like its a place where thousands of people post cut content, not research unless its a old build we dont have access to file wise. If youre mad at him be mad at the hundreds+ who use the cutting room floor as a source
I have to push back on the fact that the hate is predominately coming from pricefield shippers. This game is riddled with plot holes and I have yet to hear one person concisely summarize what even happened with Safis murder. I think it’s unfair to say the hate is coming from people who upset that their fanfic head cannons didn’t play out how they expected. All my issues have nothing to do with Chloe and everything to do with how weak and flimsy this plot was.
Yes, thank you! I know Pricefield shippers and Chloe stans can be pretty vocal, but saying that almost all crticial reviews come from them is not fair. I’ve seen a bunch of people who are casual fans and they still dislike the game. Heck, I’m a big fan of the first game and also a Bayer (yes, I assure you, we exist), and I think Double Exposure is... super mediocre. 6/10 as a standalone game, if I were to rate it as a sequel, the number would be even lower. If you can’t do the original material justice, just don’t do it.
Safi sider here; my reason for still choosing to accept Safi after everything was that through her post-“we both have powers” conversations with Max, I read the situations less as Safi definitively telling us who she was and what she wanted and more so her sharing some of her trauma and kind of seeking Max’s acknowledgment and approval. I don’t think she’s this big bad, mustache twirling MCU villain that so many people are making her out to be, I read her as more insecure about her reckless nature. Plus, as you mentioned, you can convince her at Krampus to go up and roast Lucas as herself, rather than relying on her powers, and that coupled with the approval seeking I got from her earlier demonstrated to me that Safi, despite her obvious character flaws, still puts a lot of faith and trust in Max’s opinion and perspective, like true friends often do. I loved this characterization, and when faced with the ending choice, it was obvious for me that what Safi needs isn’t broad condemnation of her reckless behavior, but measured, thoughtful nudging in the right direction. Since its shown that Max has the ability to influence Safi’s decision making, I figured its better to part on good terms with her, than risk her eventual return being adversarial in nature.
I think it was a wasted opportunity to have the whole concept be about 2 timelines but then they are both EXACTLY the same except we get to see what Sofi would do if she didn’t die. Which speaking of, am I crazy or did we not even get to that point where Max kills Sofi or was that explained somewhere?
I think the 2 timelines are a wasted opportunity because the dead timeline doesn't really matter. At the start you're primarily inhabiting the dead time and using the living time to investigate who has it out for Safi. But as soon as you find out Max shoots Safi at the end of chapter 2 that element of intrigue vanishes. Then you shift to primarily inhabiting the living time and trying to figure out what happened to Maya and confronting Lucas. As for Safi's death that would've been at the end of chapter 4. When Safi's powers go haywire Max uses the photo to go back to the night Safi died. That's when she would've/did shoot Safi but instead she goes into the storm to face the nightmare sequence.
It's also sad that there were like 1 or 2 opportunities to mix up the timelines and it was extremely on the nose. I would've loved to play around with that more
It was explained when Safi and Max were on the outlook with the gun after exposing Lucas. Max basically denied the future because for all intents and purposes fate said she should shoot Safi, but she ends up grabbing her and running into the storm.
I like how you explained that you had to sit with the game and your feelings about it after playing it. As a lot of people are quick to judge on games like this without thinking about what the intentions of the writers may have been and if they have continued the story in a way that is realistic and developed.
I would give the game a 6/10, it was ok. Chapters 1 and 2 didn’t hook me I thought they were just ok. Chapters 3+4 were sooo good, I was IN. And then chapter 5 felt like such a let down, it was so underwhelming. Overall, the choices didn’t feel impactful to me. It never felt that the course of the story changed because of a choice and a character’s fate was never in my hands. The general investigative gameplay isn’t all that interesting (it never has been to me). The game recycles the same 3 locations over and over again. It has such a smaller scale compared to the first. It never feels like you’re in a large community, you just interact with the same 9 people. The story is good enough but ends in a boring, unsatisfying way. I love the visuals and the acting is phenomenal. The vibes are pretty good too, though nothing compared to the first. Wish I’d waited for it to go on sale (almost did but I was scared about spoilers).
I really agree with it never feeling like a community. Something that bothered me so much was the Krampus party. It was built up to be some crazy christmas rager. There were like 15 people in a small bar with half sitting down and half in the corner of the room. It really took me out of the moment.
Regarding Chloe, I wouldn't mind her not being in the game if I didn't feel lied to about it. Deck Nine could've come out and said trying to cater to both LiS1 endings would be too difficult because the trajectory of Max's life would be completely different following that choice. And since the comics follow the Chloe ending we're going to stick with the Arcadia ending and do our best with a follow up to that story. I'd have respected that position and still would've played the game, that would be fine. Instead they claimed repeatedly that they wanted to respect both endings, a tall order but fair enough, I'll gladly see what you have to offer. Then after the bowling alley intro you go to the bar and they hit you with a one two punch. First Chloe dumps Max, a decision that never gets any kind of serious explanation. Then they throw Amanda at you and make you decide there and then whether you want to date her when you don't know a thing about her. It came off as rather insulting to end one relationship and try to instigate another with an unknown character all in the same breath.
Brah. Your analysis here is almost 100% inline with my own. I loved the game and story, and I’m really looking forward to a continuation of this. Now, I am a huge Chloe fan, and I’m bummed that neither she nor Victoria (or anyone else from LiS1) showed up. But hey, there’s still time in future games. DE is a super thoughtfully constructed narrative that really focused on Max and her growth as a character. And I was here for it. I’m super thankful to you too for posting your opinions which run counter to so many others. I know there’s always a drive to augment our own input or to stay silent when we’re outliers. But I appreciate all thoughtful insights, even if I don’t share them. Often, especially when I don’t share them. Side note: I’ve long had a theory that Max doesn’t really have “time powers.” That instead, she has “photography powers,” and the two metaphorically just overlap. But in DE when she actually has to use her camera to take double exposures to “pull the pieces of Safi” out of others, I was like, “THEORY CONFIRMED!” Lol. I’m glad you enjoyed it, and please keep the Life is Strange analysis videos coming!
