Life is Strange: Double Exposure - Final Thoughts

This post contains spoilers.

I just finished Life is Strange: Double Exposure. I can't say I loved it, in fact it's my least favorite of the series, but I still enjoyed it a lot.

So, quick recap: Max is an adult now, and working at a university. She hasn't used her powers in years. As I mentioned in my previous post, you can choose which ending you picked in the first game, and whether Chloe was a friend or a sweetheart. Unfortunately, even if Chloe lived, the pair broke up off-screen between games.

It's easy to see why the writers felt they had to do this. They wanted to respect both endings from the first game, so they couldn't have Chloe play a major role in this one. It's one thing to have Chloe send you the occasional text, but it's another to record motion capture and tons of dialogue for a character only half the players will see.

So they had a good reason, but they still dropped the ball. They could easily have given Chloe an excuse to be away on a trip somewhere, so they wouldn't anger half their fanbase. But they also wanted to give Max some romance options, which is ridiculous itself given how skippable the romance is in Double Exposure.

The sad part is that it would be an easy fix even now. They could add a patch that lets you pick "we're still together" at the beginning, changes a few of Chloe's texts to explain her absence, and locks out both romance options. I'll be surprised if that isn't a fan-made mod by the end of the year.

But for the purposes of this review, I'm going to ignore the Chloe problem. Too many people are writing off Double Exposure for Chloe-related reasons, and I would rather judge the game by what's in it, rather than what's not.

So what's in it? Well, the game starts with a few scenes of Max hanging out with her new friends, including a woman named Safi. Then Safi gets shot and Max has to solve the mystery of her murder. Max soon discovers she has the power to shift between two alternate universes, and Safi is still alive in one of them. So she has the unique advantage of being able to solve Safi's murder with Safi's help.

Several characters seem to have a motive, but more weirdness is afoot. Doppelgangers of certain characters keep turning up and ruining their lives. Are these duplicates from alternate timelines? Things really come to a head at the end of chapter 2, when Max finds the last picture on Safi's camera: A pic of Max pointing a gun at Safi.

Max continues interviewing people on campus, using her power to get through locked doors, and rifling through desks for evidence. At the end of chapter 3 she comes face-to-face with herself, and has to chase herself down. Then we get a new revelation - the dopplegangers are actually Safi, who has a superpower of her own: shapeshifting.

Safi and Max talk about their superpowers, Safi explains why she hurt the people she hurt, and the two conspire to expose a local plagiarist. But then everything goes to hell. Safi loses her temper and breaks the minds of everyone nearby, Max's powers cause another storm to manifest, and there's another "Nightmare World" like the one in the final chapter of the original game.

Honestly, this is where the game lost me. There were an awful lot of "things happen because they happen" events, not to mention a good bit of filler. There was a part where Max kept going through hotel rooms that could have been lifted right out without anyone noticing.

Every game in the series has a signature "final choice," and some of them are more heartbreaking than others. The the original game presented you with a near-impossible decision, while True Colors gave you a more mellow "which happy ending would you like to view" choice. But the one in Double Exposure was so subdued I wasn't even sure if that was the final choice.

The ending seems to be setting up an Avengers-ish gathering. If this game makes enough money, the next game will definitely involve Max and Safi collecting more super-powered people. Maybe we'll see the return of characters from LiS2 and True Colors.

This might be wishful thinking, but there's also a line at the end of Double Exposure that implies that Max might get back together with Chloe (assuming she's alive in your game). Honestly, if the writers want to guarantee the next game sells better, they should announce Chloe's return right now. It could still respect the first game's ending. Maybe have an alternate character take her place (and a lot of her dialogue) if she died in the first game.

Note To Fans: If you ever want that to happen, then please stop threatening the staff of Deck Nine. They might just decide the Life is Strange franchise isn't worth it, and then Max & Chloe's breakup becomes permanent canon.

By the way, I bought the Ultimate version simply because I'd just gotten a bonus when Double Exposure was first announced. This version comes with some extra outfits and has a subplot where Max finds a lost cat. If you're on the fence about which edition to buy, personally I didn't find the bonus content to be worth the price. The cat is only in maybe four scenes.

