Life Is Strange: Double Exposure

Life Is Strange: Double Exposure
Developer(s)	Deck Nine
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Director(s)	Jonathan Stauder Felice Kuan
Series	Life Is Strange
Platform(s)	PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X/S Nintendo Switch Windows
Release	October 29, 2024
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Life Is Strange: Double Exposure is an upcoming episodic adventure game developed by Deck Nine and published by Square Enix. The fourth main installment of the Life Is Strange series, it is a direct sequel to Life Is Strange (2015). The plot focuses on an older Max Caulfield who, upon discovering new supernatural abilities that allow her to travel between two timelines, finds herself investigating a murder case involving her new best friend.

Double Exposure will be released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on October 29, 2024, with a Nintendo Switch version to be released later.

Plot

Ten years after the events in Arcadia Bay, Oregon, Max Caulfield has moved to Lakeport, Vermont, where she now works as a photographer-in-residence at the prestigious Caledon University. She had long sworn to never use her time rewinding powers again as a result of the consequences that occurred in her past. On the night of December 4, after hanging out with her colleagues Safiya "Safi" Llewellyn-Fayyad and Moses Murphy, Max discovers Safi had been mysteriously killed by a gunshot wound to the chest. Max spends the next few days in isolation, grieving for her friend. Later, Max discovers a new power: the ability to "pulse" and glimpse into an alternate timeline, where Safi is still alive. This power expands to allow Max to travel between timelines at will. Max travels to the "Living" timeline, where she learns that Safi's car had been vandalized by an unidentified assailant. Realizing that Safi's life might still be in danger, Max attempts to investigate the case in hopes of deducing Safi's killer in the "Dead" timeline.

Throughout her investigation, Max encounters various residents of Caledon University: Yasmin Fayyad, Safi's mother and the president of Caledon University; Amanda Thomas, the waitress of the local bar Snapping Turtle; Vinh Lang, Yasmin's administrative assistant and leader of the Abraxas secret society; Gwen Hunter, Professor of Non-Creative Fiction; Lucas Colmenero, Head of the Literature Department; and Loretta Rice, Reggie Kagan, and Diamond Washington, undergraduate students at Caledon. In the Living timeline, Max learns that Gwen and Lucas are involved in separate incidents where each of them was blamed for an action they did not do, while in the Dead timeline, Reggie claims to have seen a doppelganger of himself. Moses contacts Max and later reveals that he stole Safi's camera from the police, which both of them managed to retrieve from Moses' office and hide from Vermont State Police Detective Vince Alderman. In doing so, Max discovers another new power: the ability to "entangle" and warp objects between the two timelines, swapping their places. Upon examining the camera, Max and Moses discover that the last photo Safi took is of Max pointing a gun at her, causing Moses to walk out in anger, believing that Max is the killer.

Development

In June 2024, during the Xbox Games Showcase, Deck Nine revealed their latest installment in the Life Is Strange series, which serves as a direct sequel to Life Is Strange (2015). The game avoids making one of the two endings from the first game canon by allowing players to choose an ending organically in Double Exposure. Narrative director Felice Kuan added "We knew we had to respect the two unforgettable endings to the first chapter of Max's story, while also crafting something new, something fresh that echoed Max's past challenges even while it moved Max's personal story forward". Game director Jonathan Stauder said that the studio does not consider either ending canon, which allows players to decide their ending through "Max's thoughts, her journal, her SMS, her interactions with other characters, what she opts to reveal about her past to her new friends, it's all reflective of that final choice". The game features a new ability for Max, moving away from her rewind powers in the first game. Instead, she will have a new shift power, allowing her to jump between parallel timelines. Stauder said "the new power gives us kind of an on ramp to not a new Max, but Max gets to have a different outlook and perspective on things via the new power".

Release

Life Is Strange: Double Exposure will be released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on October 29, 2024. Players who pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition of the game received early access to the first two chapters, starting from October 15, 2024. This decision caused some backlash, mostly relating to players worried about spoilers.

External links

• Official website