6:19 regarding kate and warren They do appear in the last episode through the messages with warren being painted in a not so good light based on max's dialogue
My thoughts on the characters: Loved the evolution of Max in this game I like Moses but I felt he was maybe a bit one note for being our main friend Hated Amanda and Vinh Sofi, Gwen, and Lucus are great, compelling characters Reggie and Diamond were fine Being that one of the bigger reveals was that Yasmin was at fault for Sofi’s pain, it felt like we barely got any real acknowledgment of that or anything out of her character after that. There was not nearly enough Loretta. It felt like you were supposed to dislike her but isn’t she the same as Max (manipulating/pressuring people to get them to reveal information) Alderman also feels like such a wasted character. What was the point of the choice to help/not help him? Acting was great from everyone tho
I’m so glad that there is still a thriving LIS community. And I like how you manage to explain things so eloquently. Look forward to seeing more from you and keep up the good work :)
Chloe really should have played a role in this game somehow. In the Sacrifice Arcadia Bay path, Chloe could have easily lived with Max as her roommate. We could have gotten a scene between them, similar to Nathan Drake and Elena Fisher at the beginning of Uncharted 4. Where Max and Chloe have supper on their sofa, discuss Max's job at Caledon, play a game on their Playbox, joke around, and share a kiss. You get the idea. Even if the game still had problems afterward, Deck Nine really should have seized the opportunity for a scene like this when they had the chance. Maybe in the Sacrifice Chloe path, Warren could be in Chloe's shoes.
When I heard about the timelines I thought maybe there's one timeline where Chloe is alive and one where arcadia is, like the timelines split but maybe it's too complicated to include in this story lol
i will likely never play this game (poor art student who can't afford new games atm) but I love how you talk about games with such love and passion. SO many other people who talk about games and media in general online focus on negatives and while it's important to be critical, it gets tiresome because you can tell they aren't being fair or authentic in their reading because the algorithm on here tends to push negative content because it's more clickable to a lot of people. Your channel is a breath of fresh air and gives me hope as someone who also wants to start a channel about my love for games someday
Thank you for this video. It was a lovely change of pace, and helped to see some aspects of the story in a new light. I truly appreciate the thoughts you shared on it. I really did love the performance that Hannah Telle brought to this game, some of those more emotional lines really hit home. In relation to that, the evolution of Max’s character was interesting to see as well. I really enjoyed the dream or “storm” sequences in episode 5, in particular the motel room with the flattening objects I thought was quite creative. The sequences felt like a nice heightening of the stakes of the situation. I just wanted more from that episode 5 ending I suppose. It feels like they kind of slipped a bit in those last 15-20 minutes. When trying to wrap everything that had been put out by the game (particularly with that post-credits scene….). But thank you. This video has helped me appreciate Double Exposure more for the game it is rather than the game it could have been!
The game is for sure about max overcoming the trauma from blackwell and i bet the next game will be about max moving on with her life with hints i bet its with amanda going to revenge horse and mmaaybbee chloe coming to:)
I LOVED VINH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will say though, I loved Reggies sort of crush on him throughout the game a lot more. He writes about vinh in Gwen's class, hes posting about him in the social medias, and hes always talking about him, so i would much rather he ends up with vinh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
glad to see someone who also liked Double Exposure. Hope they're not cancelling the follow up game because of all the hate this game got. As a developer myself, I don't really see a way they could technically bring Chloe back into DE as a full-fledged secondary character (they'd probably have to make 2 separate games).
Hey I liked Vinh too much more than Amanda. I feel like Amanda’s the type to just ditch you when things get tough based on conversations with her and especially when she tells Max she doesn’t want to be in a relationship with her yet because of Safi’s death.
@@whis.sensei I appreciated that Amanda set healthy boundaries with Max. To me, Amanda wasn’t dipping out of dating because she didn’t want to deal with Max’s grief (especially because she’s obviously still there as a shoulder to lean on, just as a friend) but that she didn’t want Max to avoid her grief over Safi’s death by hopping into a brand new relationship.
i liked the game pretty much. Dont know, why so many people are pissed with all the Chloe stuff. For me it felt like a logical thing that they come to a point where the relationship ends. Even the flip of outlooks. Chloe looks to the future, where as Max is still traumatized and can´t live with the guilt of her decision to sacrifice so many people. I get that and thats okay for me. Maybe in the next game, we can safe both, Arcadia and Chloe :D
Because dontnod confirmed that they stick together. Nothing seperates them and all that stuff. And its a slap in the face towards some fans and dontnod. This isnt life is strange this is a bad fan fic. The next thing close to lis is lost records. Idk why u think that chloe looks towards the future etc. After all this time we have own canon endings, specially decknine lied to you, with the chloe stuff the respecting stuff. Just wait untill you get fucked over
@@Jasongilliar I am sorry mate, but i don´t really know what you mean with deck nine lied to me. I didnt talk to them, so how can they lie to me? And who at Dontnod said,that they stick together? Because as i recall, Dontnod doesnt make any life is strange games anymore. So what they say is null and void. I am sorry, that you don´t like the game. Maybe the next one is more fun to you :) P.S. I am looking forward for Lost Records. It really looks fun
with Episodes 2-4 I was hooked, I really wanted to see where it is going. But the ending was such a disappointment. Why did Jasmin covered Lukas? What did Lukas say to Safi so she got that upset? Why does Safi, a 30 yo woman, behaves like a teenager? I mean, I don't mind it but I need the story to explain why she is like that. There was such a big mystery, drama, and in the end everyone just "calmed down" - ok Maya is dead because of the academy politics but "everyone makes mistakes we should stay strong and be together". Safi pissed off to conquer the world with her, frankly, dangerous powers, but nobody cares. I wanted to see dirty secrets of the academy, creepy interpersonal connections (like Nathan and Jefferson) - because the game IMPLIED that. But the whole 5th Episode we had to have the same dialog with every game character - "what's happening?!" and "everything will be ok" And on top of that, cancelling the storm means that the death of Chloe was for nothing. We don't pay any price now, we do whatever we want with 0 consequences and our punky girl died for no reason
