One of the great returns of 2024 is that of Life is Strange. The saga that was born from the association of Don'tNod Entertainment and Square Enix returns to its beginnings, this time with the help of Deck Nine, who already did a great job with Life is Strange: Before the Storm or the last installment to date , Life is Strange: True Colors. Now, they are launching into the new proposal of the saga with a very special event for fans: the return to prominence of an adult Max Caulfield with new powers.
During the last few days I have been fortunate to be able play the first two chapters of Life is Strange: Double Exposure to find out how the proposal is going and how the new adventures of the young woman who starred in the beginning of the saga develop, although we already had the opportunity to try it previously. The truth is that at all times it feels like pure Life is Strange and very similar themes are discussed to those of the first installment, you can see how the attitude of Max and the people around her are very different, as are their concerns and implications in what happens around them.
Max, facing the unknown: new powers and new friends
It is far away the trauma suffered by Max Caulfield in Arcadia Bayalthough it is very present during the development of Life is Strange: Double Exposure. In fact, in the first chapter you are allowed to choose what the conclusion of the previous story was, so Chloe's destination can be selected for the conversations that Max may have with the rest of the people around her, although I don't know if it will have a relevant importance in future events, so it is best to select what happened in the original game.
The most surprising thing in this sense is to see How the passage of time has affected Maxto his way of life and his personality. Now she is shown as a more adult girl, confident in her decisions and the people around her, being able to move forward in the face of the terrible trauma she suffered after being kidnapped by Jefferson. In fact, Now she is the one who works as a photography teacherso shock therapy is brutal. However, some consequences can be observed as the hours go by, as he starts conversations with his new friends.
Safi and Moses are in charge of providing unconditional support to Max in any aspect that arises in the game. However, Tragedy strikes the young woman again when her best friend ends up dying under strange circumstances.so you need to find out what has happened. This is where you discover that His rewind power has evolved to become an opening to a portal to another dimension. where her friend is alive. In this sense, the game forms a union between both realities to make sense of the gameplay.
World of life and world of death, the main mechanics of Double Exposure
In this sense, The main mechanics of Life is Strange: Double Exposure focus on moving from one reality to another in order to solve different problems. that are presented in the plot line. It is a very interesting resource, but I have some fear that it will not evolve as the hours go by, because in these first two chapters – well, essentially in the second, which is where Max's new powers are fully developed – it is a constant, so in small doses it can be a good way to resolve puzzle, but in the long run it can be a bit tiring.
However, there is an effort to develop the puzzles that are included in this chapter. From the transfer of some objects to the other reality to be able to reach inaccessible places up to stealth levels in which you have to alternate reality to hide. This is one of the mechanics that I liked the most, because While you are in one reality you can observe the traces left by people in the otherso it's interesting to see how you can walk past your pursuer without him appreciating that you're at his side before jumping into his reality. These worlds are divided into world of life, where Safi has not suffered his death and world of death, where his destiny has turned out to be fatal..
In this sense, the mechanics stands out to a greater extent in the obtaining informationn, so Life is Strange: Double Exposure is defined more as an investigation game than an action game where you can see very crazy and different mechanics. If you have already played any other installment, you will know that conversations are the most important thing in the titleas well as knowing the characters that surround the protagonist and their purposes or implications in the story. In this way, infiltrating offices and other places to obtain information is one of the most common elements of the game, at least in what happened in this first contact.
Here the idea of play with the two different versions of the people that are part of Max's life. If someone is not very receptive to releasing information in the Life World, perhaps they will do so in the Death World and vice versa. This idea is very interesting, since the characters They do not share all the traits of their personalities in both realities and the world that belongs to them also undergoes changes.so it is important to know how to react to the conversations you have with them and the decisions you make that may have an influence on future events.
The dynamics of the decisions are basically the same as those seen in the original Life is Strange.with some minor decisions that can have a certain influence, but with other key ones where the image stops so that you can think for as long as necessary before deciding what to do, since this can completely change the course of the story. history. In these first two chapters there are several decisions of this type and the moral implications are really strong, so it is quite difficult to choose one without generating some type of negative event for Max. On an emotional level, Life is Strange: Double Exposure aims to be an intense title.
A clear advance in graphics, although with certain aspects to polish
One of the aspects that has impressed me most about Deck Nine's work with this first contact with Life is Strange: Double Exposure is the great progress at a graphic level that has been experienced compared to other installments of the saga. The animations Max and the rest of the characters are much more realistic than previously seen in the franchise, demonstrating enormous progress in the work of the studio, which did not leave very good impressions with the collection of the first two installments. Despite There are aspects such as smiles, which still feel somewhat artificial, the truth is that the result is really satisfactory and surprising..
Thus, immersion is much more solidwith character behavior more in line with what could be expected in real-life situations. However, it is something that it is practically left for facial animationssince at the bodily level there are still some crude behaviors, especially in everything that does not have to do with conversational kinematics, with NPCs with a movement pattern that is quite mechanical and unrealistic. Still, I liked what I saw because It far exceeds what has been seen to date in the saga.
A good effort has also been made to expand the playable environments, something that is titanic, since The influence of the change in reality is also seen on a visual levelso the jump between worlds is immediate and very satisfying. However, there are certain technical issues like pop-in at the entrance to a new area and there is less interaction with the environment than what characterized the previous installments, so we will have to see how it evolves in the successive chapters, because perhaps this is just an introduction to something much bigger.
The return of Life is Strange aims very high
The first sensations that this beginning of Life is Strange: Double Exposure has left me are great. Experiencing its proposal has been like going back a decade in time when the first installment was released, so that is excellent news. At the moment, I have only been able to play the first two chapters, but there are already enough compromising situations and dramas that suggest that at the plot level it is going to become entangled in a very interesting way to live up to the previous proposal starring Max Caulfield.
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