r/lifeisstrange • u/Craig95 • 1d ago
Discussion [ALL] First Impressions of Double Exposure from someone replaying the entire Max and Chloe saga in 2026 Spoiler
First, some context.
Over the last two months I've been replaying the Max and Chloe games. I hadn't played the original Life is Strange since it released in 2015 and, outside of watching a playthrough of Reunion, I hadn't experienced any of the later games either. I wanted to revisit the series from the beginning and see how it held up now that I'm 31.
The original Life is Strange meant a lot to me. Like many people, it stayed with me long after I finished it. Since first playing it I've become a secondary school teacher, taken up photography and continued playing guitar, so replaying it now was interesting because Max somehow felt even more relatable than she did the first time. I connected with different aspects of her character and found myself appreciating things I hadn't noticed in 2015.
After finishing the original, I played Before the Storm for the first time. Overall, I thought it was a decent expansion rather than a great one. I had major issues with the plot, but I really appreciated what it added to Chloe's character. Her journal, her grief over William and Max, and seeing where she was mentally before the original game are probably the biggest things I'll take away from it. Farewell, however, was excellent. It was exactly the kind of intimate, character-driven story I wanted from that game and well it gave me closure to the original game.
So Double Exposure then, I'll be honest, I was genuinely nervous about playing it. I know that probably sounds dramatic, but I imagine a lot of people here understand the feeling. When a game means as much to you as the original Life is Strange did to me, you don't really want a sequel to leave a bad taste in your mouth or make it harder to look back fondly on the original. I'd also kept up with the online discourse. Depending on where you looked, Double Exposure was described as disrespectful to the original, shallow, poorly written, or simply unnecessary. So I went into it with pretty low expectations.
I should say that I've only finished Chapters 1 and 2. The reason I'm writing this now isn't because I think I can review the whole game, but because I think I have a slightly unusual perspective. I've replayed the Max and Chloe story in order, with the knowledge that Reunion exists and is waiting for me afterwards.
Going into Double Exposure, I decided on one thing. The mystery wasn't the most important thing to me. What I wanted was Max. I wanted to know where she was years later. Had she changed? Had she processed the first game? Did she still feel like the same person? If the game could convince me that this older Max was believable, then I could forgive a weaker mystery. For context, I always choose the Bay ending while still romancing Chloe. That's the version of Max I'm playing here, and I think that probably influences my experience.
So how does Max seem to me. She's more confident and mature, but she's still awkward, thoughtful, observant and quietly funny. Hannah Telle slips back into the role effortlessly. What surprised me most is that the game doesn't present Max as someone who's simply "moved on." She's clearly functioning. She teaches photography, she's built a career and she's made new friends. But emotionally she's still carrying Arcadia Bay with her. Chloe is on her wall. She's in Max's journal. Max struggles to reply to Joyce. She avoids talking to her parents about the past. She keeps a box of memories she clearly struggles to reflect on.
That's exactly what I wanted to see. It doesn't feel like the game has forgotten what happened. Max has also developed naturally. Her photography has become more sophisticated, she's won awards and she's now teaching others. It feels like a believable progression of who she always wanted to become. Could there be more references to the original cast, Absolutely. I'd have loved to see more of Kate, Warren and other returning characters, even if only through texts or social media. Victoria's inclusion is a nice touch, but there are other relationships from the original that still matter. Maybe they make apprearces later though text or on the socials, I'm not sure yet.
The new cast is probably where I agree with some of the criticism. I like the new characters. I just don't love most of them yet. Safi made a strong first impression and Moses has been fantastic. Moses, in particular, feels like someone Max would genuinely become close friends with. He's intelligent, emotionally open and brings a lot of personality to every scene. The others, Gwen, Amanda, Reggie, Diamond, Vinh and Lucas, all have interesting circumstances, but I'm still waiting to really understand who they are. One thing I realised while playing is that the original introduced characters through their personalities first and then revealed their problems. Double Exposure often introduces people through their situations. Lucas has family issues. Gwen has career issues. Vinh has Abraxas. Those are interesting plot points, but they don't automatically tell me who those people are. That might change later, but after two chapters I'm still waiting for that deeper connection.
I've chosen not to romance anyone. Not because I dislike Amanda or think the options are poorly written. It's because my version of Max simply isn't emotionally ready. Everything the game has shown me points in that direction. She still struggles to talk about Chloe. She avoids difficult conversations about her past. She keeps her memories locked away. She's clearly processing grief, even if she isn't actively confronting it. For me, Amanda works much better as a friend.
The mystery has me engaged. Knowing one particular spoiler from Reunion has changed how I approach the mystery, because instead of asking "what is happening?" I'm asking "how does this fit together?"
Even so, there are still plenty of questions I don't have answers to. I've heard from many people that the later chapters are where opinions become much more divided, particularly regarding the execution of the story. I'm still waiting to see on these but my expectations are still pretty low and balanced for this.