I have found my people, ive overthought this game so much. nice to see a rather positive reaction. I have my own convoluted complicated timeline that makes things make sense to me but I do think some writing was lazy and more so "oh the overlook just does that" I think the illusion of choice is well done but on a second play thru you'll learn how the choices aren't as important. most things lead to the same reactions. very few choices lead to a different ending for a character. even with kissing them both, Amanda has one line about it but same ending. totally agree with the courtyard situation, they could have easily hid the switch points, we have to believe not a single person saw us disappear and reappear?? well said about the hints about safis personality. its interesting bc we dont get much time with her but also then we realize max has only known her for a month! her breakdown was incredibly overdramatic but I like that it makes it more believable that OG timeline max would have killed her, I guess to stop her from going crazy with power. still a reach, I personally dont think max would, but yeah the cat content is not worth it, they make u give away the cat at the end :( and lastly please someone recommend similar games, look and story wise. im so sad im done with this. :D
Hello :) Nice to see some praise for Double Exposure! I liked the game a lot, though I do have some criticisms for it. As you said, I need to digest my impression a bit longer before I can form my opinion :) Pros: - Max! She was definitely the highlight of the game for me, Hannah Telle did a fantastic job with her. She felt like Max, but grown up, which is quite an accomplishment for a character Deck Nine didn’t create themselves. Nevertheless, they nailed Max’s character! - The other characters! I loved Moses, Safi, Gwen, Amanda and Reggie almost from the get-go, while I grew to like Vinh, Lucas and Loretta later :) This game has some great LGBTQIA+ representation overall, and I’m all for it :D - Amanda’s romance! The scene was so sweet and really made me regret picking the “friend” option earlier. I also liked to bring Vinh and Reggie together, they form a much cuter couple than Vinh and Max ;D - The story, and how it keeps you invested throughout. I really wanted to know what was behind certain plot threads, and thought the game was successful in making me want to find out! - Safi being a shapeshifter. It was so refreshing to see two people with superpowers meet. As much as I would’ve loved to see an “Alternate Max” storyline, I loved the “Safi has superpowers” storyline, too :) - Episode 5. Mentioning this because so many people hated it. I really loved it too, only the very end bothered me; but I thought the nightmare sequence was REALLY well done and explored Max’s trauma really well! Certainly better than Life is Strange’s nightmare sequence ;) Cons: - As a Bayer, I didn’t think the game respected both endings. Like, at all. The Bay ending fits the game MUCH better, and I wish the developers would’ve just stated that, instead of claiming the Bae ending gets just as much love :-( - Certain storylines never going anywhere. Alderman is the prime example. Max just erased someone from existence (!), and it didn’t have any repercussions? In fact, it was never mentioned again after the third episode, which was lost potential imho. - I didn’t understand why Safi was SO vengeful after her book deal got canceled, and why she didn’t just find another publisher (or self-publish). After all, it’s not like her actions will make her book any less canceled. - Choices not mattering. I’m very glad your experience was different, but I didn’t get the impression that any of my choices had a huge impact, not even the final one. - The ending. I REALLY didn’t like the whole Avengers angle and I don’t think it fits Life is Strange. Also, bringing Max back just sounds like milking the franchise :-( - Not enough different locations. I quickly grew tired of revisiting the same locations over and over again. This was also a problem with True Colors, and it was even more prominent here. Huh, I didn’t expect to have an equal amount of pros and cons because of how much I liked the game. I do think the pros weigh more than the cons, though. Basically, the game is not perfect, but still enjoyable :) I’d love a proper review after you played the game at least one more time - and maybe your updated ranking of the Life is Strange series? See you :D
great video! My game had a lot of glitches. Once, the door to Gwen's office was just floating in the air. Lucas's bag was already open when I was supposed to open it. Diamond should have been playing with her phone, but she was holding nothing. The door leading to the patio was also already open, but I had to open it anyway. My favorite glitch was in episode five, when Max teleported to North Quad and had no body-just a weirdly squeezed head (I saw someone on TikTok with the same glitch, lol). During the storm, Safi/Moses had an ashtray next to them on the table, but in the next scene, it was gone. Then, in another scene, Safi's mug was sunk into the table. Lmao! I laughed at all of them, but I also felt a bit sorry for myself for buying the game. It felt untested and not ready for release-way too many silly bugs. And what was with the locations? Did they run low on budget? We only got, what, four or five places? I also got tired of seeing the same NPCs. This is supposed to be the famous Caledon, yet it seems like only ten people study there? And what happened to Alderman? Did they just drop it??
Thoroughly enjoyed the game, a few issues here or there and things i would have liked to be different. Very much looking forward to whatever is next for Max Great video always enjoy hearing your takes on things
Alderman was killed by a time paradox. Which makes no sense there are no hints to that being possible so far. We have an evolution of the time bubble butterfly effect photo thing from 1 where max can sort of change the timing of it i guess or is it yet another plothole? But no walking time paradoxes ever again in the whole game. It was a one off thing. His behavior was weird made me thing of a Safi shapeshift. I know the light on the map hint at a merging of the two timelines with the red and blues. But think about it in the living timeline there's no reason to have him here. Also his dialogue, Max and Moses imply that it's some kind of walking ghostly time paradox aparition from the previous in game day. Still makes no sense. Feels like a lazy way to write him off the plot for the next episodes to work. Also we have confirmatiom this is not a Safi shapeshift in a way as he will recall the telescope and the picture found when he barged in max's house. I'm sorry but cops don't just barge into someone's house to then leave when finding actual evidence. I know this is a violation of the 4th amendment etc but 5 minutes looking at this stuff on youtube makes these scenes very weird.
29:43 personally it reminded me of control/alan wake with the otherworldly motel thing that you have to go through multiple times. But pt is a great comparison too!!!
