I still quite enjoyed the game, despite it's flaws which I'll get to:
1. The romance was disappointing:
I picked Amanda and I really wished they did more with her or at least have the romance part be more part of the main plot rather than feeling like a side quest that didn't even lead to anywhere, I was sad that Chloe wasn't gonna be part of this but I at least wanted Max to be happy and move on if that's it for them
Their scenes together while cute at times felt very rushed, like literally all but 1 of their moments are just in the bar (it makes sense why but still, I feel like a change of scenery could've spiced things up for them)
It just felt like one big after thought because they forgot to put a romance plot in the main story
2. The ending is kinda, eh?:
I don't know how else they could end it but idk it genuinely just felt like "thats it?", I kinda wish there was just idk something more to it than just "we can get through this, together" type deal yknow
I feel like the first LIS had more of a consequential ending, that it really felt like "DAMN, what an ending" same with LIS 2 in some way (haven't played LIS: True Colors)
This game's ending just left me feeling a bit empty tbh
3. Chloe, where art thou?:
People have spoken about this to death at this point but, I wish Chloe had a part in this, but even if not as like an in person with Max thing, I feel like there was some scenes where it would've been really cool to see Chloe in but for some reason the game doesn't want that
especially at the end, it would've been at least neat to see Chloe in some aspect in those dream world scenes, or at least show Chloe at some point yknow, it would've been kinda neat seeing her in DE's style or something idk
The game felt like it really wanted you to go with the "Dead Chloe" ending, and thats probably what the devs wanted as they couldn't really continue two different endings in 1 game
but I picked the "Alive Chloe" option just kinda thinking maybe it would lead to more mentions about Chloe and such, and it kinda did but the game just kinda feeds you small small crumbs and does nothing with it
I just kinda wished they gave Chloe more, she legit just felt like a footnote the game wanted you to forget about but would tease you about it every now and then
4. Not a lot of new places to see, all kinda just same-y?
Is it just me, or is did every location just felt samey, in a sense that there wasn't any new places to be in or new places to explore, you just kinda ran around the same few buildings, settings
idk I guess it's good for trying to build up caledon but idk it just kinda felt like a chore at times to just walk around the same corridors and rooms over and over
and thats kinda it for my flaws for the game imo, I still enjoyed it a bit, I liked the characters and such and the game looks great imo, some shots and lighting looked stunning imo
I also liked Max's new power, I get why they couldn't give her the same powers but I do like her new one, it kinda felt like a cool different take on her powers
I do hope for the next game they try and lock in a bit yknow, do something interesting and hoping they give Chloe justice and give her a prominent role again
(and hopefully make the romance good lmao)
Glad you enjoyed it. I enjoyed the first couple episodes but the last two were such a mess it ruined the whole game for me.
I hope they can get it together but I have my doubts a sequel will be any better. Plus despite the rumours and everyone talking about a two game contracts I still doubt a sequel gets made with how much of a failure DE itself was (lost money and a bunch of people got fired). I just don't see why Square would greenlight a sequel that will lose money unless it was basically already done before the sales of DE came in
I can definitely see that, the last two episodes were a bit all over the place and convoluted to experience
I am HOPING for the sequel to be good but its understandable to have doubts, maybe they're kinda just praying that this sequel would do better sales wise
If they do make a sequel I do hope its interesting and new at the very least
As much as I was disappointed by DE and don't want a sequel to it (I'd rather brand new characters for a new lis), I will check it out eventually, but unlike DE I won't be paying full price. It'll have to be a deep discount.
But I want it to succeed. As much as I was let down by DE I want LiS to thrive .
Not sure if you have played already, but Dontnod, the devs of 1 and 2 released lost records and it feels so much like LiS, I love it. It's a spiritual successor
I definitely agree, I want LiS to explore more stories and do cool stuff
I have heard of Lost Records before, I was intending on playing it after I finished DE, I have heard a lot of good stuff about it so I'm a bit excited to play it soon haha
I really liked it. It would probably rank as my second fave LiS game if it was part of the series (I like it slightly more than TC).
It's on game pass if you have that. That's how I played it. Just finished it for the first time last week
Damn that's high praise haha, I'm excitedd
Also Thank you for letting me know! I'll try it on game pass thenn
I was very disappointed, that it basically needs a computer with gaming pc specs to run fluently with bearable graphics while not looking that much better than LIS1 (which worked perfectly fine on my small convertible Laptop back in the day), even on highest quality. Refunded it after half an hour because of that. A simple story game should be able to run on a Geforce GTX 1050 Ti.
This is one of my (many) gripes with the game. What do you mean that my PC can move Baldur's Gate 3 and Expedition 33 and yet it's freaking struggling with a Life is Strange?
