Review of “Double Exposure” in Life is Strange: Paranormal Drama Gets Tangled in Complex Chronology

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I first played as Maxine Caulfield in the original Life is Strange in 2015, but this was my second time playing a game with a teenage girl as the main character. (The first was The Last of Us: Left Behind, which came out the year before.) It was a troublesome game in some ways, especially its disgusting use of teenage slang; It was an intense and life-changing game. The sometimes contradictory relationship between Max and her (more than) friend Chloe was true. In fact, it underpinned the entire game more than Max’s ability to rewind time or the murder mystery that drove the plot. I I believed With Max and Chloe. The end of that game, as Max puts it, forces him to make a terrible choice between two crappy futures, proving that even time travelers have to live with the consequences of their actions. The echoes of that choice are reflected in this sequel nine years later.

As an adult, Max is now an artist-in-residence at a prestigious art university, where he meets students with parties, dramatic breakups, and secret societies, rarely narrow-minded and preoccupied with his own agenda. Not located somewhere between faculty and teachers. Comfortable light. She abandoned her hometown and stopped using her time reversal abilities after the events of the first Life is Strange. Now, in this new place, she is tentatively trying to build a new relationship. And when one of her new friends is killed, she discovers that she also has new powers. She can travel between timelines and investigates murders in both the timeline where the murders occurred and an alternate reality where the murders did not occur.

As I said before, double exposure does not determine the final result. There’s so much potential with this setting and these characters, but it just doesn’t quite come together. Some of the characters are great, believable, and consistent. Some characters act outrageously or are wildly inconsistent, such as the cop who competes with Max to solve murders, and the playboy actor Vin, who alternates between sneering at Max and confiding in him. There are some really good individual scenes and moments here, especially the intimate scenes between Max and his friend Safi, Max and the cute bartender she has a crush on, even writing their first date. People deserve a raise. The story had two really nice twists at the end of the chapter that made me want to know what was going to happen.

But in the end, none of it works out. The plot is full of little holes, and when they overlap, it almost unravels. This sometimes dangerous plot had me screaming as the characters did things that made no sense at all.WHello. Would you do that? ” appeared on screen multiple times. I intentionally messed with one character over and over again to see how they would react, but they still seemed like they wanted to be friends. Because later it turned out that the story needed them. The depiction of grief and its effects, which should be an important theme in the game for all sorts of reasons, is also off-tone. I got so wrapped up in this that it really killed my sense of personal investment in Max, her story, and the narrative game. rely About the players feeling invested.

The diary that once gave a little more insight into Max’s inner life as an adolescent returns here. You’ll see conversations between characters, along with messages saved on her phone and social media networks, and learn what happened to the survivors of Max’s hometown. . I personally hated this. As I explored Caledon University’s beautiful surroundings, notifications on my phone kept popping up relentlessly, and just like in real life, I ended up getting overwhelmed and ignoring them completely. But they provide much-needed additional context about the people surrounding Max and their interactions with each other.

The first Life Is Strange was a clever twist on the idea of ​​choices and consequences in narrative games. How would things change if you could always rewind and choose a different option? Double Exposure’s message is very different. As an adult, Max is determined to live in the present, no matter how difficult it may be. This Max knows that if he could simply undo it, he wouldn’t feel anything as a result. But she hasn’t lost her luster. She’s still thoughtful, determined, and just a little jaded. I was very happy to meet her again. This game has some great dialogue and concepts, but it’s so inconsistent that it becomes even more frustrating. The ending in particular was infuriating, but it does make for an interesting development for another sequel. I look forward to seeing what Deck Nine comes up with next based on this.