100% this is pretty much exactly how i feel about the game too glad to see im not alone, i think the leak Definitely didn't help peoples perception of the game because theres a lot of aspects of the plot that do feel weak initially when just written out but are handled in such a way that it convinces you it was the right decision like you mentioned w the storms return that people had an immediate negative reaction to and just. refused to change or examine once the actual game came out- also in regards to people picking safi its probably one of 2 things, people still feeling a sense of loyalty after spending an entire game trying to help her and going fuck it its not like it kills a whole town this time OR people who agree with you but just like to see characters be flawed and make bad selfish choices because honestly the universe owes max one at this point
I actually liked Life is Strange Double Exposure. Yes I am gutted that they made Chloe and Max break up though honestly I think they did it so they could just add new romance options. But there are some confusing things such as the Safi shooting in the beginning of the game. It doesn’t make too much sense how it happened. My theory is that Max either slipped thru to the dead timeline when she started having her headaches and witnessed this event or basically the alive timeline is the original timeline and Max somehow witnessed a future event happen in real time. I mean it does seem that the normal flow of time was already being affected from the beginning of the game by events that happen in the future. Maya’s memorial tree is basically fully grown in the eye of the storm sequence and once the timelines are merged it stays fully grown. So it seems that the overlook seems to be like an apex of time fluctuations. The shooting, the random flowers growing, past Alderman appearing and Alderman interacting with himself causing him to be erased from existence, Safi’s power meltdown, and then we have the storm. Doesn’t make sense even headcanoning tbh unless we just say the flow of time was out of whack throughout the entirety of the game. Then we have that 3rd unseen timeline where the Polaroids are from. We know it follows a different sequence of events. Max even mentioned that this timeline was apparently being affected by Safi’s powers yet if we venture to dead timeline before heading to the overlook during Safi’s power meltdown it seems the people there only complain of feeling headaches or hearing screaming. There’s quite a lot of stuff that needs explaining even if we put aside Safi’s descent into darkness.
I will say I still enjoyed this game, episode 5 did feel a bit weird/short imo. Also I couldn't side with Safi, her god complex was driving me nuts to the point where I was like nope. You're on your own Safi. I'm glad to have Max back, I do look forward to more games with her. I also agree, it did 100% feel like meeting up with an old friend.
I also get some bugs my on steam deck, like doors appearing sideways on the ceiling. I like to pretend it's just part of max breaking the world haha😅. Like when assassins creed glitches "it's just the animus glitching" it makes it a bit funnier imo!
I love that there's so much in-game text and it pays off, the character facial animations and microexpressions are great, Moses is canonically autistic according to the Devs and you can pick up on this and it's actual good representation, they let Max crush on people, she makes terrible decisions sometimes you have little control over, etc. That last one being said I'm a little disappointed she didn't push back more with Safi when she got too vindictive. Also Loretta is in there, is a true crime podcaster, and never connected that famous photographer Max Caulfield is connected to serial killer Mark Jefferson, and this is somebody you'd want on your true crime podcast. Of all things, I thought it would come up. I think a lot of peoples' beef with this game is the DE Max and the DE Chloe don't mesh with their headcanon interpretations of the characters, beyond Chloe being basically absent front the game.
In this game there are several problems: 1) your dialogue choices don’t change anything; 2) final of story is not dramatical like in lis 1; globally your choices change nothing; 3) too many LGBT in game. It’s statistically has very low chance to be real; 4) they just added and removed detective character.
I haven't played the game, won't unless it drops on gamepass (my laptop finally died) and unironically I'll forget this entire video by the time I finally play it, if I get to at least lol. So I am the nichest of viewers of course. But as someone who's been daily driving a firestick for gaming... this is exactly the format of gameplay that would benefit from game streaming access. Not to mention Microsoft has had a working relationship with not only dontnod, but squenix and even deck nine! I swear, I'm not just whining because I can't get in. I think this would be a new layer of investment for either Amazon or Xbox, and it feels very overlooked that it hadn't been a launch title
About your final point at 39:37 talking about the Chloe controversy, THANK U SO MUCH, IVE BEEN SAYING THE SAME THING SINCE I FINISHED IT. I can empathise with the people who were bummed out by it but it’s those particular Pricefield fans that just take it too far and are really toxic about it that I don’t care for And I couldn’t agree more on the point of this games controversy feeling like tlou2 . But Im so glad that Max was done justice as I love her, and can relate to her character now just like it could back in LIS1 so that was awesome to me that they nailed her character. And I loved the game from start to finish and give it an 8.5/10 Speak your truth brother 🙏
Game is good. Not perfect, but good. A ton of the hate just straight up is because of what happened to Chloe, and when you play a game angry about the entire premise you are going to nitpick things to be mad about.
![I'm kind of getting it I think! [Disco Elysium]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/G0Dmiq74L7w/mqdefault.jpg)
this guy has quickly became my favorite youtuber. he’s real, not biased or anything, js authentic and entertaining to listen to.
& stole others research from tcrf which was fiction anyways, lol
i also got surprised that he only got 3k subscribers
@@bluepikmin5764 whats the point of tcrf then?
like its a place where thousands of people post cut content, not research unless its a old build we dont have access to file wise. If youre mad at him be mad at the hundreds+ who use the cutting room floor as a source
@@bluepikmin5764if youre going to bitch abt people using tcrf as a resource make sure to go bitch at literally every single other person who uses it
The first half was intriguing and then I started feeling my own nose bleed.
I have to push back on the fact that the hate is predominately coming from pricefield shippers. This game is riddled with plot holes and I have yet to hear one person concisely summarize what even happened with Safis murder. I think it’s unfair to say the hate is coming from people who upset that their fanfic head cannons didn’t play out how they expected. All my issues have nothing to do with Chloe and everything to do with how weak and flimsy this plot was.
Yes, thank you! I know Pricefield shippers and Chloe stans can be pretty vocal, but saying that almost all crticial reviews come from them is not fair. I’ve seen a bunch of people who are casual fans and they still dislike the game. Heck, I’m a big fan of the first game and also a Bayer (yes, I assure you, we exist), and I think Double Exposure is... super mediocre. 6/10 as a standalone game, if I were to rate it as a sequel, the number would be even lower. If you can’t do the original material justice, just don’t do it.
