Life is Strange Double Exposure Review: An Adventure Beyond the Storms

Almost 10 years after the first game of the license, ;Life is Strange : Double Exposure" proposes to find the character of Max Caulfield. We were able to test the game to give you our full opinion on it.

It's 2015 and French studio Dontnod isn't doing well. Its first big project, “Remember Me”, didn't achieve the expected success and the studio is in a very bad position. The rescue will come from their second project: an episodic multiple-choice game called “Life is Strange”. With the support of Square Enix, the studio offers an episodic format that is quite rare for the time and which will contribute to the commercial and critical success of the adventures of Max Caulfield and Chloé. Price in the fictional town of Arcadia Bay.

Let's now return to 2024 with the release of “Life is Strange: Double Exposure”. This new opus is not insignificant since it allows us to find the character of Maxine Caulfield almost 10 years after her last main appearance. “Double Exposure” is not developed by Dontnod, but by Deck Nine, an American studio already responsible for several opuses of the license, notably “Life is Strange: Before the Storm” which served as a prequel to the first game.

We were able to play exclusively “Life is Strange: Double Exposure” and find our dear Max Caulfield to discover his new (mis)adventures which turn out to be excellent, but not perfect. Discover our test.

Editor's note: This test was carried out entirely from a code sent by the publisher. The latter had no right to review our article before publication.

A story that smells of déjà vu

The ending of the first Life is Strange had upset many players. While we will obviously not do the affront of revealing it, this ending quickly imposed itself in the pantheon of the saddest endings in video games following a crucial choice that was as celebrated as it was decried at the time.

In “Life is Strange: Double Exposure”, we embody new Maxine Caulfield, almost 8 years after her journey in the city of Arcada Bay. The young girl has grown up and now gives photography lessons at the prestigious Caledon University alongside her two best friends, Safi and Moses.

A soothing setting that is quickly swept away by the game's big cliffhanger: the murder of your friend Safi. A situation that is reminiscent of the first hours of the first “Life is Strange” and that will lead Maxine to use her powers again to try to go back in time… Until she develops new ones that allow her to navigate between two realities: one where Safi is alive and the other where her murder took place.

Safi is a character who strongly reminds Chloé in her attitude and her tragic destiny. © Deck Nine

While the first hours of the game allow you to discover in more detail the life and daily life of our character, your beginnings on “Double Exposure” are more impactful than the majority of the installments in the saga. While many players have complained about the almost non-existent communication around Chloé Price and Arcadia Bay in the game's promo, “Double Exposure” in no way eludes the end of the first Life is Strange since you will quickly be asked to confirm the latter. An important choice that will greatly influence the rest of the game and Max's psyche regarding the mourning experienced at the end of the first “Life is Strange” since the latter remains traumatized for life.

Like its title, “Double Exposure” plays the duality card to contrast Max's adventures in the first game with those experienced in Caledon. The title offers several winks and references to the first “Life is Strange” without falling into easy fan service. While the most ardent fans may criticize the title for not sufficiently linking “Double Exposure” in the first opus, the game gives pride of place to mourning and the stages that follow.

No matter what you choose at the end of the first game, Max remains a person traumatized by the events. © Deck Nine

The real strength in the narration of this “Life is Strange: Double Exposure” is to never fall into pathos. Max has a heavy past and has grown up with it. She will therefore serve as a central pivot to Safi's death to investigate the latter without forgetting to be a support for other characters and to investigate several subplots likely to come together. Characters quite unequal in their stories and personalities. While some are very interesting, like Professor Gwen, others are quite stereotypical and we can't escape the traditional journalist who sticks her nose in everything or the successful novelist full of himself.

An episodic and controlled narration

Like previous games, “Life is Strange: Double Exposure” offers a story split into several chapters. However, these are not offered over the months, but can all be launched at the game's release. While some may then wonder about the usefulness of the division into chapters, the latter allow “Double Exposure” to provide compelling cliffhangers and ideal moments to pause and get a recap of the story before launching the next chapter and continuing the investigation around Safi.

