Life Is Strange: Double Exposure Review (PS5)

After taking up improvement duties from Don’t Nod, Deck 9 actually made the Life Is Unusual sequence its personal with 2021’s True Colors. Now heading up Double Publicity, the developer is reaching into Don’t Nod territory by bringing again everyone’s favorite hella awkward teen, Max Caulfield, now as an grownup. With a twisting and turning narrative and loads of supernatural hijinx, how has this newest outing from Deck 9 fared? Sadly, it’s not fairly the homecoming celebration we had been hoping for.

Double Publicity vegetation its ft firmly in Caledon College Campus, a prestigious high-quality arts college the place Max Caulfield resides as a lecturer in pictures. As followers of the unique, it’s a variety of enjoyable attending to see a grown up Max, nonetheless very obsessed with pictures and playfully commenting on all the things she sees. The actual juice lies in Max’s troubled previous although, with despondent messages and a guarded secrecy displaying the occasions of Arcadia Bay nonetheless very a lot hang-out her.

Now although with a brand new small group of buddies and an idyllic wintry setting, Double Publicity arrives with the extent of cosiness you’d count on from the sequence. The outdated Victorian college campus is coated in snow, everyone seems to be wrapped up in heat trying jackets with pleasant smiles, and the inviting color palette had us excited to cosy as much as our PS5s. However after all, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows when a physique is discovered on campus.

After the mysterious homicide of considered one of her buddies, Max should use her time talents – one thing she’d vowed by no means to do once more – to resolve the thriller. In contrast to the primary sequence, Double Publicity ditches Max’s rewind powers in trade for 2 timelines. Max can swap between a timeline the place her buddy is lifeless, and one the place she isn’t. It’s an fascinating multiversal homicide thriller that sees you connecting the dots between totally different variations of the identical forged of characters.

Double Publicity begins out sturdy, with an intriguing and sharp first couple of episodes – there are 5 in whole. Establishing relationships together with your co-workers and college students, you’ll utilise your timeline hopping talents to bypass obstacles, wring info out of 1 model of a personality to pry extra out of the opposite, and piece collectively its central thriller.

It’s a improbable stability in these earlier elements of the story, as you need to preserve observe of the kind of relationship you could have with every character in every timeline. You might be finest buddies in a single timeline and sworn enemies in one other – and the sport will allow you to slip up with which model instructed you what if you happen to’re not cautious.

It is made all the higher due to the returning Max Caulfield. By no means a personality we felt the necessity to see once more, a grown-up Max in Double Publicity is like operating right into a highschool finest buddy. She’s simply as likeable as ever, and it is bizarre in a method to see her consuming at bars or speaking about her intercourse life. However in all the proper methods this nonetheless feels just like the angsty teen we fell in love with within the first recreation, with only a sprint of trauma from her previous expertise. And for these questioning, Double Publicity is respectfully cautious to name again an excessive amount of to the primary recreation. There’s references and moments followers of the unique will take pleasure in, however for all intents and functions this can be a standalone journey.

Sadly, the additional into Double Publicity you delve the extra floor degree all the things begins to look. For one the setting of Caledon College campus is severely missing compared to previous cities like Arcadia Bay and Haven Springs. The whole recreation takes place in only a handful of settings, but none actually seize the essence of a college campus. We by no means see the coed lodging, a packed cafeteria, hell, we by no means even see a category going down. There are NPCs dotted round which you can take heed to, however it feels fairly insular in comparison with previous seasons.

And that in a approach continues over to the characters. Whereas there are some characters we discover fascinating like Gwen, or lovable like Moses, the enjoying discipline is flat since college students and colleagues are all handled the identical by Max. It’s very simple to neglect that Max is even a instructor at Caledon, as she texts college students and barely appears to have grownup relationships with any of the opposite lecturers. Whereas it’s not fully detrimental to the characters themselves, it takes away from the setting’s believability, one thing shortly perfected in earlier seasons.

As well as, the central thriller, whereas it has its goosebump inducing moments, it will definitely begins to really feel just a little too reliant on the supernatural. Life Is Unusual has by some means at all times managed to keep up an ideal stability between its darkish story and material, and the extra far off powers of its protagonists. By no means as soon as throughout True Colors did we query the fact of a protagonist that would see and really feel different individuals’s feelings. But right here, Max’s talents begin to really feel like one thing out of a younger grownup novel.

Positive, if there was a sequence to suit the younger grownup novel descriptor, it might be Life Is Unusual, however it’s by no means fairly felt like that earlier than. Whereas earlier seasons have had darkish secrets and techniques uncovered with the help of supernatural powers, in Double Publicity the powers are too entwined with the thriller for our liking. It takes away from that darker and considerably grounded tone of earlier seasons, and for us meant large revelations fell just a little flat.

Double Publicity additionally lacks the emotional resonance of earlier outings. Whereas there have been moments the place we had a lump in our throat or thought “aww, that’s good”, there hardly ever had been the tear-inducing moments like Max’s closing choice on the finish of the primary season. We’re certain a few of you will see that that resonance however for us, it simply didn’t hit this time round.

One thing Double Publicity will get so extremely proper although are the visuals. True Colors was an enormous step up for the sequence, and this outing takes it even additional. The identical heat color palette is on show, and there are these flairs of inventive graphical fashion, however there’s a layer of realism and believability to its designs. Unbelievable lighting and much improved facial animations make this a correctly cinematic expertise at instances. We had been impressed to take screenshots on a regular basis, as a result of it’s simply such a pleasant trying recreation.

There are moments when the sport palms management over to you, and whereas all the things is pretty restricted gameplay sensible, all of it seems and runs good sufficient. There’s a top quality and efficiency mode for those who need the selection, however on this case we opted for high quality with no actual visible points.

Annoyingly, Double Publicity falls in need of technical perfection because the pre-release construct that we skilled is plagued with audio points. Dialogue incessantly cuts in, one second it is drowned out by background music, the following it’s extremely loud, and typically dialogue would simply be utterly lacking from a scene. A pre-launch patch is outwardly on the best way, however from what we skilled this was the most important technical disadvantage of Double Publicity.

Conclusion

If it looks as if we’re dogging on this newest outing for the sequence, it’s solely as a result of we all know simply how distinctive and entertaining it may be. Double Publicity isn’t a foul recreation, it’s simply not the sequence at its finest. It loses a few of that inviting ambiance with Caledon paling compared to Haven Springs or Arcadia Bay, and its narrative suffers from an overreliance on the supernatural. However we’d be mendacity if we mentioned it wasn’t nice to see Max Caulfield return and we nonetheless assume it is price testing if you happen to’re a fan of the sequence.