Safi sider here; my reason for still choosing to accept Safi after everything was that through her post-“we both have powers” conversations with Max, I read the situations less as Safi definitively telling us who she was and what she wanted and more so her sharing some of her trauma and kind of seeking Max’s acknowledgment and approval. I don’t think she’s this big bad, mustache twirling MCU villain that so many people are making her out to be, I read her as more insecure about her reckless nature.
Plus, as you mentioned, you can convince her at Krampus to go up and roast Lucas as herself, rather than relying on her powers, and that coupled with the approval seeking I got from her earlier demonstrated to me that Safi, despite her obvious character flaws, still puts a lot of faith and trust in Max’s opinion and perspective, like true friends often do. I loved this characterization, and when faced with the ending choice, it was obvious for me that what Safi needs isn’t broad condemnation of her reckless behavior, but measured, thoughtful nudging in the right direction. Since its shown that Max has the ability to influence Safi’s decision making, I figured its better to part on good terms with her, than risk her eventual return being adversarial in nature.
I think it was a wasted opportunity to have the whole concept be about 2 timelines but then they are both EXACTLY the same except we get to see what Sofi would do if she didn’t die. Which speaking of, am I crazy or did we not even get to that point where Max kills Sofi or was that explained somewhere?
it definitely felt different in the dead timeline, like more grim.
I think the 2 timelines are a wasted opportunity because the dead timeline doesn't really matter. At the start you're primarily inhabiting the dead time and using the living time to investigate who has it out for Safi. But as soon as you find out Max shoots Safi at the end of chapter 2 that element of intrigue vanishes. Then you shift to primarily inhabiting the living time and trying to figure out what happened to Maya and confronting Lucas.
As for Safi's death that would've been at the end of chapter 4. When Safi's powers go haywire Max uses the photo to go back to the night Safi died. That's when she would've/did shoot Safi but instead she goes into the storm to face the nightmare sequence.
It's also sad that there were like 1 or 2 opportunities to mix up the timelines and it was extremely on the nose. I would've loved to play around with that more
It was explained when Safi and Max were on the outlook with the gun after exposing Lucas. Max basically denied the future because for all intents and purposes fate said she should shoot Safi, but she ends up grabbing her and running into the storm.
1:55 if Lucas asserted his dominance like this Max wouldn't have dared to mess with him
I like how you explained that you had to sit with the game and your feelings about it after playing it. As a lot of people are quick to judge on games like this without thinking about what the intentions of the writers may have been and if they have continued the story in a way that is realistic and developed.
I would give the game a 6/10, it was ok.
Chapters 1 and 2 didn’t hook me I thought they were just ok. Chapters 3+4 were sooo good, I was IN. And then chapter 5 felt like such a let down, it was so underwhelming.
Overall, the choices didn’t feel impactful to me. It never felt that the course of the story changed because of a choice and a character’s fate was never in my hands.
The general investigative gameplay isn’t all that interesting (it never has been to me). The game recycles the same 3 locations over and over again. It has such a smaller scale compared to the first. It never feels like you’re in a large community, you just interact with the same 9 people.
The story is good enough but ends in a boring, unsatisfying way. I love the visuals and the acting is phenomenal. The vibes are pretty good too, though nothing compared to the first. Wish I’d waited for it to go on sale (almost did but I was scared about spoilers).
I really agree with it never feeling like a community. Something that bothered me so much was the Krampus party. It was built up to be some crazy christmas rager. There were like 15 people in a small bar with half sitting down and half in the corner of the room. It really took me out of the moment.
Regarding Chloe, I wouldn't mind her not being in the game if I didn't feel lied to about it. Deck Nine could've come out and said trying to cater to both LiS1 endings would be too difficult because the trajectory of Max's life would be completely different following that choice. And since the comics follow the Chloe ending we're going to stick with the Arcadia ending and do our best with a follow up to that story. I'd have respected that position and still would've played the game, that would be fine. Instead they claimed repeatedly that they wanted to respect both endings, a tall order but fair enough, I'll gladly see what you have to offer. Then after the bowling alley intro you go to the bar and they hit you with a one two punch. First Chloe dumps Max, a decision that never gets any kind of serious explanation. Then they throw Amanda at you and make you decide there and then whether you want to date her when you don't know a thing about her. It came off as rather insulting to end one relationship and try to instigate another with an unknown character all in the same breath.
Brah. Your analysis here is almost 100% inline with my own. I loved the game and story, and I’m really looking forward to a continuation of this.
Now, I am a huge Chloe fan, and I’m bummed that neither she nor Victoria (or anyone else from LiS1) showed up. But hey, there’s still time in future games.
DE is a super thoughtfully constructed narrative that really focused on Max and her growth as a character. And I was here for it.
I’m super thankful to you too for posting your opinions which run counter to so many others. I know there’s always a drive to augment our own input or to stay silent when we’re outliers. But I appreciate all thoughtful insights, even if I don’t share them. Often, especially when I don’t share them.
Side note: I’ve long had a theory that Max doesn’t really have “time powers.” That instead, she has “photography powers,” and the two metaphorically just overlap. But in DE when she actually has to use her camera to take double exposures to “pull the pieces of Safi” out of others, I was like, “THEORY CONFIRMED!” Lol.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, and please keep the Life is Strange analysis videos coming!
6:19 regarding kate and warren They do appear in the last episode through the messages with warren being painted in a not so good light based on max's dialogue
It's during the whole hallucination sequence so I don't think they're actually texting her
My thoughts on the characters:
Loved the evolution of Max in this game
I like Moses but I felt he was maybe a bit one note for being our main friend
Hated Amanda and Vinh
Sofi, Gwen, and Lucus are great, compelling characters
Reggie and Diamond were fine
Being that one of the bigger reveals was that Yasmin was at fault for Sofi’s pain, it felt like we barely got any real acknowledgment of that or anything out of her character after that.
