With a classic series likeLife Is Strange, it’s normal that many fans hold Double Exposure to high standards. Whether it delivered or not varies from player to player, but when adding to a franchise, especially with a new studio handling it, it’s almost inevitable that some inconsistent plot lines will surface.
Review: Life is Strange: Double Exposure
Life is Strange: Double Exposure kicks off a decade after what went down in Arcadia Bay.
Life is Strange: Double Exposuremarked the return of Max Caulfield, but in an unexpected way. The aim for a mysterious and intricate storyline was often overshadowed by confusing narrative choices that were either dropped or not fleshed out nearly enough. These are the most glaring plot holes that leave players with more questions than answers.
The opinions expressed below merely point out inconsistencies, contradictions, or plot lines that seem unfinished and would be less confusing were they explained more in-game.
The following will contain spoilers for Double Exposure.
5The Odd Police Investigation
Cause of Death
Even in real life, police investigations can become murky. In Double Exposure, some of it simply doesn’t make much sense. We learn from Yasmin that police had yet to rule out suicide as a cause of death in Safi’s case. But the issue lies in the why. Why wouldn’t the police rule out such a cause?
The crime scene gives no indication of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. There’s no gun at the scene or any sort of weapon near Safi’s body. All that’s left behind is her camera. Anyone investigating this would immediately notice the lack ofevidenceof a weapon, which would then place someone else at the crime scene to take it away. At the least, it could have been accidental, and at the worst, murder. No signs point to suicide, so it feels like either something is missing here for us players or it’s a throwaway line that should never have been said.
4Only One Gunshot
How Did Safi Get Shot?
Max decides to follow Safi after being concerned for her friend. So, when we all hear the gunshot, it’s understandably a tense situation. Max is scared, players are on the edge of their seats. But then we see Safi alive and well. That quickly changes once Max finds Safi shot dead, and here’s where the confusion settles in: we don’t hear another gunshot.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure: How to Find Safi’s Camera
Finding Safi’s Camera in Life is Strange: Double Exposure is important to keep Moses out of trouble.
It’s made very clear that Max hears the initial gunshot as we see her reaction to it. But before finding Safi, we never hear anything else. Could it be the strange, timeline-jumping powers at play here? Probably since it would have been an interesting thing to explore once Max was figuring everything out. And yet none of that is further explored in the story. We’re instead left with a mystery that the game doesn’t remember, making it lean more toward plot hole territory.
3Confusion Over Max’s Rewind Powers
A Curious Time Web
Has Max used her time powers since leaving Arcadia Bay or hasn’t she? Well, Double Exposure didn’t make that point as clear as it could have. At one point, in the Chloe ending, we learn that Chloe broke up with Max over concerns she wasn’t able to move forward. There are hints in the letter that Chloe was concerned over Max using her rewind powers.
It was never outright stated, but Chloe does end the letter saying she hopes Max finds someone she doesn’t have to rewind for. This flies in the face of the devs stating that Max hasn’t used her powers since leaving Arcadia Bay. If that’s the case, why is Chloe concerned about the powers? It could be written off as her general fears, but the issue here is that we’re left filling in the holes on our own with conflicting information.
2The Strangeness of Alderman
Vanished From Every Timeline
The entire plot with Alderman in Life is Strange: Double Exposure is murky. For one thing, it’s almost like choices mean little concerning him. Whether Max decides to be open and help him or close him off, he always reacts the same and becomes increasingly accusative toward her. But the worst offense in his storyline is how he disappears from it.
Out of all thecharacters in Double Exposure, Alderman is the only one to have a dangerous encounter with himself in a paradox and is taken away. No matter if we try to help him or punch him, our choice doesn’t matter. He’s sucked in and taken from the timeline as if he never existed. Which is strange as both Moses and Max remember him, a man who now was never born. We can write off Max remembering as this is her powers at play, but Moses makes little sense since everyone else forgot about Alderman.
1Safi’s Inconsistent Powers
Shapeshifting or Something More
At first glance, it appears that Safi has shapeshifting abilities. However, it’s explained that she’s really manipulating people’s perception of her, willing herself to look like whomever she has encountered, but only in their minds. She’s not actually changing her shape. But then her powers expand even more, and she’s now able to manipulate thoughts via an old recording of herself.
Odd and a little on the OP side? Yes, but perhaps we could let that part slide. One thing that isn’t as easy to move away from is how Safi possesses everybody on campus. This should only happen if she’s turned into them, but it’s hard to believe that she’s transformed herself into every single person on campus, let alone met them all. Her powers seem to stretch to unexplained lengths merely to recreate the tornado from the original Life is Strange rather than have any real limitations the way Max’s rewind abilities had.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure
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