Life is Strange: Double Exposure lets you do more than just turn back time
Life is Strange: Double Exposure simultaneously a welcome return and an exciting leap forward, as fan-favorite Max Caulfield steps back into the spotlight with new friends, a new mystery, and reality-bending abilities. I tried the game out during Gamescom, and the demo revealed, to my surprise, that Double exposure is perhaps the most mechanically intriguing entry in the series so far.
Because the game is set ten years after the events of the original Life is strangeThe now adult Max has left Arcadia Bay and is working as an artist-in-residence at Caledon University in upstate Vermont. She has made new friends in Moses, a science enthusiast, and Safi, the daughter of the university president. Since the catastrophic events in Arcadia Bay, both endings of which will be dealt with in this story, Max has sworn never to use her time-reversal power again. However, her newfound peace is shattered when Safi is mysteriously murdered, prompting Max to attempt to save her by turning back the clock for the first time in years. For unknown reasons, the long period of inactivity has caused Max’s power to evolve, and she manages to tear through the fabric of time and space to access an alternate timeline in which Safi is still alive but in mortal danger. Thus, Double exposure will be a double murder mystery where players use Max’s new Shift power to jump between timelines, discovering the identity of the killer in one reality while preventing Safi’s assassination in the other.
The Gamescom demo takes place shortly after Safi’s murder. I won’t spoil the story details, but Max must retrieve Safi’s camera from a classroom while she tries to avoid being discovered by a detective. While the room is locked in her current timeline, it might not be in the alternate reality. It’s easy to keep track of which timeline you’re in thanks to an icon in the top-left corner that labels the reality as either “Alive” or “Dead,” hinting at Safi’s fate in that world. Using Max’s Pulse ability, another new trick that allows her to detect and reveal ghostly elements from the other timeline without having to do a full swap, I found a glowing soft spot between realities where it becomes possible to swap between timelines. When she makes the jump, Max pulls the current reality apart as if she were parting some curtains and instantly crossing over to the other side. The speed of this transition makes for a cool visual experience.
Getting your hands on Safi’s camera becomes an intricate exercise in exploring the two-story room, finding clues and hitting dead ends that can only be bypassed by switching to the other timeline. Elements like the layout of the room, the characters’ current activities and moods, and the locations of key items differ in each timeline, and the core puzzle-solving is figuring out how gathering information in one world answers a question in the other.
What begins as a simple search for a safe deposit box culminates in using an astronomical map to locate a key constellation that Moses references, then activating a projector to overlay a star map onto a classroom mural, such that the orientation of the constellation reveals the hidden location of the safe deposit box item. Solving this single puzzle requires several timeline shifts to unravel smaller riddles that logically build toward the solution.
After solving this puzzle, the detective forces his way into the classroom, triggering a stealth sequence in which I must escape the room unnoticed. Simply sneaking past him isn’t enough; I need a loud object to distract me, and that can only be found in the Living reality. Since the patrolling investigator blocks certain routes in the cluttered, box-littered room, getting past him requires some strategic applications of Shift, since he’s not present in the Living timeline.
While Double exposure seems to test your noodle more than previous entries, but it still places a heavy emphasis on managing character relationships and driving the story forward through dialogue choices. Timeline hopping adds some spice to this formula, however. While a character might be hesitant to reveal a crucial personal secret in one timeline, their counterpart can be more forthcoming and offer information that could give Max the upper hand. Responding using knowledge that Max technically shouldn’t possess, however, can go over poorly, adding a thoughtful wrinkle to conversations.
The Double exposure The Gamescom demo convinced me that Shift is a fun mechanic, and I’m excited to see how the game uses it to tell its story. Add in the return of Max, and I can’t wait to see how this multiversal murder mystery unfolds.