Life is strange: double exposure is both a welcome return and an exciting leap forward, as fan-favorite protagonist Max Caulfield steps back into the spotlight with new friends, a new secret, and reality-altering abilities. I tried the game during Gamescom, and the demo was surprising in showing that Double jeopardy is possibly the most mechanically fascinating entry in the series yet.
The game takes place a decade after the events of the original Life is strangeMax, now grown up, has left Arcadia Bay and is working as an artist-in-residence at Caledon University in northern Vermont. She has a new circle of friends around Moses, a science enthusiast, and Safi, the daughter of the university president. Since the cataclysmic events at Arcadia Bay, both endings of which will be incorporated into this narrative, Max has vowed never to use her ability to turn back time again. However, her new peace is shattered when Safi is mysteriously murdered, prompting Max to try to save her by turning back the clock for the first time in years. For unknown reasons, the long period of inactivity has caused Max’s ability to evolve, and she manages to break the fabric of time and space to enter an alternate timeline where Safi is still alive but in mortal danger. Thus Double jeopardy becomes a double crime thriller in which players use Max’s newfound Shift power to jump between timelines and discover the identity of the killer in one reality while preventing Safi’s murder in the other.
The Gamescom demo takes place shortly after Safi’s murder. I won’t give away the narrative details, but Max must retrieve Safi’s camera from a classroom while avoiding being discovered by a nosy detective. While the room is locked in her current timeline, that may not be the case in the alternate reality. It’s easy to keep track of which timeline you’re in thanks to an icon in the top left corner that marks the reality as “alive” or “dead” and references Safi’s fate in that world. Using Max’s pulse ability, another new trick that lets her detect and reveal ghostly elements from the other timeline without making a full switch, I find a glowing weak spot between realities where a timeline switch becomes possible. When jumping, Max pulls the current reality apart, as if opening a pair of curtains to instantly switch to the other side. The swiftness of this transition makes for a cool visual.
By the time I get my hands on Safi’s camera, it becomes an elaborate exercise in exploring the two-story space, finding clues and running into dead ends that can only be bypassed by switching to the other timeline. Elements like the room layout, characters’ current activities and moods, and the location of important items differ in each timeline, and the whole point of solving the puzzle is figuring out how gathering information in one world answers a question in the other.
What begins as a simple search for a safe evolves into a search for an important constellation referenced by Moses using an astronomy map. He then activates a projector to overlay a star map onto a classroom mural in such a way that the constellation’s orientation reveals the hidden location of the item found in the safe. Solving this single puzzle requires multiple timeline shifts to solve smaller puzzles that logically lead to the solution.
After solving this puzzle, the detective enters the classroom and triggers a stealth sequence where I must escape the room undetected. Simply sneaking past him is not enough; I need a loud object to create a distraction, and that can only be found in the living reality. Since the patrolling detective blocks certain paths in the crowded, crate-strewn room, one must strategically use Shift to get past him, as he is not present in the living timeline.
While Double jeopardy seems to test your nerves more than previous entries, but still places a strong emphasis on handling relationships between characters and driving the story through dialogue choices. Jumping between timelines adds some spice to this formula, however. While a character in one timeline may be hesitant to reveal an important personal secret, their counterpart may be more open and offer information that can give Max the upper hand. However, drawing on knowledge Max shouldn’t really possess may not go over well and adds a thoughtful tone to conversations.
The Double jeopardy The Gamescom demo convinced me that Shift is a fun game mechanic, and I’m excited to see how the game continues to use it to tell its story. Then, if you take Max back, I’m excited to see how this multiversal crime mystery unravels.
