The one and only Max Caulfield, protagonist of the very first Life is Strange game, returns for another adventure – Life is Strange: Double Exposure. Those are amazing news for LiS fans, but I'll even do you one better: the game comes out this year!
Max Caulfield: a shy girl with a messenger bag, attending art school, listening to indie songs wherever she goes and solving a murder with her time-traveling powers while also saving her best friend Chloe from accidentally killing herself at every turn – the average American highschool girl!
The very first Life is Strange from 2015 is an episodic adventure game by Dontnod Enertainment and tells the story of Max Caulfield and Chloe Price trying to find out what happened to Rachel Amber, the missing popular girl. It's one of those games where your decisions play a huge part in the narrative, and it's also one of those games that makes you fall in love with its characters just to rip your heart to shreds when said decisions get really hard to make – fun!
After two more Life is Strange games that didn't feature the original cast (which you should also play, by the way), Max returns with a whole new crisis – let's take a look what Deck Nine has in store for us!
Life is Strange: Double Exposure Brings Back Original Protagonist Max
Life is Strange: Double Exposure comes to PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 on October 29, 2024 and sees Max in an achingly familiar, yet new crisis: her closest friend is in grave danger and she has to use her time-traveling powers to try and save her from ending up dead in the snow.
The twist? She doesn't only rewind time to save her, but finds herself in a parallel universe – we've seen that before in the original game when Max met an alternative version of Chloe bound to a wheelchair. While her time-traveling powers might be rusty after years of not using them, one thing hasn't changed: she'll do anything to save her friend. Never touch a running system, right?
She has to deal with two killers now, one in each timeline to save Safi, her closest friend. And you know what? I'm so ready to get my heart broken again. That's something the whole franchise excels in – it may be bittersweet, or cute, or devastating, but there are always moments in those games that get the waterworks going.
Will Chloe Be In Life is Strange: Double Exposure?
One question fans ask themselves is if Chloe will have a little cameo in the upcoming new game. The trailer didn't show her and Max has to deal with a new friend who's life is in danger, so Chloe's legacy carries on in that way, at least.
The thing is: it's not entirely clear what Chloe's fate was at the end of the very first game. You could either save her or Arcadia Bay at the end of Life is Strange and while it was kind of obvious which choice the developers wanted you to make, not everyone got the same ending – in some of them, Chloe survives, in others, she dies tragically (what, you guessed it, made me sob uncontrollably).
In Life is Strange 2, if you had saved file of the first game, there's one conversation that changes depending on your last choice. Double Exposure seems to go a similar route and lets you choose your own canon. You won't need a saved file, but choose the "Bae or Bay" thing before starting Double Exposure's story. For now, it seems the only consequence is how a conversation between Max and Safi plays out.
There's still hope for a little Chloe cameo, though, i.e. Max calling Chloe for whatever reason or, alternatively, telling Safi that it's not her first rodeo with time-travelling shenanigans and talking about a friend she once lost. Chances are this is the most we can get, though – and it may be for the best. It's a whole new story, so acknowledging Chloe is important for Max' character and a bittersweet throwback, but focusing on her current adventure seems like the better choice.
Watch The First Gameplay Footage For Ultimate Nostalgia
In June, fans got the first look at the gameplay in the form of an 18-minutes long nostalgia-inducing reveal. Take a look for yourself:
The music? The dorky narration? Max Effing Caulfield back in business and having to save yet another friend? It really feels like catching up with an old friend which makes long-time fans of the franchise even more excited.
The game will be developed by Deck Nine instead of DontNod – Deck Nine are the devs behind True Colors and the masterpiece that was Before the Storm (yes, I have a soft spot for Chloe and Rachel) while DontNod are the OG devs that did LiS and LiS 2.
What do you think? Are you excited for Max to return or would you rather see other previous protagonists or a whole new cast?
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