However, Safi's death does not constitute the entirety of the content offered in “Life is Strange: Double Exposure”. Just like the other games in the series, Max will investigate the characters who gravitate around the death of his best friend and discover multiple secrets and plots. While some can be perceived as “anecdotal”, especially for the smaller NPCs, these side stories give more character and context around Caledon University. Max will discover the local customs, the groups of friends and enemies, but also the secrets surrounding the campus.

Max will be able to investigate many secrets within Caledon. © Deck Nine

A campus unfortunately quite poor in terms of exploration. While the idea of ​​visiting a new city and its university seemed interesting on paper, "Life is Strange: Double Exposure" ultimately only offers a few places that you will visit repeatedly. Between Maxine's apartment, the university courtyard or the office of the student president, you will not discover more than seven or eight different environments.

A gameplay that plays on two tables

Powers of life and death

Max's powers are quite different from the simple “time travel” of the first game. In “Life is Strange: Double Exposure”, Max is able to alternate between two realities, the main difference being the death or life of Safi. Unsurprisingly, the absence of a person on a campus has a huge impact on the campus and the different relationships of the protagonists. It will then be necessary to juggle between the two worlds to discover the truth about the murder of your best friend.

But Max's new powers in “Life is Strange: Double Exposure” also come in two parts:

• Crossing allows Max to switch from one reality to another. In the “live” reality, you can notably talk to Safi to learn more about her and her possible murder in the “dead” reality. Max can also move objects from one reality to another. the other which can be very handy in some situations (but raise some questions of coherence).
• Perception allows Max to stay in her current reality (“life” or “death”) but to observe what is happening in the other reality where she is not physically located. Ideal for spying on secret conversations and obtaining information that you are not supposed to hear.

Perception allows you to listen to conversations in the other reality. © Deck Nine

While using these two powers is essential to progressing through the main story, it also allows you to obtain a whole bunch of information on more or less important characters. Too bad Deck Nine didn't push the envelope by allowing you to switch realities at any time or that the transitions sometimes take a little while to &be realized since limited to portals located here and there.

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"This action will have consequences"

As with previous games in the series, “Life is Strange: Double Exposure” regularly presents you with choices. While some are fairly trivial and mainly contribute to comparing your morals to those of your friends or other players at the end of the chapter, others prove crucial. Several choices will force you to choose a side between two characters. Favoring some can then unlock new friendships, but to the detriment of others who can create real enemies ready to prevent you from carrying out your investigation.

Your choices and positions influence how the characters perceive Max. © Deck Nine

At the end of each chapter, you will have more information on how you perceive the characters based on your actions. Interesting additions that provide "Double Exposure" with a little replayability by trying new choices. These choices allow above all to establish who will be your allies and who will be hostile towards you during the rest of the adventure until the final outcome where your relationships will be established according to your affinities.

Grief in the age of social networks

To help him in his investigation, Max can also count on the return of social links, notably represented by his phone, his social networks and his diary. The first allows him to frequently receive text messages from other characters and interact with them. However, these interactions remain very limited and have almost no impact on the story. The networks allow, as for them, to know a little more about the general atmosphere on campus and about the passions or problems of the characters. The journal, for its part, is especially useful for keeping a written record of events and for putting down on paper Max's thoughts as the story unfolds. Nice additions then, but with fairly limited interest.

The most beautiful graphics of the saga

The “Life is Strange” series has never particularly shone with its graphics. The first installments were already well below industry standards, and it was only with “True Colors” in 2021 that the saga really worked on the visual rendering. The game unfortunately had quite a few issues at its launch with some bugs and FPS drops on consoles.

Without further details on its graphics engine, “Life is Strange: Double Exposure” is without a doubt the most beautiful game in the saga. The Caldon campus and its different environments are pleasing to the eye. The characters are also well modeled (for the most part) and easily recognizable.

