Life Is Strange: Double Exposure Review (PC) – Its A Wonderful Life

Life Is Strange: Double Exposure is finally upon us and as a fan of the series, I’m happy that the game, after what I’ve played, has lived up to my expectations. I had the pleasure of previewing the first few chapters of Life Is Strange: Double Exposure a few weeks ago. I mentioned there, that if you’ve played Life Is Strange before, you will feel right at home in Life Is Strange: Double Exposure, along with the return of a beloved character, Max Caulfield, and a few changes made to her.

Warning: some light story spoilers ahead.

Game Name: Life Is Strange: Double Exposure
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC (reviewed)
Publisher(s): Square Enix
Developer(s): Deck Nine
Release Date: October 29th 2024

In Double Exposure, Max works as a live-in photographer and tutor at Caledon University, several years after the first game’s events. Max hasn’t used her time-rewind ability in years until a tragedy strikes—her friend Safi is killed. Max’s evolved powers allow her to jump between timelines leading her on a whodunit journey filled with twists and turns. The game’s story and characters, combined with your choices, create a special experience, and I won’t spoil any details here.

The parallels between the new story and Max’s past, along with her character development, will delight long-time fans. I don’t want to spoil story details here, but I will say it was my personal favourite story in the franchise so far. With a great cast of characters, emotional moments and important choices, what more could you ask for from a great Life Is Strange Game?

Gets The Job Done

When it comes to the gameplay, things never get any deeper than what you experience in the first two chapters. You walk around finding clues and interacting with people while jumping between the two timelines to access different areas or information you need.

It may sound basic, but the truth is… it does the job. Max’s ability to jump between timelines and the way it is used throughout the game, is interesting enough to give Life Is Strange: Double Exposure depth beyond a simple walking sim.

On top of that, we have the dialogue choice the series is known for that can play a key role in how you get information or who might help you throughout your journey. As always, this left my playthrough feeling unique to me. Even if I could see the high percentages of players who made the choices I did at the end of each chapter. The game does have multiple endings, but I think the magic with these types of experiences is having it be yours and talking about how others were different.

Power Of Presentation

Another bright spot for Life Is Strange: Double Exposure is the visuals. This game is the best the series has ever looked by a considerable margin, with fantastic lighting beautiful environments, and most importantly… improved facial animations, though they aren’t always perfect with side characters having less impressive animations.

Speaking of the faces, I can’t talk about the presentation here without discussing the cast who carry Life Is Strange: Double Exposure and everything it stands for in every word and scene.

Of course, the main three, Max (Hannah Telle), Safi (Olivia AbiAssi), and Moses (Blu Allen) are all fantastic, especially considering the amount of time you spend with them. You can feel the genuine chemistry between the actors and that helps bring to life some gut-wrenching emotional moments. My favourite character and performance however is that of Vinh (Sam Oguma). The character has so much depth, you think he’s one thing then maybe he isn’t but maybe he still is. Vinh is like an onion, he has many layers and the deeper you go the sadder it gets but I’ll leave you to discover that for yourself.

At the same time, the music throughout complements the narrative perfectly, offering zen reflective tones and tension-building tracks.

Hopefully, You Can Play

The game offers a range of accessibility options, from subtitle tweaks to extended time for dialogue choices. While it may not cover every need, the available settings should help more players enjoy the game.

In all honesty, I didn’t personally need any of the accessibility options that are available in Life Is Strange: Double Exposure however, I took great pleasure in seeing so many options at hand.

In 2024, we still see many games that miss important accessibility features. Even for me, as someone who only needs them occasionally in specific types of games, there have been games that I have not been able to play due to a lack of options.

So, when a game gets it right that is always something to celebrate and Deck Nine along with Square Enix have done a great job here. Hell, there is even an option to ‘Skip Gameplay’ should you be inclined to watch and interact with Life Is Strange: Double Exposure in an even more simplified way.

I wish more games had this level of thought, in providing at least the most basic options let alone going above and beyond.

Needs Revision

One thing that could do with some revision before a final test, however, is performance and technical issues. Admittedly, I was running the game at the highest available graphics settings (cinematic), but considering my specs, I would expect this to be a breeze for my PC.

In reality, I often had what seemed to be traversal stutter with more issues in outdoor areas than interiors. It wasn’t terrible, but a locked 60fps at the highest settings wasn’t possible for me. Not that it matters hugely for this type of game. It would have been nice to see a locked 60fps.

More annoying than the performance dips, however, was the number of times the game’s fantastic-looking lighting would randomly glitch out in specific spots of certain rooms. This wouldn’t be a huge thing, but these lighting glitches can also impact cutscenes and take away from the otherwise great presentation.

It is important to note that my experience was on review code and many of these issues are likely to be addressed in a day-one patch.

A Wonderful Life

In the end, I had a wonderful time with Life Is Strange: Double Exposure with an interesting story, relatable characters, and interesting new powers for Max Caulfield. I feel that Life Is Strange: Double Exposure is a must-play for any long-time fans but is unlikely to attract those who haven’t enjoyed the previous entries in the series.

Life Is Strange: Double Exposure releases on October 29th, 2024 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Review Disclosure Statement: A copy of Life Is Strange: Double Exposure was provided to us for review purposes by Square Enix. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.

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