I very much agree with you in principle. They clearly spent a huge amount of resources on graphics, and honestly, using the same visuals as True Colors would have been more than enough. We play these games for the story.
Hell, I'd take the visuals of LiS2. Totally worth it for more locations and more characters.
your gpu is 10 years old. i don't want to be rude, this is entirely on you to update that hardware.
the first life is strange was made to run on the ps3. those are entirely different eras of gaming.
Nah, it's clearly very poorly optimized too. Games like Black Mesa, Fallout 4 and GTA V are running without problems on pretty high specs (while looking similarly good as DE on highest specs in my perception, despite being 10+ yrs old idk, maybe it's better with raytracing or something, but than again, LiS-franchise was never about graphics anyway) while LiS:DE is stuttering until I use a graphic quality in which the texture resolution is like in some early 2000s game. Game developers don't optimize their games anymore because there's vetter hardware available and are forcing users with older hardware to update. Meanwhile, the art style in LiS really compensated for the (sometimes) lower details. I just replayed it last month and the only thing I found which couldn't hold up graphically were the stiff facial expressions.
Adittionaly, the franchise seems to have gone downward since the developer changed, which is a common theme in gaming and films, too.
I'm planning to make a hardware upgrade and would have been okay if I couldn't play LiS:DE on highest specs with fluent graphics, but ot simply was sooo much worse, with also dialogue sound and graphics de-syncing because of graphic stuttering and so on.
black mesa is not graphically intensive whatsoever and can run of a toaster, gta v released in 2013 and fallout 4 in 2015. that's not a fair comparison whatsoever to actual modern graphics in gaming
sure, you could argue UE5 games are usually poorly optimized but there's a difference between having a few stutters and slow loading times and being completely unable to play the game.
there are plentyyyyy of criticism to have about double exposure. the game doesn't run perfectly on modern hardware (not many modern games do tbf) but saying it runs badly on your incredibly outdated hardware isn't one of them.
i see it as an accessibility issue. the core market for this game are rocking consoles, specifically last gen as well as budget gaming builds for pc. gotta remember true colors recommended a 750ti. that's a very accessible game.
double exposure says a 960 is the minimum so a 1050ti should be fine but it reccomends a 2060 super for 1080p 60. They also ask for 12gb of ram. That's a substantial leap in specs and while I agree 16gb of ram and a better gpu by now should be purchased (3050's are pretty affordable and a substantial upgrade to the 1050ti) I'm not gonna act like this game wasn't made with it's audience in mind and thus actually ends up being a worse experience for it. also you can still do some decent gaming on a 1050ti.
funnily enough lost records asks for a 1050ti at minimum and it runs better imo.
The models, textures, lighting, animation, were all much more advanced, more complex, and better than LiS1. Whether you think it needs all of that is a different issue, but I could clearly see the increased graphics compared to LiS1.
With all due respect, it's 2025, and that's a you issue. Games should still try to optimize well for lower end hardware, but having hardware that's going on a decade old and expecting it to run well on modern games makes 0 sense...it being a story game doesn't change that.
Max casually abusing her powers again.
Except Double Exposure has little to no optimization.
The entire map is loaded in full detail when you're outdoors. Many unused locations remain loaded even though we never get to see them. Even modern hardware can run into issues playing it, so let's not pretend this is a hardware problem rather than a messy game development issue. Their solution to make the game fit on the Switch was to render all exterior backgrounds in 2D, because they knew how much of a performance impact those exteriors cause.
I don't doubt that. I do appreciate you being a little specific as well about their shortcomings.
My main point though is that it runs well on modern hardware, even if you're using modern budget GPUs. I can't imagine being on my old 1080 ti and running any of the games I play nowadays...It'd be unreasonable to expect anything to run smoothly, even at 1080p.
LiS: DE does not look good enough to justify it's spec requirements.
Obv a bit ridiculous to expect to run well on a GTX 1050 Ti, but I have a RTX 4070 and that struggled with the game too xD
I disagree. Not going to try to change your mind though.
I just expect it be be optimized enough for it to run well on graphic settings which still look as good as something that I could run with hardware much worse then I have now. I don't think that's a high expectation and other recent 3D games are doing this and still running good ony system. I just don't like all that obviously planned obsolescence.
it looks a lot better than LiS1. like, there's literally no comparison between the two.
no. there are legitimate criticisms to be made about the optimizations but there shouldn't be any expectation that a modern game will run on an entry level video card from a decade ago.
the 1050 is from 2016, and it wasn't particularly good then. it's completely unreasonable to expect that to power a game released in late 2024.
Great to see a positive post about Double Exposure, yay! Glad you enjoyed it!