Final Thoughts: Like every game in the series, Double Exposure is a beautiful game with difficult choices and a nice soundtrack. Unfortunately the plot isn't as interesting as its predecessors, and it contains some controversial writing choices. I like where the story arc is leading, though, and with a little luck the next game will knock it out of the park.

Ranking the Life is Strange Games:

1. Life is Strange

2. Life is Strange: Before the Storm

3. Life is Strange: True Colors

4. The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit

5. Life is Strange 2

6: Life is Strange: Double Exposure

Life is Strange: Double Exposure – First Impressions

Note: This post contains major spoilers for the original Life is Strange game, but only minor ones for Double Exposure.

So if you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I’m a big fan of the Life is Strange series. I didn’t play any of them until 2018, three years after the original was released, but I’ve posted at least a dozen blogs about the series.

The newest entry in the series, “Double Exposure,” has caused controversy since it was first announced. For starters, it doesn’t officially release until 10/29, but people who pre-ordered the “Ultimate Edition” got to play the first two chapters two weeks early. Some people liken this to paying to be a beta tester. Other people just hated that you don’t get enough stuff for the extra $30. (In addition to playing early, you also get a couple of new outfits and a pet cat.)

There’s also been some behind-the-scenes turmoil within the company that’s causing controversy, and some of the early players are experiencing bugs, both major and minor.

But the biggest complaint is how they handled the ongoing canon of the series. The first Life is Strange game ended with a very difficult choice: Should Max allow her best friend Chloe to die, or should she let a hurricane wipe out the entire town of Arcadia Bay?

Personally I think sacrificing Chloe is the “better” ending, in that it feels more cinematic and gives the entire game a sort of Twilight Zone vibe. Pricefield shippers, put your torches down. This does not mean I prefer that ending or that I consider it more canon. All I’m saying is that it’s tighter, and it feels more like how a story should end.

But the other ending - Sacrifice Arcadia Bay - has the advantage of being more ambiguous, in a “The Adventure Continues…” sort of way. That’s the ending the comics start from, which makes perfect sense for an ongoing series. The developers claim neither ending is canon, which was the whole point of letting you pick your ending .

The game was followed by a prequel (Before the Storm), then two sequels that star mostly-new characters. Life is Strange 2 asked you which ending you picked in the first game, but it only affected a couple of scenes. The writers could have skipped mentioning the first game entirely, so your choice is basically “which fanservice easter eggs would you like to see?”

The next game, True Colors, gives your choice a bit more weight in the bonus story “Wavelengths,” in which a former resident of Arcadia Bay comes to terms with the first game’s tragedies.

The new game, Double Exposure, handles it a little differently. Instead of the UI just asking you point blank which ending you picked, it takes a cue from “Knights of the Old Republic II” and asks you through dialogue. (Okay, KotOR2 isn’t the only game to do this, but why make just any old reference when I can make a Star Wars reference?)

Near the beginning of Double Exposure, Max has a conversation with her friend Safi, who asks Max about a photo in her wallet. First she asks if Chloe was Max's friend or girlfriend. Then she asks what happened to her. Your only choices are “She Died” or “We Broke Up.”

That pissed a lot of people off, and I can see why. Many fans who picked the “Sacrifice Arcadia Bay” ending expected it to mean that Max and Chloe lived happily ever after. Together. Even though Double Exposure follows either ending, it still found a way to screw up the canon (or at least the headcanon) for a lot of players.

I wish Double Exposure had given a third option. They could have added “We’re Still Together But She’s Out Of Town” or something. But then they wouldn’t have been able to give Max dating options in the game. So far I could live without those relationship options, but who knows? They might become more relevant to the plot later.

Anyway, a good portion of the fan base is furious. Some players have gotten their game refunded, some are boycotting the company, and some have even gone as far as to threaten the programming staff. That’s never cool.

The problem is, the game ain’t over yet. We’re only two chapters in, and the rest of the game doesn’t release for another week. I’m not saying the ending will fix it, but it’s ridiculous to complain until you know for sure.

A huge part of Double Exposure involves travelling between two versions of reality. What if, in the final chapter, Max realizes that neither reality is the “prime” reality? Maybe both are skewed, and she has to find a way to get to the real one. By the end of the third chapter, she might be traveling among five or six realities. Maybe in one of them, Chloe and Max never broke up.

And maybe the game’s final choice lets you decide which reality you want to live in. Wouldn’t that be interesting?