There was not nearly enough Loretta. It felt like you were supposed to dislike her but isn’t she the same as Max (manipulating/pressuring people to get them to reveal information)
Alderman also feels like such a wasted character. What was the point of the choice to help/not help him?
Acting was great from everyone tho
I’m so glad that there is still a thriving LIS community. And I like how you manage to explain things so eloquently. Look forward to seeing more from you and keep up the good work :)
I still think you should do a video on Frank's missing toilets in his RV
Chloe really should have played a role in this game somehow. In the Sacrifice Arcadia Bay path, Chloe could have easily lived with Max as her roommate. We could have gotten a scene between them, similar to Nathan Drake and Elena Fisher at the beginning of Uncharted 4. Where Max and Chloe have supper on their sofa, discuss Max's job at Caledon, play a game on their Playbox, joke around, and share a kiss. You get the idea. Even if the game still had problems afterward, Deck Nine really should have seized the opportunity for a scene like this when they had the chance. Maybe in the Sacrifice Chloe path, Warren could be in Chloe's shoes.
When I heard about the timelines I thought maybe there's one timeline where Chloe is alive and one where arcadia is, like the timelines split but maybe it's too complicated to include in this story lol
I think they thought canon ending was choosing Arcadia so they didn't wanna spend so much time on a Chloe timeline when most people didn't choose it
i will likely never play this game (poor art student who can't afford new games atm) but I love how you talk about games with such love and passion. SO many other people who talk about games and media in general online focus on negatives and while it's important to be critical, it gets tiresome because you can tell they aren't being fair or authentic in their reading because the algorithm on here tends to push negative content because it's more clickable to a lot of people. Your channel is a breath of fresh air and gives me hope as someone who also wants to start a channel about my love for games someday
officially my new lis youtuber
Life is strange 2 is still my favorite game 😢😅😊😮
Thank you for this video. It was a lovely change of pace, and helped to see some aspects of the story in a new light. I truly appreciate the thoughts you shared on it. I really did love the performance that Hannah Telle brought to this game, some of those more emotional lines really hit home. In relation to that, the evolution of Max’s character was interesting to see as well. I really enjoyed the dream or “storm” sequences in episode 5, in particular the motel room with the flattening objects I thought was quite creative. The sequences felt like a nice heightening of the stakes of the situation. I just wanted more from that episode 5 ending I suppose. It feels like they kind of slipped a bit in those last 15-20 minutes. When trying to wrap everything that had been put out by the game (particularly with that post-credits scene….). But thank you. This video has helped me appreciate Double Exposure more for the game it is rather than the game it could have been!
The game is for sure about max overcoming the trauma from blackwell and i bet the next game will be about max moving on with her life with hints i bet its with amanda going to revenge horse and mmaaybbee chloe coming to:)
I LOVED VINH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will say though, I loved Reggies sort of crush on him throughout the game a lot more. He writes about vinh in Gwen's class, hes posting about him in the social medias, and hes always talking about him, so i would much rather he ends up with vinh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
glad to see someone who also liked Double Exposure. Hope they're not cancelling the follow up game because of all the hate this game got. As a developer myself, I don't really see a way they could technically bring Chloe back into DE as a full-fledged secondary character (they'd probably have to make 2 separate games).
It depends if you consider Tell Me Why a Life is Strange game because the twin in the game is a trans man.
It crossed my mind while recording. That's a game I've never actually played tbh. I'll look into it!
@ it’s the perfect time of year to play it. Huge recommend
@@Noer1987 Would love to hear your thoughts on that game, especially about the gameplay compared to the other games in the LiS franchise!
7:49 I think vinh is cool. I was surprised people hated him! He's flirty and funny! Maybe I've just got a type ....
Let's face it, you like his appearance more than his personality
Hey I liked Vinh too much more than Amanda. I feel like Amanda’s the type to just ditch you when things get tough based on conversations with her and especially when she tells Max she doesn’t want to be in a relationship with her yet because of Safi’s death.
@@whis.sensei I appreciated that Amanda set healthy boundaries with Max. To me, Amanda wasn’t dipping out of dating because she didn’t want to deal with Max’s grief (especially because she’s obviously still there as a shoulder to lean on, just as a friend) but that she didn’t want Max to avoid her grief over Safi’s death by hopping into a brand new relationship.
Don’t worry about the graphical issues I also got some issues on my Xbox series x
i liked the game pretty much.
Dont know, why so many people are pissed with all the Chloe stuff. For me it felt like a logical thing that they come to a point where the relationship ends. Even the flip of outlooks. Chloe looks to the future, where as Max is still traumatized and can´t live with the guilt of her decision to sacrifice so many people. I get that and thats okay for me. Maybe in the next game, we can safe both, Arcadia and Chloe :D
Because dontnod confirmed that they stick together. Nothing seperates them and all that stuff. And its a slap in the face towards some fans and dontnod. This isnt life is strange this is a bad fan fic. The next thing close to lis is lost records. Idk why u think that chloe looks towards the future etc. After all this time we have own canon endings, specially decknine lied to you, with the chloe stuff the respecting stuff. Just wait untill you get fucked over
@@Jasongilliar I am sorry mate, but i don´t really know what you mean with deck nine lied to me. I didnt talk to them, so how can they lie to me?
And who at Dontnod said,that they stick together? Because as i recall, Dontnod doesnt make any life is strange games anymore. So what they say is null and void.
I am sorry, that you don´t like the game. Maybe the next one is more fun to you :)
P.S. I am looking forward for Lost Records. It really looks fun
with Episodes 2-4 I was hooked, I really wanted to see where it is going. But the ending was such a disappointment. Why did Jasmin covered Lukas? What did Lukas say to Safi so she got that upset? Why does Safi, a 30 yo woman, behaves like a teenager? I mean, I don't mind it but I need the story to explain why she is like that.