As for the romance, I think the intention was for it not be more of a fling, if anything, both romances play out very casual-like. If you pick them and mean it to blossom into a genuine romance - it's kind of like a foot in the door situation, with the rest coming up in the next game, if you choose to pursue it. If not, it was just some flirting and nothing more.
Also, because of the toxicity and negativity around the game, if those romances were worked out even more, in a true "soulmate" style, I don't even wanna imagine what shitstorm would have fallen down on the game, with people accusing them of "replacing Chloe". Cause that's what people already did, with the casual almost-non-romances in the game as is.
Anyway, now we await the (hopefully) coming (soon) announcement of the next game.
Though I’m still kind of confused how the whole original timeline works (I guess Max goes through the game, travels back in time and shoots Safi at her request and then kind of just vanishes into the ether before the other Max shows up thereby creating a time loop?)
Yeah, even within that unnesessary break up scenario there should be a scene with her appearing at the end and/or Max texting her back in messages. But no... Someone claims that they teased Chloe's return and reunion, but if they did then they did a very bad job on it. Then the fact that D9 dev told us that DE is about moving on from Chloe didn't helped either lol.
But also this lazily made break up (remember there were even no flashbacks and the reason for break up doesnt make sense even within DE narrative for several reasons) was really unnesessary. They could just make a long distance relationships (with great reasons for it - Chloe visiting David in Away) with calls and text and Chloe appearing at the end. Or they could make Bae as a parallel reality segment for honest Bay game (After all DE is still a Bay game). But nooo, they broke up Max and Chloe and pissed off half of audience for no reason, and it backfired them so hard (DE failed and narrative team was fired). And NOW with DE2 they are trying so hard to win this audience back by making entire discription around Chloe (But in DE marketing they literally lied to Baers and hide Chloe/bae gameplay because they were afraid for their
a$$esi mean $ale$. But ironically game still didnt sold well, they understimated mow much pissed off fans there would be)That's pretty true. From correct aperture leak we know that game was made for Bay ending. Then you can see how much positively they showed Bay ending and how much negatively they showed Bae (they even retconned few important aspects of Bae from Dontnod's lis1 and 2 for the sake of their own narrative). Then from literal D9 dev we know that they saw Bay as evil and wrong ending...
i understand your points, however i do feel the story was intentionally supposed to be focused on max's healing....which i love
I think the pretend concert date with Amanda was cool.
To me the clusterfuck was mostly the "conspiracy" to have the book deal cancelled and the plagiarism.
Visually I have a problem with the secondary characters that look more like Sims+ than realistic characters. It's true for everyone except Max and Safi, but particularly for Amanda, Vinh and Moses.
The pretend concert was very cute, it just kinda felt like "oh we kinda ran out of budget so we just got to put you in a pretend scenario rather than putting you there" type thing, a new place would've helped added more to it imo, maybe?
The whole book deal shenanigan kinda felt all over the place at times, it felt like you had to go through so much back and forth to try and figure out that story
I honestly agree, I feel like the worst contender for this is Lucas, he just kinda stood out everytime him and max talked to each other
Max's model is really amazing but it stands out so much compared to the rest of the models
It does seem kind of suspicious that there's only half a dozen locations in the game, and then Amanda is suddenly describing a different location that sounds like it would be very cool.
Even if you wanted to have the whole thing set on a campus, there's cool things you could do with that, like have old steam tunnels, a classroom for Max to teach in, or just coming back to Moses's lab more than once would be nice.
I definitely was surprised not to see this in the game. after all, one of the first things I knew about DE was "Max is at a college, she's a professor or something." (artist-in-residence didn't sink in til later.)
Your criticisms are what most of the players criticize. In fact most of us are harsher on the game because of it, but it's okay that you still liked it. That's your opinion and no one can take it away.
I think some information about the game development can explain some of the issues you have. It doesn't make them better, but it provides a background...
For example, there are strong hints and leaks that what was originally pitched as DE was split into two game, early in development. Which means DE isn't even a complete story, but first half of a story... but sold as a complete way in a scummy way. That's why the ending is such a rushed, out-of-nowhere nothingburger.
According to some early leak (which is credible, because it predicted the plot of the game), the game was originally meant to be a Bay game only, following only the ending where Chloe dies. That would explain why the Bae route in this game feels more like Bay Lite. Why it feels even less satisfying and more tacked on. If they added that route to a game where Chloe was never meant to be, it would even explain them changing the LiS2 photo.. just so that they could keep calling Chloe the "blue-haired girl".
Third piece of background info is that this game suffered 4 major rewrites. FOUR. That means that a lot of things don't fit together... some things were leftovers from the previous iterations. Hard to tell which one is which, but it certainly caused the disjointed feeling and many plot holes.
