Life is Strange: Double Exposure will support and respect whichever ending you chose in the original Life is Strange game, developer Deck Nine has said as part of an extended look at its upcoming sequel.
Announced last week during Summer Game Fest, Double Exposure continues the story of the Life is Strange series’ original teenage protagonist Max Caulfield, now an adult.
But the surprise return to Max’s story immediately prompted questions from fans as to whether their previous narrative choices will be supported, and their consequences shown on screen. Now, we know more.
“We knew that this had to be something special,” narrative director Felice Kuan said of returning to Max’s story. “We knew we had to respect the two unforgettable endings to the first chapter of Max’s story, while also crafting something new, something fresh that echoed Max’s past challenges even while it moved Max’s personal story forward.”
As to which of Life of Strange’s endings was canon, Deck Nine said that there was no single canon choice – fitting, perhaps, for a game about dual timelines.
“It was really important at Deck Nine that if we were to make another Max adventure that the game we’d have to respect both those endings,” game director Jon Stauder adds. “Life is Strange: Double Exposure does that very thing.
“There’s no canon ending in our book to the first game. Double Exposure will respect both endings in Max’s thoughts, her journal, her SMS, her interactions with other characters, what she opts to reveal about her past to her new friends, it’s all reflective of that final choice.”
As for how Double Exposure will ‘import’ players’ choices, Deck Nine has said this will be handled organically in the game’s early scenes, through a conversation with Max and her new friend Safi.
Today’s presentation on Double Exposure appeared to show a fragment of that, where Safi asks Max about the “girl with the blue hair whose picture you keep in your wallet”. Max can choose to reply that she and Chloe were friends, or that she was a high-school sweetheart.
Double Exposure sees Max – once again performed by original actor Hannah Tell – now a “photographer-in-residence” at Caledon University, a Vermont college that looks as if it will play a similar role to the original game’s Blackwell Academy.
Now an adult, Max’s role here at the college is as a mentor to students – which presumably means you get to hang around without the hassle of having to actually go to class.
It’s here, after a stargazing session with Safi and her friend Moses, that tragedy strikes. Safi is found dead – at least, in one timeline. Max soon discovers she can move between two worlds – one where Safi is dead, and the other where she is still alive. Double Exposure is a double mystery, then – finding the identity of the murderer in one timeline, before they can still carry it out in the second.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure is set to launch on 29th October for PC, PlayStation and Xbox, with a version for Nintendo Switch also planned. If you pay an extra $30 you can play Double Exposure’s first two chapters a fortnight early – something fans have criticised over its cost and due to the likely leak of story spoilers.