There was such a big mystery, drama, and in the end everyone just "calmed down" - ok Maya is dead because of the academy politics but "everyone makes mistakes we should stay strong and be together". Safi pissed off to conquer the world with her, frankly, dangerous powers, but nobody cares.
I wanted to see dirty secrets of the academy, creepy interpersonal connections (like Nathan and Jefferson) - because the game IMPLIED that. But the whole 5th Episode we had to have the same dialog with every game character - "what's happening?!" and "everything will be ok"
And on top of that, cancelling the storm means that the death of Chloe was for nothing. We don't pay any price now, we do whatever we want with 0 consequences and our punky girl died for no reason
I have found my people, ive overthought this game so much.
nice to see a rather positive reaction.
I have my own convoluted complicated timeline that makes things make sense to me
but I do think some writing was lazy and more so "oh the overlook just does that"
I think the illusion of choice is well done but on a second play thru you'll learn how the choices aren't as important. most things lead to the same reactions. very few choices lead to a different ending for a character. even with kissing them both, Amanda has one line about it but same ending.
totally agree with the courtyard situation, they could have easily hid the switch points, we have to believe not a single person saw us disappear and reappear??
well said about the hints about safis personality. its interesting bc we dont get much time with her but also then we realize max has only known her for a month!
her breakdown was incredibly overdramatic but I like that it makes it more believable that OG timeline max would have killed her, I guess to stop her from going crazy with power. still a reach, I personally dont think max would, but yeah
the cat content is not worth it, they make u give away the cat at the end :(
and lastly please someone recommend similar games, look and story wise. im so sad im done with this. :D
Absolute best LIS youtuber 🔥
Man, you're real. I agree with you for the most part
Hello :)
Nice to see some praise for Double Exposure! I liked the game a lot, though I do have some criticisms for it. As you said, I need to digest my impression a bit longer before I can form my opinion :)
Pros:
- Max! She was definitely the highlight of the game for me, Hannah Telle did a fantastic job with her. She felt like Max, but grown up, which is quite an accomplishment for a character Deck Nine didn’t create themselves. Nevertheless, they nailed Max’s character!
- The other characters! I loved Moses, Safi, Gwen, Amanda and Reggie almost from the get-go, while I grew to like Vinh, Lucas and Loretta later :) This game has some great LGBTQIA+ representation overall, and I’m all for it :D
- Amanda’s romance! The scene was so sweet and really made me regret picking the “friend” option earlier. I also liked to bring Vinh and Reggie together, they form a much cuter couple than Vinh and Max ;D
- The story, and how it keeps you invested throughout. I really wanted to know what was behind certain plot threads, and thought the game was successful in making me want to find out!
- Safi being a shapeshifter. It was so refreshing to see two people with superpowers meet. As much as I would’ve loved to see an “Alternate Max” storyline, I loved the “Safi has superpowers” storyline, too :)
- Episode 5. Mentioning this because so many people hated it. I really loved it too, only the very end bothered me; but I thought the nightmare sequence was REALLY well done and explored Max’s trauma really well! Certainly better than Life is Strange’s nightmare sequence ;)
Cons:
- As a Bayer, I didn’t think the game respected both endings. Like, at all. The Bay ending fits the game MUCH better, and I wish the developers would’ve just stated that, instead of claiming the Bae ending gets just as much love :-(
- Certain storylines never going anywhere. Alderman is the prime example. Max just erased someone from existence (!), and it didn’t have any repercussions? In fact, it was never mentioned again after the third episode, which was lost potential imho.
- I didn’t understand why Safi was SO vengeful after her book deal got canceled, and why she didn’t just find another publisher (or self-publish). After all, it’s not like her actions will make her book any less canceled.
- Choices not mattering. I’m very glad your experience was different, but I didn’t get the impression that any of my choices had a huge impact, not even the final one.
- The ending. I REALLY didn’t like the whole Avengers angle and I don’t think it fits Life is Strange. Also, bringing Max back just sounds like milking the franchise :-(
- Not enough different locations. I quickly grew tired of revisiting the same locations over and over again. This was also a problem with True Colors, and it was even more prominent here.
Huh, I didn’t expect to have an equal amount of pros and cons because of how much I liked the game. I do think the pros weigh more than the cons, though. Basically, the game is not perfect, but still enjoyable :) I’d love a proper review after you played the game at least one more time - and maybe your updated ranking of the Life is Strange series?
See you :D
Vinh is definitely bisexual. Didn't he and Reggie have a thing?
"I know white t shirt isn't my vibe"
What the hell is this guy on about
great video! My game had a lot of glitches. Once, the door to Gwen's office was just floating in the air. Lucas's bag was already open when I was supposed to open it. Diamond should have been playing with her phone, but she was holding nothing. The door leading to the patio was also already open, but I had to open it anyway. My favorite glitch was in episode five, when Max teleported to North Quad and had no body-just a weirdly squeezed head (I saw someone on TikTok with the same glitch, lol).
During the storm, Safi/Moses had an ashtray next to them on the table, but in the next scene, it was gone. Then, in another scene, Safi's mug was sunk into the table. Lmao! I laughed at all of them, but I also felt a bit sorry for myself for buying the game. It felt untested and not ready for release-way too many silly bugs. And what was with the locations? Did they run low on budget? We only got, what, four or five places? I also got tired of seeing the same NPCs. This is supposed to be the famous Caledon, yet it seems like only ten people study there? And what happened to Alderman? Did they just drop it??
Thoroughly enjoyed the game, a few issues here or there and things i would have liked to be different. Very much looking forward to whatever is next for Max
Great video always enjoy hearing your takes on things
Alderman was killed by a time paradox. Which makes no sense there are no hints to that being possible so far. We have an evolution of the time bubble butterfly effect photo thing from 1 where max can sort of change the timing of it i guess or is it yet another plothole? But no walking time paradoxes ever again in the whole game. It was a one off thing. His behavior was weird made me thing of a Safi shapeshift. I know the light on the map hint at a merging of the two timelines with the red and blues. But think about it in the living timeline there's no reason to have him here. Also his dialogue, Max and Moses imply that it's some kind of walking ghostly time paradox aparition from the previous in game day. Still makes no sense. Feels like a lazy way to write him off the plot for the next episodes to work. Also we have confirmatiom this is not a Safi shapeshift in a way as he will recall the telescope and the picture found when he barged in max's house. I'm sorry but cops don't just barge into someone's house to then leave when finding actual evidence. I know this is a violation of the 4th amendment etc but 5 minutes looking at this stuff on youtube makes these scenes very weird.