Is any of that likely? No. Sometimes it feels like the game is foreshadowing a Chloe appearance, but I’m not going to hold my breath. They probably remain broken up. But complaining about it before you know for sure is like sending back your pizza while it’s still in the oven.

Personally I wish people would judge a story by what’s in it rather than what they wanted to be in it. Admittedly I can be hypocritical on that point. Sure, when Star Wars fans hated on The Force Awakens for tossing the old extended canon in the trash, I said get over it and enjoy the movie. But I still refuse to forgive Alien 3 for undoing the previous movie’s happy ending. Some people say the Alien 3 Assembly Cut is actually a very good horror movie if you give it a chance, but I can’t do that. Hey, I never said I was perfect.

Regardless, I intend to judge Double Exposure on its own merits, and so far it’s really good. The graphics have come a long way. I love the facial expressions. You can actually tell what people are thinking by their faces, and not in a cartoonish way. I love Max’s new ability to shift between two versions of reality. Some of the puzzles remind me of “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.” Especially the ones where you keep shifting back and forth just to get past obstacles.

The plot is predictable in places, but the biggest plot twists still surprised me. Especially the one at the end of chapter 2. There are a lot of suspicious characters milling about the game, but the real bad guy will probably turn out to be someone who never seemed sus at all. The game has some decent puzzles, but none of them have sent me online looking for a solution.

The game is a little glitchy in places. Note I’m playing on the Steam Deck. Sometimes I’ll go through a door and the new environment will load in one piece at a time, with weird bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Sometimes the sunlight looks like it’s going supernova, but only from certain camera angles. But none of this has been game breaking so far.

Like all Life is Strange games, the scenery is beautiful. They always pick gorgeous towns as their settings, and this one is no different. Though so far I don’t think Lakeport is as iconic as Arcadia Bay or even Haven Springs. I just played “Tell Me Why” a couple of months ago, so Double Exposure’s snowscapes kind of feel like more of the same.

I’m not in love with how you choose Max’s wardrobe at the beginning of each chapter. I can’t explain it, it’s just such an abrupt, no-frills clothing selection screen, and it feels like a placeholder for something better.

The soundtrack is excellent, as usual, though none of the songs have really resonated with me the way they did in some of the earlier games.

Overall I’m having a great time. I don’t mind the break-up thing, as I see this game as one of many possible timelines. I do hope they clarify that in the ending though, just to keep the other fans happy. I’m eagerly anticipating the rest of the chapters and I can’t wait to see how everything is resolved.

Wonka

Wonka is fun. It feels a lot closer to Roald Dahl’s style than the Tim Burton movie*. I don’t think Wonka’s origin story was really a tale that needed to be told, but it’s told well and worth watching if you’re a fan of the character. The music was pretty good, if not always memorable. A couple of the songs were really catchy, but most of them failed to leave an impression on me. The special effects are great, and it really captures the look its going for.

* ...which I also enjoyed, but when you get down to it, it felt more like a Tim Burton movie than a Roald Dahl story.

Buffy v Angel: Dawn of Josstice

So, we’re currently binging Buffy & Angel. I’ve seen Buffy all the way through before, but I’d only seen maybe a third of Angel. We’re alternating between the two series, following a guide that ensures we see the episodes in the right order. I’m also following someone on Twitter who’s watching them for the first time, and their insights are often hilarious.

I love Buffy, even though some aspects of it haven’t aged well (especially the creator). Just a couple of nights ago we reached “Once More With Feeling” (s06e07), and it remains one of the greatest episodes in TV history. I still have the songs stuck in my head two days later. Okay, that’s partly because I put the soundtrack on my phone and listened to it at lunch. I’m also a big fan of “Hush” (s04E10), which is just an all-around amazing episode.

I’m not digging Angel, though. There are reasons I never finished it before. When you’re going back and forth between the two shows, the difference in quality is striking. Every night it’s like, “If we sit through an Angel, we get to enjoy a Buffy.” I’m glad we’re mostly alternating, because Angel is a real slog on its own. If I wasn’t determined to see it through this time, I’d have given up on Angel already. People keep telling me it gets better, and I hope they’re right. There’s several episodes I’m looking forward to, like the one where Angel gets turned into a puppet.

