Preview Double Exposure Stretches Life Is Strange Across Two Gripping Timelines

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The Life Is Strange franchise is at its best whenever Max Caulfield is around, so Double Exposure already has a leg up on its predecessors. The latest narrative entry on PS5 marks only the second time the popular protagonist has played the lead role, and Deck Nine Games isn't purely leaning on her welcome return to sell copies. With a new superpower and a murder case to solve, Double Exposure proves compelling across two timelines — and her friend Safi is dead in just one of them.

Set years after the events of the original title, Max is attending university and has found a new home with a fresh group of friends. She's stopped using her powers — actively suppressing them — until she witnesses the death of a pal named Safi. Max attempts to tap into her original power and rewind time to save her, but fails and instead creates an alternate timeline in which Safi is still alive. This event forms the core structure of the narrative: using the two timelines, Max has to figure out who killed Safi and clear any innocent names.

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Our demo, running on an Xbox Series X dev kit, picked the action up at the start of the second chapter, with Max and her friend Moses raising the suspicions of a police officer. Moses took a camera from the crime scene, and if it's found by the cop, then he might become prime suspect number one. Max can shift between the two in-game timelines by interacting with sparkly spots in the environment, and doing so removes her physical presence from the place she was just in. With the policeman trying to enter the locked office belonging to Moses, you shift to the other timeline when he's going about his day with an open door. By asking the Moses in this timeline about where he might hide something, we work through the scenario by phasing between the two existences, narrowing down where the camera might be. You can take objects and keys from one timeline into the other, and also plant distractions for the police officer after he's had enough of waiting for the door to be unlocked.

As long as you do not fail the scene, it concludes in a choice between accepting the help of the cop or refusing to work with him — this decision is also where our demo ended. It's made quite clear they strongly suspect Moses is behind the murder, so the dilemma is all about protecting your friend or getting the heat off Max.

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Gameplay-wise, Double Exposure is structured just like any other instalment in the series. You'll explore many locations and environments — in the case of the demo, it's a classroom themed around astronomy — looking for interactive objects, and generally rummaging through people's belongings. Max will comment on almost anything, and sometimes claim something for herself that might help you progress. In essence, if you've played a Life Is Strange game before, you already know what to expect. Double Exposure by no means rocks the boat in that regard, instead allowing its powerful and personal storytelling to do the heavy lifting.

That's okay, though, because with Lost Records: Bloom & Rage now making room for the Life Is Strange heavyweight in October, these sorts of games make for perfect palette cleansers in between the bigger RPGs and action-adventure titles of the world. Life Is Strange: Double Exposure is another Life Is Strange game in every possible way. That's exactly why we're looking forward to jumping back into the shoes of Max Caulfield in a few short months.

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Life Is Strange: Double Exposure launches for PS5 on 29th October 2024. Are you excited to play as Max Caulfield once more? Let us know in the comments below.