Awesome video and I liked double exposure
29:43 personally it reminded me of control/alan wake with the otherworldly motel thing that you have to go through multiple times. But pt is a great comparison too!!!
Im so happy i found your account i Hope you keep posting. Also i thought moses was the killer but i was so wrong😅
100% this is pretty much exactly how i feel about the game too glad to see im not alone, i think the leak Definitely didn't help peoples perception of the game because theres a lot of aspects of the plot that do feel weak initially when just written out but are handled in such a way that it convinces you it was the right decision like you mentioned w the storms return that people had an immediate negative reaction to and just. refused to change or examine once the actual game came out- also in regards to people picking safi its probably one of 2 things, people still feeling a sense of loyalty after spending an entire game trying to help her and going fuck it its not like it kills a whole town this time OR people who agree with you but just like to see characters be flawed and make bad selfish choices because honestly the universe owes max one at this point
I actually liked Life is Strange Double Exposure. Yes I am gutted that they made Chloe and Max break up though honestly I think they did it so they could just add new romance options. But there are some confusing things such as the Safi shooting in the beginning of the game. It doesn’t make too much sense how it happened. My theory is that Max either slipped thru to the dead timeline when she started having her headaches and witnessed this event or basically the alive timeline is the original timeline and Max somehow witnessed a future event happen in real time. I mean it does seem that the normal flow of time was already being affected from the beginning of the game by events that happen in the future. Maya’s memorial tree is basically fully grown in the eye of the storm sequence and once the timelines are merged it stays fully grown. So it seems that the overlook seems to be like an apex of time fluctuations. The shooting, the random flowers growing, past Alderman appearing and Alderman interacting with himself causing him to be erased from existence, Safi’s power meltdown, and then we have the storm. Doesn’t make sense even headcanoning tbh unless we just say the flow of time was out of whack throughout the entirety of the game.
Then we have that 3rd unseen timeline where the Polaroids are from. We know it follows a different sequence of events. Max even mentioned that this timeline was apparently being affected by Safi’s powers yet if we venture to dead timeline before heading to the overlook during Safi’s power meltdown it seems the people there only complain of feeling headaches or hearing screaming. There’s quite a lot of stuff that needs explaining even if we put aside Safi’s descent into darkness.
I liked the game. But I didnt like the ending.
I will say I still enjoyed this game, episode 5 did feel a bit weird/short imo. Also I couldn't side with Safi, her god complex was driving me nuts to the point where I was like nope. You're on your own Safi. I'm glad to have Max back, I do look forward to more games with her. I also agree, it did 100% feel like meeting up with an old friend.
I also get some bugs my on steam deck, like doors appearing sideways on the ceiling. I like to pretend it's just part of max breaking the world haha😅. Like when assassins creed glitches "it's just the animus glitching" it makes it a bit funnier imo!
I love that there's so much in-game text and it pays off, the character facial animations and microexpressions are great, Moses is canonically autistic according to the Devs and you can pick up on this and it's actual good representation, they let Max crush on people, she makes terrible decisions sometimes you have little control over, etc. That last one being said I'm a little disappointed she didn't push back more with Safi when she got too vindictive. Also Loretta is in there, is a true crime podcaster, and never connected that famous photographer Max Caulfield is connected to serial killer Mark Jefferson, and this is somebody you'd want on your true crime podcast. Of all things, I thought it would come up. I think a lot of peoples' beef with this game is the DE Max and the DE Chloe don't mesh with their headcanon interpretations of the characters, beyond Chloe being basically absent front the game.
In this game there are several problems: 1) your dialogue choices don’t change anything; 2) final of story is not dramatical like in lis 1; globally your choices change nothing; 3) too many LGBT in game. It’s statistically has very low chance to be real; 4) they just added and removed detective character.
I haven't played the game, won't unless it drops on gamepass (my laptop finally died) and unironically I'll forget this entire video by the time I finally play it, if I get to at least lol. So I am the nichest of viewers of course. But as someone who's been daily driving a firestick for gaming... this is exactly the format of gameplay that would benefit from game streaming access. Not to mention Microsoft has had a working relationship with not only dontnod, but squenix and even deck nine! I swear, I'm not just whining because I can't get in. I think this would be a new layer of investment for either Amazon or Xbox, and it feels very overlooked that it hadn't been a launch title
Oh i had many glitches even on ps5
when will you be doing full review
About your final point at 39:37 talking about the Chloe controversy, THANK U SO MUCH, IVE BEEN SAYING THE SAME THING SINCE I FINISHED IT. I can empathise with the people who were bummed out by it but it’s those particular Pricefield fans that just take it too far and are really toxic about it that I don’t care for And I couldn’t agree more on the point of this games controversy feeling like tlou2 . But Im so glad that Max was done justice as I love her, and can relate to her character now just like it could back in LIS1 so that was awesome to me that they nailed her character. And I loved the game from start to finish and give it an 8.5/10
Speak your truth brother 🙏
Game is good.
Not perfect, but good.
A ton of the hate just straight up is because of what happened to Chloe, and when you play a game angry about the entire premise you are going to nitpick things to be mad about.
My game lagged on my PC.
The cat content was over priced tho, you could of brought up that fact
No hate though i respect your opinions on this game, i just thought I'd bring it up
Looking back I wish I did. In a previous video I said outright that 70 dollars to play a story based game early was insane.
And they don't even let you keep the cat
Everyone hating on this game needs to see this video
Sounds like you were paid to give it a good review.. you know this game was trash 🗑️
I WISH I got paid to do reviews 😂
lmao keep this up and they will soon.
This video is bs