The game even has other locations modeled. Not just in the files, they are in the game, behind Caledon. Have you ever wondered why there are paths that go around the university building but the player cannot go there? Because we were originally meant to be able to go there and walk more freely. But for some reason (probably a rewrite), they decided to not use those locations. And as I said, the locations are still in the game and the game not properly unloading them casues many performance issues.
It was a good game. Not ground breaking, but certainly enjoyable.
I definitely agree with your point regarding the setting. I wish they had made it more open to explore and made it feel more alive.
The romance options didn't bother me. I feel like they were meant to be more realistic and casual vs a deep love story, and I kind of liked the change of pace compared to many of the other games. Felt like a budding relationship, unsure if it'll go anywhere, very true to life.
I feel they told a complete story in terms of the main plot, but they put a lot of emphasis towards the end on setting up the sequel, which created a bit of disjointedness.
As for Chloe, I truly felt like they set her up nicely. Her and Max tried to make it work for years after Arcadia Bay but weren't able to properly heal together. Max is trying to run away from that part of her life, but eventually needs to confront it. Chloe as an important character in DE and I think their plan was always to bring her back into Max's life in the Bae path.
Maybe I was honestly just wishing for even a tad bit more of the romance, I still liked it and I just kinda felt disappointed about it due to it feeling lacking, I do kinda understand it in a more realistic sense, maybe I just wanted Max to have someone in this game loll
The sequel bait at the end just felt a biiiiit all over the place, the ending felt like it was the first half of a bigger story, I didn't really feel it was a good end to DE itself
I think I was just missing Chloe loll, I do agree tho that they do kinda set her up for her to come back at some point, I just kinda wish she came back in this game itself lol, would've been neatt maybe haha
Understandable. It definitely wasn't the focus of this game.
Personally, I think they should have included some flashback sequences. Made it a story within a story, where you get to see what happened at key points between LiS1 and DE. I think that would have gone a long way in helping the bigger picture story.
I gotta push back on the “their ultimate plan was to get them back together.”
“…It was clear that the original protagonist was untapped, and something we were interested in exploring, having already looked at her kind of obliquely through Chloe Price and through Steph Gingrich. A new protagonist wasn't one of the options on the board in that initial phase. It really was always Max and what we could do with her, not just immediately after Arcadia Bay but as a person with a life ahead of her."
https://www.resetera.com/threads/spoilers-deck-nine-reflects-on-double-exposure-the-most-divisive-game-in-the-series-so-far-and-future-plans.1030125/
D9 refers to looking at Max with Chloe as past tense and talking about her life ahead of her. Maybe I’m reading between the lines too but saying they’re going back to something they said they’re moving past doesn’t seem like it makes sense.
I didn't say "get them back together" I said bring Chloe back into Max's life. It would likely be up to the player choice on whether or not they rekindle any romantic relationship. To your broader point, I don't see anything in your quote that would contradict Max and Chloe reconciling. Yes, Chloe is part of Max's past, but she's one that the game sets up as incredibly important to Max. Max is currently running from her past in DE, and eventually is going to have to stop running and confront it, including Chloe.
My best guess is that DE was meant to focus on this part of Max's life, while LiS1 focused on that part of Max's life. DE2 would be those two parts of her life colliding.
That’s what I meant, bring them back together to interact. Not specifically back together as a couple.
“Having already look obliquely through Chloe…” this doesn’t come off as saying they want to go back to something they’ve already done especially talking about how they want to explore who Max is with her whole life ahead of her. Coupled with the pre and post launch interviews.
https://games.mxdwn.com/news/deck-nine-discusses-the-fate-of-chloe-price-maxs-evolution-new-gameplay-features-more-for-life-is-strange-double-exposure/amp/
-Narrative Director Felice Kuan said that Deck Nine wanted to create “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.”
We all know the story most bae fans wanted, which included pricefield, so the story fans didn’t know they wanted is likely to be one without her.
to be fair, that's kind of how the first game was too. in the first game you had the dorms, blackwell academy (with very few rooms actually accessible), the diner, and the junk yard, and that was mostly it.
either way, i'm expecting the sequel to go the "yakuza" route and reuse all the existing assets then create more on top of that.
lol No, it wasn’t. List 1 has: Blackwell bathroom, Blackwell corridors, Jefferson’s classroom, science classroom, campus exterior, parking lot, dorm exterior, dorm interiors with Max, Victoria, Dana, Nathan’s rooms and showers, the entire swimming pool building, diner exterior/interior, Chloe’s house, the lighthouse, the beach, the railroad… List 1 has plenty of locations to explore and things to interact with, and I’m probably missing some of them.