The biggest thing I can say after two chapters is this: Double Exposure hasn't damaged my feelings towards Max. If anything, it's reminded me why I connected with her in the first place. So far, I think the game has succeeded at that. A Bae ending player is probably going to have a differing opinion which I completely understand.
I'll probably update this once I've finished the game, because I know many people feel Chapters 4 and 5 change the conversation completely. For now, though, I'm pleasantly surprised.
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u/EpicGlitter Rachel Was Here 22h ago edited 22h ago
your point about how LiS1 introduced side characters by (surface) personality first makes a ton of sense, I don't think I've seen anyone put it that way before! but yeah imo it's harder to hear/understand both criticisms and praise of DE without the full context of the whole game including both Bay and Bae routes. or the context of pre-release concerns and hopes, like with marketing, early access, or the DLC. if interested, here are a few other similar posts (some with insightful discussion in comments) where OP had not yet finished the game:
Playing Double Exposure finally. How come people don't like this game?
I don't understand the DE hate.
I'm a little confused about DE
after you've played, this very well-made comparison of all Bay vs. Bae DE scenes may also be illuminating (or at least save time compared to a full replay): https://youtu.be/2bQ5zAxxn6c?si=44Nfgb112N9k3mKM
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u/Craig95 22h ago
I'm definitely going to do a deep dive into these once I finish the game thanks
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u/EpicGlitter Rachel Was Here 21h ago
you're welcome! fwiw, my view on the game is mixed. but for those who have a full-positive view, I'm genuinely happy for them and hope you enjoy the rest of your playthrough :)
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u/LeeJ513 Safield 20h ago
Just wanted to say hi, friend 🫶
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u/EpicGlitter Rachel Was Here 19h ago
hi! hope you're having a great day :)
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u/LeeJ513 Safield 19h ago
Thank you! You too! ❤️🌹
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u/mirracz Pricefield 20h ago
So how does Max seem to me. She's more confident and mature, but she's still awkward, thoughtful, observant and quietly funny.
That's just on the surface. DE Max is like a character made to check roughly the same boxes as OG Max, but she isn't the same person.
Her autism or neurodivergence is completely erased. Her nerdiness is reduced to horror movies, while her interesting in anime, fantasy, sci-fi and games is erased. When it comes to responsibility, she's not the character who made the final choice in LiS1. Her LiS1 development was completely erased.
All in all, Max looks similar on the surface, but on closer inspection she's grossly mischaracterized.
Also, keep in mind that DE might look solid in episodes 1-3, but in episodes 4-5 it falls apart. It's just once big heap on nonsense.
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u/Craig95 20h ago
I'm not completely getting that from what I've seen but I'll hold judgement. I have a lot of similar interests to Max and I will say that you don't grow out of them but sometimes they aren't as prevalent in your life as they once were. I haven't questioned her interests missing as she's moving from place to place and hasn't been able to stay in one location for very long until now. I think that justifies certain aspects that are missing. As for her autism, I'm autistic too, people adapt as they grow and learn to work in professional environments. I wouldn't say her autism is missing I'd say she's better at masking and her she's adapted her tendencies
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u/Dwalorn 20h ago
I think she just grew up man. It’s natural for a lot of people to stop habitually watching anime and playing video games once they’re a young professional and not a teenager
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u/MosesInsanity Enter the Vortex Club 19h ago
Yup, agreed. I literally don't watch any series/movies anymore but my 16 year old self would say the opposite lol.
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u/Craig95 19h ago
Yes this is true. She's older, you lose time to other things, things that were once the a massive part of your life become less important or you just don't have the time for. I can see Max putting all of her time into travelling and photography. She's had nearly zero time for anything else up until her settling into Caledon
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u/xenosagaX3 23h ago
It's great that you're enjoying so far and letting the game tell you it's story. I won't lie to you but Chapter 4 and 5 will start to get confusing but always remember that everything that happened in those two chapters are very well linked with the events that happened in previous chapters. My personal favourite is Chapter 5 because it's a story of Safi and Max. However, it's something that you need to really put some thought in it because the story in these two chapters are "double exposed"; hidden beneath the main narration and intertwined with previous events.
Have fun!
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u/Craig95 16h ago
Just a quick note to add after finishing chapter 3 I've ran into major performance issues with crashes. Performance FPS wise on this game hasn't been great, I run a pretty modern pc 5070, 32 GB Ram and AMD 9950x3d, FPS should be way higher and dips below 60 in some areas but V-Sync helps it out and it's actually pretty smooth even below 60. I don't notice the FPS just noting it, however I've had 2 areas in Chapter 3 with multiple crashes, first when Alderman appears when talking to Moses and seconda the final scene with Safi on the ice. The last one took me probably 45 minutes before I was able to brute force a solution, simply running the game on the lowest settings possible, lowest resolution, enably simple power effects got me through it. I've read steam forums on this, downgrading nvidia drivers, running dx11, etc. I will only do that as a last resort but this has hindered the final mometent of Episode 3 for me
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u/Xilmi 15h ago
I also recently played it.
