Life is Strange: Double Exposure was announced back in June, and unlike many games revealed at that time, its release date is just months away. With the game’s launch coming up soon, we got a chance to try out a hands-on demo of the next Life is Strange game courtesy of Square Enix in Japan.
We got to try the demo ahead of Tokyo Game Show 2024 alongside other titles (mostly RPGs). This demo was also fairly short as it consisted of just two parts that took less than an hour to finish in total. Despite the short length, the hands-on session did give us a good idea of what to expect in the next installment of this popular adventure series.
Note that this article contains spoilers for the first Life is Strange game along with the main premise of Double Exposure, though we won’t mention any key details that weren’t revealed in trailers.
Setting the Tone With the First Chapter
While there have been several Life is Strange entries, Double Exposure is one many fans look forward to as it brings back Max Caulfield. Thus, this new game is a direct sequel to the first Life is Strange game.
Interestingly, there’s no “canon” Life is Strange as Double Exposure will let you pick which ending happened, albeit through indirect means. In my playthrough, it seemed that it followed the Chloe dies ending based on journal entries.
I didn’t get to try this choosing your ending aspect of the game. Instead, the first chapter of my hands-on session jumped right into the game’s intro.
Gameplay here is as you’d expect from a Life is Strange game as your goal is to keep the story moving forward by making decisions, exploring areas, and solving puzzles. In this first chapter, there are not a lot of things to do yet as it’s mostly about setting up the story events going forward.
Still, this first chapter was engaging as it opened with a comfy moment featuring Max along with some new friends, Moses and Safi. There are some choices to be made here already, along with some interactive items that have some touching callbacks to the first game (make sure to look at the telescope) but whatever you do, this chapter leads to Safi’s death.
The shift in tone is a bit sudden, but it still works for the intro. Plus, the fact that the chapter starts off with a warm and fuzzy feeling helps enhance the impact of Safi’s death.
While I would’ve liked to see what exactly happens next, the demo that I played shifted a bit further into the story to showcase its new parallel world system.
A Small Taste of the Parallel Worlds Mechanic
In the first game, Max’s power was she could rewind time. Now though, Max has gained the new ability to switch to another timeline. In many ways, this is a natural evolution of the first game’s signature mechanic as timeline shifting is another time-based ability.
During the first chapter, this ability is hinted at by visions she gets, though because of the nature of the hands-on, I didn’t get to see how Max discovered this ability.
What you need to know here is that there aren’t a huge number of timelines. Instead, there are only two: one where Safi died and another where Safi didn’t. Thus, Max aims to prevent Safi’s murder.
As for her goal in the second chapter I played, she must find a way inside Moses’ office to retrieve Safi’s camera without being caught. That’s because Moses is suspected as Safi’s killer in the darker timeline, and authorities finding Safi’s camera in his office will further lead to him becoming the prime suspect. To help Moses out, Max must switch between the first and second timelines to find a way to retrieve the camera.
In the game’s levels, you can see some floating particles which indicate places where you can jump to the other timeline. I won’t spoil exactly how to find the camera, but it consists of multiple jumps between the parallel worlds.
Solving this puzzle is fairly straightforward in the demo I played, though the mechanic seems promising given the potential for creativity when it comes to puzzles. It should also help that, based on my time with the game, there seem to be only two timelines (hopefully we don’t end up dealing with multiversal shenanigans here).
There are things that I thought undercut the tension of this chapter a bit. To start, even though the story makes it seem you’re pressed for time, you can leisurely walk around the level and look at various items. You’d want to do this to get a better understanding of the story and characters, but it kind of feels weird to do so given the situation. This isn’t a huge issue though as this is a thing in almost all story-driven adventure games.
Another thing that can be concerning is stealth. Yes, there’s a stealth segment in this chapter, though thankfully, it’s not annoying as you simply have to transport yourself to another world to find a way to sneak out. Hopefully, this means no more annoying mandatory stealth sections.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure Initial Impressions | A Promising Sequel
Again, my time with Life is Strange: Double Exposure was fairly short, though it did leave me interested to find out more about what happens next to Max. I’m also looking forward to how the developers at Deck Nine will use the timeline jumping mechanic for puzzles.
It likely won’t convert players who aren’t fans of these types of adventure games. On the flip side, this has all the makings of a must-play for Life is Strange fans. Fingers crossed that its story and mechanics maintain a good level of quality throughout the game’s runtime.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure will be released in Asia on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam on October 30, 2024. Meanwhile, it will launch on October 29 in the West.