Life is Strange: Double Exposureis only a couple of months away. Serving as the first direct sequel in the franchise, Max tries to tap into her Rewind Time power for the first time in years, fittingly to save a friend named Safi, to realize they’ve evolved allowing her to cross two timelines now. The first timeline is the original, where that friend is dead, but she’s still alive in the second.Life is Strange: Double Exposuretells a new story about Max dealing with the trauma of the first game, investigating Safi’s death, and learning about these new powers.
At Gamescom, Game Rant had a chance to speak with game director Jonathan Stauder and writer Aysha Farah to discuss the game’s themes of the passage of time, Max’s new powers, and more. Farah explained that one thing thatmakesLife is Strange: Double Exposureso importantis how many players who experienced the first game at Max’s age are now once again going through the same part of their lives that Max is in this newer installment; some players will have literally grown up with her. However, not only have the fans and Max grown up, but so have her powers. And according to the developers, they’ll continue to do so.
How Max’s New Timeline Rifts Are a Natural Evolution of Her Powers
In the originalLife is Strange, Max’s powers make their consequences known through nosebleeds and can eventually unleash a natural disaster ontoMax’s home of Arcadia Bay. Max refuses to use these powers due to what happened because of them, but when her college friend Safi is murdered, she decides to investigate on her own terms and abilities. However, they don’t manifest in the same way. Instead of rewinding time, Max learns her Shift powers let her move between timelines. At first, it seems she can only see between the timelines and move between them. As Stauder explained,
She discovers [her new powers] when she tries to use them. Because she hasn’t used them in forever, she has the unexpected result where she suddenly snaps across an alternate timeline. She discovers she can actually move between the two timelines. When you play the later chapters, you get a little more attached to her existing powers and understand, maybe, where the powers come from in the story.
While Stauder suggests that there’s a reason for Max’s sudden jump in what she can do with her powers, it most certainly will be left for players to figure outwhenLife is Strange: Double Exposurelaunches. With Max’s new powers, players will help solve and potentially prevent Safi’s murder, take items to and from the two timelines, and allow them to elevate other experiences as they continue to grow over the course of the game. For example, sometime after Max discovers these powers, she realizes she can Shift huge items across the two timelines; from there, her powers will continue to evolve. When asked about how her powers grow, Stauder explained,
You’re actually touching upon a third part of the power where she’s up against something she can’t just pick up and take it across the timeline, and she physically can Shift it. We’ll see that return in later chapters, and further permutations of using Shifting under different circumstances, like in a tense action sequence, a chase sequence, or other detective-type scenes. Generally, you’ll always have something interesting to ease into with her Shift Powers, where you can see into the other timeline, hear into it, and all that stuff.
Using Max’s powers in important sequences such as a chase sequence sounds rather enticing, and it would serve as a great improvement compared to the first game where only a few sequences truly saw her powers advance. It’ll be interesting to see how Max deals with these new Shift Powers as they grow in strength, as well as see how Max deals with the trauma ofLife is Strange’s original endings.Life is Strangehas always been a series about mystery, andDouble Exposureis most certainly keeping its cards to its chest until players discover all of its secrets for themselves, including just how far Max’s abilities evolve. At the very least, Max’s story and adventures with time manipulation aren’t over yet, and there are likely plenty of surprises waiting for those willing to give the sequel a chance.