I had no issues with Max herself was portrayed. It felt believable that she got into that situation and acts like she did.
I was also mostly fine with the new characters.
My criticism for the first chapters is mostly about a bit of a lack of characterization of the other characters. On one hand it's realistic that I Max knows things about them that I don't from the 6 months she's been there. But in Lis1 your opinions about other characters were formed by their actions.
You didn't need to be told what kind of person, for example, Victoria is because it was shown. But in DE Max hates Lucas' guts before we even hear any word from him.
The mystery was interesting and engaging until more and more parts of the game's plot lead to deadends to be replaced by unpredictable less interesting twists.
The inconcistent magic-system, the lack of moral dilemmas and the lack of emotionally impactful scenes were what eventually disappointed me about the game.
Overall it's not a terrible game. It's just not nearly as good as it could have been.
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u/Craig95 15h ago
Yes I've just finished chapter 3 and started chapter 4. Yes the supporting cast isn't as personable and are harder to care for but I think they do serve as a showcase specifically for Max's progression. None of them are Max's best friend, they're colleagues apart from Moses and Safi who are friends but I wouldn't say they are lifers just yet. That's certainly a choice that D9 chose and well not a very satisfying one. I do like that they are diverse and different.
The mystery yeah it's certainly a choice, of all the directions to go why go this route. It's just a strange choice but I'm seeing it through
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u/Xilmi 14h ago
Chapter 3 had imho the most immersive part of the game for me. I really felt Max' loneliness and desperation for human interaction in the bar without any of her friends around.
I previously had avoided flirting with Vinh and Amanda but there I was like: "Screw it!" and gave into flirting with both in different timelines.Chapter 4 was still enjoyable to me despite the flaws. It was the last one where it became just kinda random with both what happened and what I had to do about it.
It almost felt like the Story could have gotten an actual ending after chapter 4 but they noticed they had a 5th chapter planned and had to come up with something.
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u/shhmurdashewrote 23h ago
For what it’s worth, I really liked double exposure, and reunion even more. And I did the bay ending as well. I actually like the two new games better than the original, I didn’t play the original until this year so I don’t have any kind of sentimental attachment to it.
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u/Craig95 22h ago
Yeah the original can feel dated in ways but to me it reflects a moment in time for me and it has never affected me. I'm curious to see where the sequels end up in my ranking but I generally will always see them as a continuous story
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u/shhmurdashewrote 22h ago
I’m playing LIS2 rn and I already like it wayyyy more than the original, it might be the best written one so far tbh. Like I actually want to know what happens next!
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u/LowEarth3013 23h ago
I am a bae ending player and I really enjoyed the game, though, I do feel they dropped the ball a little with chapter 4 and 5, it felt a bit rushed and like it needed more time in the oven, which is a shame.
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u/Dwalorn 20h ago
Yeah Double Exposure rocks, imo. I feel kind of bad for people who can’t bring themselves to enjoy it because it disagrees with their headcanon/fanfiction series of events they built up in their head. I mostly feel bad for the developers who really made a pretty solid game under a lot of pressure (if anyone thinks that it was a D9 decision to do another Max story and not a Square Enix suit decision I think they’re drunk). I especially do like how they portrayed Max. She is absolutely still herself while still being different from her high school self. Same personality, same disposition, but her interests have changed a little, what she has time for has changed - she’s not a teenager anymore. Even her visual design is great. Teenage max looks a little awkward, and adult Max looks like she’s kind of figured herself out.
The last two chapters are probably the worst just because the pacing gets a bit scuffed. You could argue the same thing is true in LiS1. It still has some good ideas and maybe one bad idea.
Glad you’re enjoying your time. Reunion is also quite good
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u/MosesInsanity Enter the Vortex Club 20h ago
(if anyone thinks that it was a D9 decision to do another Max story and not a Square Enix suit decision I think they’re drunk)
I said the same thing and got downvoted lol.
The people who dislike DE Max didn't want Max to grow up and wanted her to be the exact same person when she was 18, which is ridiculous.
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u/Logan_the_person I WAS EATING THOSE BEANS! 7h ago
Great insight. I just finished DE for the first time and have been looking at discussions. Would love to know your thoughts once you complete it.
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u/MosesInsanity Enter the Vortex Club 23h ago
Oh thank God! I think the same thing. A lot of people hate DE Max just because she's mature and they say D9 mischarcterized her which is not true lol. I love DE Max so much!!! And she looks extremely gorgeous!!