At PAX West 2024, we sat down with Director Jonathan Stauder and Narrative Director Felice Kuan to discuss Life is Strange: Double Exposure, the latest entry in the Life is Strange series. The game takes place several years after the original, following Max Caulfield, who is now a successful photographer living in Vermont. However, her past haunts her, and when her friend Sophie is found dead, Max is forced to tap into her long-unused rewind ability. What follows is a gripping story where Max uncovers a parallel timeline in which Sophie is still alive but remains in danger.
Stauder and Kuan shared their excitement about returning to Max’s story and expanding on her character. They emphasized how much Max has grown since the first game, noting that her experience and new powers add layers to both the narrative and gameplay. The developers expressed how personal this project is, drawing on their own experiences and the emotional depth of the Life is Strange series to create a compelling, character-driven story.
The interview dives into some of the gameplay mechanics but we mostly focus on uncovering a deeper understanding of Max’s psyche, and the return of her time-bending abilities. Life is Strange: Double Exposure is shaping up to be another emotional and thought-provoking chapter in the beloved series.
The narrative follows Max Caulfield, a photographer attending Caledon University, as she learns about the death of her new friend, Safi. After discovering this murder, Max tries to rewind time, which she has not done in years.
However, this causes her to open a path to a parallel timeline where Safi is still alive yet still in danger. Max realizes the killer will strike her in both versions of reality, so she must Shift between the two parallel timelines to prevent this same double murder.
Max no longer has her Rewind powers after using them traumatically. Described as “losing fluency in a language,” this seemingly leads to her acquisition of Shifting.
An extension of Shifting is Pulse, which extends Max’s supernatural senses to detect where the veil is weakest between the two timelines. This seam enables Shifting. However, she can also catch glimpses of other people and key objects from across the timeline without having to Shift.
Currently, in Max’s life, she’s an artist-in-residence, meant to be a mentor figure to the students still there on holiday break. Deck Nine clarified that Double Exposure respects both endings from the original game, briefly highlighting the significant choice at the end of that title. The first game is said to have no canon ending.
Life is Strange Double Exposure will be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam on October 29, 2024. A Switch version is planned for a later date.
