Life Is Strange: Double Exposure Has Convinced Me That Max Caulfield Should Return

Summary

Life is Strange: Double Exposure embraces the iconic 'Bay or Bae' ending of the original game
Max Caulfield returns, with a more mature feel and new powers
The game stays true to the original formula of decision-based storytelling, emphasizing the depth of player decisions without modernizing too much

I’ve been apprehensive of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Life is Strange: Double Exposure ever since it was announced back at 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Summer Games Fest. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Life is Strange is not just a story that has already ended, but it has one of the most iconic endings in gaming history. An ending that, regardless of which option you choose, would fundamentally change protagonist Max Caulfield’s life. So 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:how do you move on from that?

After playing a section of Episode Two at Gamescom while chatting to game director Jonathan Stauder and writer Aysha Farah, I’m far less worried. But I’m not sure if I can put into words why. The developers at Deck Nine assured me that new players will make the classic ‘Bay or Bae’ choice at the start of the game so that their world is shaped by it too, and that does go some way to reassuring me that the studio is embracing the ending rather than runnဣing from it. Mostly though, it’s j💝ust nice to have Max back.

All episodes are included in the base game, acting as a framing device rather than their original use as a ♛release schedule.

All 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the pontifications of Chloe Pric🥂e’s legacy, LiS 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:being an anthology series, and the commercialisation of our nostalgia at the cost of fr▨e𓂃sh storytelling melted away as soon as I made my first dialogue choice. Maybe it’s because I played Life is Strange before I was a c🗹ritic, and fell in love with it so much I’d still have it in my top ten games o𒆙f all time. I was playing Life is Strange again. I was Max again. Things were good again. Everything else ceased to matter.

Life Is Strange: Double Exposure Feels Instantly Familiar

Max Caulfield in Life is Strange: Double Exposure

Whatever it was, I could feel my apprehension over bringing such an important charᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚacter back into the spotlight fade as she started making bad dad jokes again. It’s recognisably Max, in both personality ไand appearance, but small wrinkles on her face mixed with less naivety give her a far more mature feel given a decade has passed since the events of the original game.

Naturally, I couldn’t see all of the consequences of my decisions in my small playable section, but it did ๊end with the classic A or B choice with a wider implication of major consequences. Sta🌃uder tells me the idea behind these is not to have the narrative split without cause, but to let the player feel “the depth of their decision is reflected back at them.”

Life is Strange was once a pioneer of decision-based storytelling, and remained best in class as the genre swelled in short-lived popularity in a post-Telltale world. However, Double Exposure feels like it’s working comfortably within that old formula rather than modernising it. When I asked the devs if a decade worth of tech improvements helped in gꦺrowing the complexity of decisions, they said it was instead a matt▨er of “scope”.

Life Is Strange Double Exposure Max with overlapping photos

That fits with the most concise descriptor of this game - it’s ꦛa Life is Strange game. Dialogue still exists in contrived ways to help the story (‘that’s the 🐼key I need to complete my current objective in the main plot!’), and as a result can feel a little stilted. But like Max herself, there’s a loveable awkwardness to it all.

The fear of whether new players will fol♓low the story does n🦋ot hold much weight to me - Chloe either died at the end of the first game or the town was destroyed, and while that’s a big issue for the devs to incorporate, new players can pick that up easily. Perhaps more concerning is that Life is Strange has a hella quirky style brah and though vets like me will appreciate it, newcomers just might not get it.

[it's not] Max in the Multiverse of Madness - Game Director Jonathan Stauder

The pre💃view also gave me a taste of some of the mysteries behind Max’s new powers (universe hopping instead of rewinding time like before), but it’s hard to judge them from such a small snippet. I bounced between a closed office and an open office to use the info in one to help me in the other, and it was a fairly standard gameplay loop without much depth. Likewise, Max worries about spending too long in one timeline, but thanks to the linear, scene by scene nature of the game, I doub𝓀t this is something players have to monitor themselves.

The core narrative seems to be shaped by not just the two endings, but the very fact there was a choice. The titular ‘double exposure’ refers to Max’s ability to switch between realities - one in whic꧟h her friend Safi died, and one in which she didn’t. But the devs were keeℱn to stress that this is “not Max in the Multiverse of Madness”, but instead since this death is the inciting incident of the game, “differences are mostly emotional”, according to Stauder.

Photography Continues To Drive Max Caulfield's Story

Of course, there’s a photography element to the title too. Max has pursued her dream of becoming a professional photographer, and finding a camera was a key part of the section I played. Though the collectible Polaroids remain, they’re no longer for Max to snap but instead extant obﷺjects in 👍the world that contain a fleshed out C plot if you find them all.

♑Ultimately, my core fear remains - I don’t know how to continue Max’s story without committing to one ending or the other, and nothing I saw directly answered that. But after getting the chance to see through Max’s eyes again and hearing the devs so keen to introduce new players to choosing Chloe’s fate, I’m a l✨ot more willing to trust them.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure is a Life is Strange game with Max in it. That will m⛦ake it day one for some, lead others to indifference, and perhaps even cause irritation in her story being unearthed for others. I’m all three. I can’t wait to play it again.