren’t sure just how important it is to the game’s feel.
We join Max and her friend Safi as they indulge in a spot of urban exploration, breaking into a run-down bowling alley and taking pictures of the debris and decay littering it. It’s more on-rails than you might expect, with specific points of interest and the option to take snapshots appearing at select moments, rather than simply letting you loose in the space. Still, that control means that the conversation between Max and Safi feels natural and well-timed, without cluttering up the world with unnecessary interactions.
That specificity leads to having to interact with each point of interest before you can move the story on, at times making conversational choices, at others taking a picture. It’s a slow pace, but one that lets you get a feel for the characters, and for the world that we’re being reintroduced to.
As college students, Max and her friends’ conversation is suitably hip, cool, and natural, and just as the first game did, helps to put you firmly into Max’s shoes. In the process, you learn about her journey from saviour to traveller and finally to photography student. You can also choose her outfits, and influence her love life, though this isn’t voyeurism, it’s pure character-building. I’d forgotten how much Max’s story had meant to me originally, and rejoining her here was both a step backwards and forward in time.
That is, of course, an underlying notion, given the first game’s use of time, with Max’s powers of time manipulation lost to her at the outset of Double Exposure. It feels from the off that’s unlikely to stay the case for very long, and soon enough tragedy strikes, a murder completely upending Max’s world, providing the trauma needed to reawaken her powers and present them in some all-new ways.
Max is now able to rip the world back and forth, shifting between two distinct timelines, trying to prevent what happens in one from happening in the other, and figuring out what just happened. It’s a compelling way of tackling this style of mystery.
Visually, eleven years of technological improvements has helped to make Life is Strange Double Exposure a clear step up for the series, with a greater level of accuracy to both the characters and the spaces they exist in. The artwork that populates the first two locations is amazing, and it’s a further aspect of the series that’s well represented here.
Art, music, storytelling, emotion. The four key components of Life is Strange are here in full effect, and the return to Max’s story is hugely exciting after the time apart. We can’t wait to see where Deck Nine is going to take her, and us.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure is launching in full on 29th October, but those who pre-order with the Ultimate Edition are able to leap into the game from today, 15th October, and play chapters 1 & 2.