Life is Strange: Double Exposureis the first-ever direct sequel in the franchise, with other entries serving as anthological stories about unique individuals with powers. Players return toMax Caulfield, the protagonist of the first game who had the power to rewind time. Since the ending ofLife is Strange, however, she has ceased use of those powers until a close friend, Safi, is murdered many years later. Trying to tap into them once more, she discovers a brand new power - the ability to shift between two timelines, one where Safi is still alive and the present one where she is still dead.
Game Rant recently played about 40 minutes ofLife is Strange: Double Exposureat Gamescom, set shortly into the story but after the initial events. By the time of our demo, Max had already discovered her new Shift powers and begun investigating Safi’s death. However, there’s a snag. As detective Vince Alderman investigates Safi’s death, he believes that a missing camera may be key, but Moses had taken that camera and hidden it in his university lab. Moses, a friend of both Max and Safi’s, believably took it for sentimental reasons, but it’s unlikely that the police would believe that. As such, Max must use her Shift powers to obtain that camera.
Life is Strange: Double the Exposure, Double the Characters, Double the Puzzles
The demo began with us speaking with Moses to learn about why he sat outside his lab, learning about the camera and vowing to get in there and get it before Alderman can. He was waiting for maintenance to come along and unlock the lab, presumably because Moses wouldn’t or didn’t have a key. This was obviously the first time we met Alderman, and he felt a little seedy. Even if everyone wasn’t a suspect to us, he would be a standout—he gives off crooked cop vibes. We suspect that he may actually be a red herring for the realLife is Strange: Double Exposureantagonist, but he is antagonistic nonetheless.
Afterward, we were able to look around the school outside the lab, mostly being limited to a single point where we could use our Shift power to go back to the timeline where Safi is alive. The surroundings were very similar, but Moses' office was open and he was in it working on a telescope. To ensure that the two timelines are obvious to players, there was a logo present in every dialogue and an indicator at the top of the screen to tell if this was the ‘Safi is Alive’ or ‘Safi is Dead’ timeline.
In the second timeline, our goal was to discover where Moses would hide stuff in his office. There were a few dialogue options with this version of Moses, including one to explore their friendly relationship and others to directly/indirectly ask where he would hide something in his office. We get the answer - that he has a “fire hazard” of a teapot hidden in a safe we’ve never seen - but then the telescope almost falls and he’s caught holding it. He asks us to find a colleague, Carla, to get back his allen wrench that she borrowed. Not having time for that, we found a Shift spot at the top of a staircase in his lab and went back to the other timeline, sneaking around his dark office with Moses and Alderman on the outside.
When it comes toMax’s Shift powers, we had found two uses at this point. The first is that key areas are marked with a sparkling aura where we could shift between timelines; however, we could also notably use our Shift power to see differences between two timelines, like where boxes were in the lab in the other one but not this one.
We managed to quickly find the Allen wrench and return it to the other timeline’s Moses, just for Max to hit this Moses with a dad joke: “I found a guy named Allen, but he didn’t know anything about a wrench.” If there was any doubt before, there’s none now - this is an older, more mature Max, but still Max at heart.
Once the telescope is settled, we ask Moses for some tea and see him pull out the teapot from the safe. We also speak with him about some writing on the wall, something related to star constellations, and this was an important note. We also see him set down the key. He excuses himself after a few moments, allowing us to snatch the key and head back to the other timeline. Opening the safe, presuming Safi’s camera would be there, we are met with a simple note. That note wasn’t in the other timeline, meaning it was likely a hint. After some more gameplay, we figured out that the note related to a specific star, lit the room up with the space projector, aligned it, and saw the camera in a vent under that star.
It is, however, blocked by some large boxes, and Alderman has managed his way into the office at this point. Not only do we need to somehow move large boxes without his attention, but we have to not get caught. We traveled back to the Alive timeline to pick up a noisy Christmas decoration, returned to the DeadLife is Strange: Double Exposuretimeline, and used it to draw his attention to the other side of the room. To deal with the issue of the boxes, however, Max managed to manifest a new use of her Shift power: we managed to move those boxes into the other timeline, replacing it seemingly with the telescope. Shifting items between the two timelines is no doubt going to add a lot of new gameplay factors, but here we managed to grab the camera, traveled back to the Alive timeline, and went back to the Dead timeline to rejoin a now-safe Moses.
The demo came to an end with this Alderman asking us to let him know if we knew anything, especially if we already knew something. Again, he gave off crooked cop vibes, and we were presented with a choice: tell him we would or tell him we wouldn’t. That, he will no doubt remember.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure’s Powers and Trauma Develop Throughout the Game
After our demo, we got a chance to speak with game director Jonathan Stauder and writer Aysha Farah. When it comes to Max, they talked a lot about how she has matured but how they attempted to keep her Max at heart. They also spoke about how the firstLife is Strange’s ending colors her trauma. The team already made it clear thatnoLife is Strangeending is canon; instead, players can kind of reflect on those events through Max’s journal. We asked if this was more flavor or still impacted the game, with Stauder explaining that it definitely affects the game because “one core conceit is that no matter which ending you got, Max has this trauma she has to process.” That trauma colors Max’s development throughout the game.
As Max processes that development, her powers also develop throughout the game. They assured us her new Shift powers are related to her oldTime Rewind powers; it is an evolution, not a brand new power. And her powers grow throughout the game. Just as we saw Max discover the ability to shift items between timelines, Stauder explained that there would be “further permutations” of Shift depending on circumstances like intense action sequences, chase sequences, detective scenes, and so forth.
Life is Strange: Double Exposurereleases in October, building a lot of anticipation because it comes so soon. With this demo, if nothing else, it’s clear that the game understands who Max is, understands the fandom’s general wishes around the first game’s ending, and is still pushing forward with exciting supernatural and “real-world” developments for Max.