The character of Angel is just so incredibly mopey and dull. He’s easily the least interesting character on his own show. David Boreanaz has decent comic timing, but the writers don’t let him quip enough (so far). He just spends so much time standing around and looking sad.

They keep flashing back to Angel’s past, which kind of reminds me of watching the Highlander TV series. That would be fun, except Angel is just as uninteresting in the past. At least Duncan Macleod went to other countries and assumed new identities, palling around with famous people and having period-appropriate adventures. Angelus spent his entire past wearing the same clothes and terrorizing identical villages. No wonder he’s so depressed all the time. I seriously can’t tell one episode’s flashback from another’s.

The whole concept of Angel feels like the kind of spin-off people parody. They took all the characters Buffy didn’t need on her show any more, moved them to Los Angeles, and had them start a detective agency. Doesn’t that sound like something you’d see on the Simpsons? I do love Angel’s supporting cast, especially Fred and Lorne. But I also know not to get too attached to anyone, because the writers are known for killing off some of the best characters for the sake of easy drama. And it’s that much harder to get invested in a show when you know that.

Look, I understand that “dark & edgy” was popular in the 90s. But Angel’s not what I’d call dark so much as boring. “Let’s have Angel brood in this corner for a while. Now let’s have him wander off alone because he thinks it’s the only way to protect his friends. Now let’s have him obsess over his past sins. So entertaining! Oh, we’re losing viewers? Better kill off a character. Maybe they’ll mistake it for drama. People like it when their favorite character dies, right?” I’m honestly amazed it managed to last five seasons.

Anyway, we’ve got less than two seasons of Buffy left, and then it’s Angel all the way. I hope Angel’s strong enough to stand on its own by then. I remember Buffy gets pretty dark towards the end as well. But so far, the darkest Buffy episode is still more fun than the most lighthearted Angel episode. I hope to get proven wrong about that though.

The Marvels

Wow, that was fun! I'm not sure why this movie didn't do better, but I have some ideas. The Marvels is a great time, that doesn't take itself too seriously. No, it's not groundbreaking, but it doesn't need to be. It's just an enjoyable popcorn-muncher like Ant-Man.

One of the things it does right is the way it handles Monica's and Kamala's origin stories. Since both were already told in the TV shows, the movie doesn't have to be bogged down explaining it again. They do sum them up, but it's given about the same amount of screentime as Peter's origin in "Spider-Man Homecoming" - the spider's dead, let's move on.

Which got me thinking - in a lot of superhero franchises, the second movie is better than the first. Sometimes the reason for this is that the first movie focuses on the hero's origin story, and doesn't leave much time for a deeper plot. Maybe Disney+ should be "origin story central" going forward. A hero's true fans can learn their origins on TV, and later their movie can just sum it up and get to the real plot. And the beauty is, they could shoot both at the same time.

For those that complained that Carol didn't have much personality in the first film, well, you're idiots - they explained that in-universe by way of her amnesia. Anyway, she's a lot less wooden in the sequel, and it turns out she can actually be pretty funny. Of course, some sexist pricks still won't be satisfied.

The villain in The Marvels is... um... honestly I don't even remember her name. And you won't either. She's basically discount Ronan The Accuser, and she's even less interesting than the bad guy in Thor: The Dark World. But it doesn't matter, the action scenes are still great, and the body-switching thing gives the whole movie an almost Gilligan's Island vibe.

Important: It has a mid-credits scene that you won't want to miss. Even if you're such an insufferable incel that you'd rather die than watch a movie with a female lead, at least look up the mid-credits scene. You'll want to know.

The bottom line is that it's a fun, if forgettable movie. It has a lot of comedy, but not a lot of substance. Nobody is going to claim it's the best Marvel movie, but it's more fun than at least half of them.

When The Trailer Is Better Than The Movie

I love scary movies where there’s a sense of “wrongness” instead of an obvious monster. You know, movies where the vibe is more unsettling than scary. However, most of these movies end up disappointing me by the end. It seems like nobody can write a payoff that lives up to the original concepts. Sometimes these stories would have worked better as short films than full-length features. For that reason, the trailers for these movies are often more interesting than the movie itself. In some cases, I’d happily watch the trailer over and over again, just because they’re like short films in themselves.