The graphics of “Life is Strange: Double Exposure” are the best in the series. © Deck Nine

However, “Double Exposure” never really stands out for its artistic direction. While some passages or scenes are indeed much prettier than average, we can easily forget the majority of the environments that remain quite clichéd in their representation (the messy room, the university offices, the cafeteria, etc.). If “Life is Strange: Double Exposure” is therefore very pleasant to play and look, the title never really stands out for its settings.

On the optimization side, we were able to test the game on a gaming PC with a very good configuration and a Steam Deck. On PC, the title offers several choices of settings for the graphics that range from “low” quality to “cinematic”. While the game remains quite pleasant on most configurations, the lowest mode turns out to be really… Ugly. Some textures are missing and the overall result really does not do the title justice. However, we did not experience any latency or loss of FPS during our tests, even with the graphics pushed to the limit.

It is a shame that the end of our first part was full of visual bugs with objects that pass through the scenery, textures that take a long time to display or even certain characters whose model starts to bugger.

This kind of bugs only appeared during the last hours of our game. © Deck Nine

On Steam Deck, the observation is a little more mixed. With the graphics set to “medium”, “Life is Strange: Double Exposure” struggles to reach a stable 30 FPS. The title remains playable, but it is far from the ideal experience.

An excellent soundtrack to listen to for hours

Will you really be “surprised” if we praise the soundtrack of “Life is Strange: Double Exposure”? ? The saga has always managed to take care of its music and its sound ambiance by associating itself with artists of varying degrees of fame, but capable of sounding right in the situations shown on screen.

For “Double Exposure”, it is the artist Tessa Rose Jackson who signs the main compositions of the soundtrack with no less than three titles (notably available on certain trailers of the game). The different titles of “Life is Strange: Double Exposure” are reminiscent of the choices made on the first game of the saga with several very melancholic tones and conducive to reflection for Max and the player. We notably find once again the passages of the game where our character can sit down for a few minutes to take stock of the story, all sublimated by a very well-chosen background music. Special mention for the theme of the game's main menu: “Someone was listening”, performed by the artist Dodie.

Side dubbing, lip synchronization always remains quite tricky, and this has been since the very first episode of the license. If "Life is Strange: Double Exposure" offers some fairly convincing dubbing, it must be noted that some synchronizations remain rather messy in their execution and that it is always possible to see characters express themselves without their voices being vres don't move. Again: nothing too serious, but enough to be underlined at times.

A decent lifespan and some forgettable collectibles

To get to the end of your first part of “Life is Strange: Double Exposure” expect about 11 hours of play if you take your time. Each episode can take you between 2 and 3 hours depending on whether you want to focus on the main story related to Safi or if you take more time to talk to all the secondary characters and search each area.

On the replayability side, restarting a game will allow you above all to test choices that you did not make during your first game, but also to obtain a second level of reading now that you know the outcome of the story. This also allows you to collect the few collectibles that you missed and which are characterized by small polaroids scattered in the levels and which give a few small audio scenes when you pick them up. Nothing really interesting, especially since clues to their location are already given in your journal and it is therefore difficult to miss them on your first part if you pay attention. These polaroids at least give an interest to those who want to finish “Double Exposure” 100%. Too bad however that the indications to find them can spoil the locations where the adventure will continue.

Polaroids are easy to find, but offer a little replay value. © Deck Nine

Our conclusion to the test of "Life is Strange: Double Exposure"

If the idea of ​​making a sequel to the first "Life is Strange" has sparked many debates, it must be said that the result remains very correct. Without being as striking as the first game (or even the second main opus), this "Life is Strange: Double Exposure" offers a gripping and enjoyable adventure to follow. Its characters are endearing and we like to see Max's development and his relationship with grief and the choices he makes in the first “Life is Strange.

However, the game is far from perfect. While the graphics are very good, we deplore the number of bugs observed during the last hours of our games. Let's hope that these will be fixed with a game update. The title also offers few environments to visit and these latter do not necessarily mark the spirits by their artistic direction. Finally, the exploration is not very pushed with only a few collectibles to pick up along the way.