Overall, I enjoyed the game and think most fans of the series will too. However, it does have a good number of flaws (no spoilers):
• This was clearly made with a limited budget which explains the game’s shortcomings with limited choices, small cast, and small scenes/maps.
• The skeleton of the story is good. I liked the story and how it can lead to other entries in the series. However, the meat (specific actions and dialog) of the story is weak.
• Choices don’t really have any material impact on the story and instead mainly lead to some different dialog options instead of completely different scenes with the romance options leading to the most variation.
• There’s no defining choice(s) likes in the first game which leads back to the limited budget. They don’t appear to have the funds to make branching storylines which explains how they handled the ramifications of Chole/Arcadia Bay decision in this installment.
• Some scenes were handled poorly and don’t take into account some of your earlier dialog/choices. For example, you’ll learn an important piece of information and in a later scene when it comes up, Max acts completely surprised like it’s the first time she’s heard it. Or you’ll see a character step outside and eavesdrop on their conversation, walk a few feet and talk to another character who asks you where said person is and Max replies she doesn’t know. Like you can literally see that character outside the window. Come on, that’s just lazy.
• It was lacking in the personal moments like the first game and True Colors. Double Exposure’s version of True Colors’ Halloween was a big step down.
• The maps/levels are limited and very small (well, smaller than the previous games) with only a handful of NPCs and characters you can speak too. They seem smaller and less lively than the first game and True Colors. It reminds me of Starfield’s nightclub with a few NPCs standing around and even fewer dancing versus Cyberpunk 2077’s packed and lively clubs. It just feels so antiquated in 2024. Again, this likely stems from a limited budget.
• Due in part to the small map sizes, the puzzles/gameplay is way too easy and doesn’t have the variation of the branching outcomes like the first game.
• Audio is borked. The background music is too loud drowning out dialog, but at least you can easily lower that in the settings. The big problem is dialog audio which is often way too quiet even at max settings and cranking my headphones to full volume. In addition, when having a conversation Max would speak clearly at a certain level and often the other speaker(s) dialog would come in far too low in volume and with poorer sound quality.
• The soundtrack is a big step down from the first game. It’s not bad, it’s just completely forgettable.
• There are some points where if you walk to a certain place, it moves you to the next scene without warning and you’ll be unable to go back to complete anything you missed in the previous area unless you reload the last checkpoint.
• No cutscene skipping which is really annoying if you want to replay the game or reload the last checkpoint if you missed something due to the above.
• The final episode was the weakest. It seems like True Color where they clearly ran out of time and/or money and needed to wrap things up. However, it was a good setup for the next game and I like the direction the sequel appears to be going in.
Despite its flaws, I did enjoy my time with the game, and I recommend it.

I want to appreciate works for what they are, rather than hating them for what they aren’t. So when I realized this game would not be about Max and Chloe, I still trusted Deck Nine to deliver an interesting continuation of Max Caulfield’s story. However, they seemed to outright disrespect the original game throughout Double Exposure. There were elements of the game I enjoyed; Max’s new power where she can move between these two realities is fun and I found myself confusing the two versions of characters in the story. This was by design, and quite fun to keep track of. This power never comes close to reaching the thematic strength of other Life Is Strange powers.

Even aesthetically, Double Exposure struggles to find its footing. There are so many different artistic styles on display and they don’t cohere into a greater identity. Characters from the first game are still represented by their pastel-like character models while Max Caulfield is a 4k real human being, Max’s diary drawings look corporate and cold, when we flash back to Blackwell Academy, it has the first game’s art style, and the (limited number of) sets this game has all look like they could belong in any other AAA game. Caledon lacks the charm of even Haven Springs from True Colors, and most of the environments would look in place in a game like Spiderman PS4.

Despite this, the earlier chapters were still pretty enjoyable. The mystery is interesting and kept me engaged through chapter 3. Though I was offput by how horny every character in this game is. It was especially out of character for Max but even in the other characters it was just icky. Both romance options are problematic. Vinh comes off as very creepy and sexual, and I didn’t choose that route, but if you choose Amanda, she rejects you in one reality and you fall in love in the other reality, which is messed up. It seems like these will continue in the next game, but Max and Amanda should be through after that. This narrative is creepy. So there are no good new romance options. It's in the final two chapters where Deck Nine fumbles the narrative. The game hints for most of the game that the player will have to choose whether to kill Safi or let her live at the expense of the university. I predicted that this would be a red herring and the narrative would go a different way, which was true, but the way Deck Nine took the narrative was nonsensical. Instead of shooting Safi, Max decides to walk into the storm (which is inexplicably back) taking her to a nightmare sequence similar to the original game. She does some plot magic with new powers that were not previously established and saves both Safi and the university. This seems like a mockery of what the first game stood for thematically, and neither Max nor Safi ever faces the consequences of their powers. Then Safi decides that Life Is Strange is now The Avengers, and she's going to assemble all of the people with powers. Credits roll, it's revealed another character, Diamond, has powers that were never hinted at and it fades to black. "Max Caulfield will return" appears on the screen. Then the dread sets in. They want to milk this franchise for every penny they can.

This is the first time I have not been excited about the future of this series. The vast majority of the characters in this game don’t get space to develop in meaningful ways. Exploring Max’s trauma is the most interesting thing this game does but there are only a handful of scenes where this is done in nuanced ways. It felt like Deck Nine had a murder mystery written, and then decided to interject Max’s trauma at a few points to justify bringing her character back.

What baffles me is how this game chooses to intentionally upset its core fanbase. They brought back Max Caulfield, which is fan service, but they seem to disrespect the source material in several ways, making this game less appealing to original fans. I was even on board for this initially, this could’ve been a “The Last of Us Part II” style of pissing off the fans. Writing a meaningful story even if it makes fans uncomfortable. But then in the ending they turn the Life is Strange franchise into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This read as a clear attempt to profit off of the fans, which I was already suspicious of given the shady nature of the Deluxe Edition monetization. But if they were just in it for the money, why wouldn’t they go all the way with fan service? Why did they break up Max and Chloe (and treat Chloe so lightly in the reality where she’s dead) even if they knew this upset a number of their fans? Why make both of the romance options problematic? Do they want to separate from the original fanbase and start a new one with Double Exposure? I wanted this game to be good more than any game I've played in years, and I’ve taken away things I enjoyed, but this is definitively the worst game in the series. I hope they can correct course for the future installments, but my hopes aren't high.

Hannah Telle was great though :)

The original Life is Strange painted a beautiful, deeply moving work of art, and Double Exposure is the toddler that couldn't resist drawing all over it with a purple crayon.