Lights Out was a great short film. I can’t comment on the full movie because I haven’t seen it, but from the reviews I’ve read, it wasn’t very good. And that makes sense. The concept of Lights Out just doesn’t work as a two-hour movie. The scare was based around a single special effect – a shadowy figure that only appears in the dark, and vanishes when the lights are on. I don’t think that concept would even work for a half-hour “Tales From The Darkside” episode. But as a 5 minute film, it’s pretty scary.

Vivarium had a really cool concept. A couple is in the market for a house, and looks at a place in one of those cookie cutter communities. When they’re ready to leave, they get lost trying to find their way out of the neighborhood. After dozens of turns, they end up back in front of the same house. They try again and again until they run out of gas, and always end up in front of the same house. At one point one of them climbs up on the roof for a better view, and just sees an endless neighborhood of identical houses, as far as the eye can see in every direction. The trailer for Vivarium pretty much sums up the first half hour of the movie, which is the best part. After that, it just goes downhill. The writers just couldn’t think of anything that could top the concept itself. It’s still not a bad movie, and it has a few cool ideas, but the full movie just can’t live up to the trailer.

Don’t Worry Darling is pretty much the same way. The trailer shows an ideal, almost utopian community from the 50s or 60s, but you can tell something dark is going on behind the scenes. Unfortunately, when you see the full movie, the actual twist is nowhere near as cool as whatever you were building up in your head.

Smile wasn’t bad. I enjoyed it, I really did. But it wasn’t nearly as creepy as the movie I thought I was going to see. It doesn’t help that the coolest scene in the trailer turns out to be a dream in the film itself. Given the title of the movie and all the smiling people in the trailer, I thought the smiling aspect was going to be a bigger part of the plot. But it’s more of a standard killer ghost story, and smiling before death is just one symptom of its curse. Note that Smile was also based on a short film.

A little off-topic, but I absolutely hated Cabin Fever (2002). It doesn’t really fit the “creepy and unsettling” theme of this blog, but it’s a great example of a horror movie with misleading trailers. I knew it was about a disease, but I thought the disease would make people attack each other like zombies. But no, it’s just about a quick-spreading flesh-eating virus. People catch it, they get sick, they die. I know it sounds like I was just disappointed that it wasn’t a zombie movie, but even for what it is, it’s a snoozefest. It never goes anywhere particularly interesting, and some of the characters are downright annoying.

The bottom line is, some movies just work better as short films. And sometimes the people who edit trailers are more competent than the people who write movies. But none of this is going to stop me from seeing the next cool-looking movie with a five-minute concept. You might say I never learn, but the truth is, I just have nothing better to do with my time.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Not bad, but nothing to write home about. I’ll probably watch it again, which is more than I can say for Crystal Skull. I’d like to say Destiny is about as good as Temple of Doom, but I can’t. Temple has a several iconic action set pieces, like the mine cart ride. Destiny has a couple of scenes that stand out, but nothing that makes me want to go back and see it again.

Unfortunately, the Indiana Jones series just hasn’t aged well. It has a lot of elements that are considered racist and sexist today (and probably even then). Even the core concept of the character – a guy who takes artifacts from their native lands to put them in a museum – is no longer considered a good thing. And frankly, I agree.

But I still think there’s room for Indiana Jones movies that don’t make the above mistakes. I really wish they had made more of them when Harry was in his prime. I mean, it just feels like there should be more Indiana Jones movies out there, doesn’t it? It’s a series that was meant to be serialized, with dozens of adventures that take place at different times in the character’s life. The numerous spin-off books, video games, and tv show are proof of that. In a perfect world, there would be as many Indiana Jones movies as there are James Bond.

But the character really is tied to the actor. I just don’t think anyone could pull off Indy like Harrison Ford. And worse, if there is an actor who could fill Harry’s shoes, he wouldn’t be cast. Hollywood would pick some upbeat babyface actor instead, when the character should be played by someone more grizzled and cynical.

But more than that, I think Indiana Jones just made more sense in the 80s and 90s, before over-the-top action movies were a dime a dozen. These days, what does Indy offer that John Wick doesn’t, other than a different time period? I honestly think Hollywood missed a golden opportunity, by not milking the series dry in the 90s.

Ranking the Indiana Jones Movies:
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Last Crusade
3. Temple of Doom
4. Dial of Destiny
5. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull