Life is Strange: Double Exposure, the next entry in developer Deck Nine Games' critically acclaimed narrative adventure franchise, was announced this past week during the Summer Game Fest.
In this new supernatural murder mystery, players once again take on the role of Max Caulfield, now a photographer-in-residence at the prestigious Caledon University. When Max discovers her closest new friend Safi dead in the snow, she attempts to save her by rewinding time — a power that she has not used in years.
Rather than rewind time, though, Max opens up the way to a parallel timeline where Safi is still alive and still in danger. With Safi's killer ready to strike again, Max must rely on her newfound power to Shift between these two parallel timelines to solve and prevent the same murder.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure is set to launch on October 29, 2024 on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. It's also coming to Nintendo Switch although no launch date was provided.
Following Life is Strange: Double Exposure's reveal, Square Enix hosted its own "reveal" live stream today. Hosted by Elyse Willems (Funhaus, 30 Morbid Minutes), 48-minute stream featured Deck Nine developers Jonathan Stauder (Game Director) and Felice Kuan (Narrative Director) who were asked about about a range of things, including how the game is designed to appeal to both long-term fans and new players who may not have experienced the original Life is Strange. It was confirmed that "though the reverberations of Max's past are felt throughout this story, no previous Life is Strange save file is needed to dive it."
"We knew that this had to be something special," explained narrative director Felice Kuan. "We also knew we had to respect the two unforgettable endings to the first chapter of Max’s story, while also crafting something new. Something fresh, that echoed and acknowledged Max’s past challenges, even as it moved her personal story forward. Welcoming in new players from the very beginning, while giving fans the story they didn’t know they wanted.”
It's been quite a while since we've seen Max Caufield. While she's been mentioned in some of the more recent Life is Strange games, we haven't actually seen her since the original game. Hannah Telle, who voices Max Caulfield, in the games, was asked how her character has changed and a bit about her new powers.
"As Max has evolved, her powers have evolved to," Telle said. "She didn't use that power for a really long time, because it creates so much devastation. So it adapted into something different. She now has this supernatural ability to move between two timelines, giving her a unique position to figure out what's really going on with Safi’s murder."
Game director Jonathan Stauder provided some additional details about Max's new ability to "Shift" between parallel timelines: “Max's ability to Shift between the two timelines opens up a whole slew of gameplay possibilities. Max will navigate between different two versions of the same space, and she'll be able to use these powers to circumnavigate puzzles and discover clues about suspects she might not otherwise have access to.”
Check out the full Life is Strange: Double Exposure reveal live stream below!