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necrophilia) wrote2025-06-05 08:15 am
necrophilia) wrote2025-06-05 08:15 am
Entry tags:
september.
I finished Life is Strange: Double Exposure!
tl;dr — I really enjoyed it. It might be my favourite LiS game. (Someone ask me my ranking. I dare you.)
Full spoilers below the cut.
I was surprised by how much fun I had with Max this time around, as I wasn't really a huge fan of her during the original game. Like, she was fine? But kind of dull. Chloe outshone her with an actually compelling plotline and a superior voice performance; it was Chloe I got attached to, so I was surprised when I realised how much stronger a Max story is without Chloe weighing it down.
I think the fact that I go into this not offended by the fact that Max dared to continue living her life without Chloe. I chose the Bay ending in LiS and stick by it; I can't condemn an entire town to save a single person and I don't think the Bae ending was thematically fulfilling. So the fact that we have a whole game dedicated to a post-Chloe Max that can canonise either ending doesn't bother me. I liked that Max addressed her trauma from everything that happened in Arcadia Bay. It was interesting to me. I like her much more as an adult than I ever did as a teenager.
The characters are considerably more memorable in Double Exposure. I know who they all are! In LiS, there was a gaggle of teenagers I couldn't tell apart and had no interest in. I actually cared about Gwen and was happy when she didn't indulge Max's nosiness. Loretta was very well realised and I took joy in telling her to back off. Moses was my astrophysics bro. I even had a difficult time choosing between love interests for the first time ever, when it historically has been very easy for me. Warren was elbowy and the personification of comphet, no thank you; Sean dating anyone felt weird due to his circumstances; and Ryan was so baked into the plotline of TC with exquisite dramatic tension it was impossible to not choose him.
In DE, I chose Vinh because I can't resist Protagonist/Sketchy. While I enjoyed it, I definitely had moments of, "aw, Amanda is so sweet! Can't I date her too?" Maybe I'll double dip next playthrough.
The OST was a banger. This is the first time I've downloaded an LiS soundtrack! I think I ran to Spotify as the credits were playing. The last song before the credits, with the scene it accompanied, really hit me in the heart and I was emotionally compromised. A lot of thematic beats, such as Max refusing to go through what she went through at the end of the first game and forcing the world to give her a third option, or when she decided to stay in Caledon and open up to people and finish what she started, felt written for me. I am fully invested in this part of her journey; it's a shame the game underperformed financially and may not get a follow up.
It reminded me a lot of Across the Spider-Verse. Is it as good as Across the Spider-Verse? Of course not. But the similarities are wholly things both properties get right and do very well.
The setting was lovely, although I wish we had been given more opportunity to explore. The gameplay did railroad a bit more than I would have liked, including not warning me when the story was going to move forward. Swapping between timelines was fun, yes, but a bit underutilised.
I really liked how Safi lost her mind at the end and set herself up as the Magneto to Max's Professor X. I don't care that it's unpopular, I'm all in on that plot. Let's MCU this shit. Safi can recruit Evil Daniel Diaz and his bleach blond frosted tips.
This is the first game I've played in a bit (possibly all year) where I'm really eager to jump into a second playthrough. I want to slow down and check out all the little things I missed. And not accidentally choose the clown makeup during a romantic scene.
tl;dr — I really enjoyed it. It might be my favourite LiS game. (Someone ask me my ranking. I dare you.)
Full spoilers below the cut.
I was surprised by how much fun I had with Max this time around, as I wasn't really a huge fan of her during the original game. Like, she was fine? But kind of dull. Chloe outshone her with an actually compelling plotline and a superior voice performance; it was Chloe I got attached to, so I was surprised when I realised how much stronger a Max story is without Chloe weighing it down.
I think the fact that I go into this not offended by the fact that Max dared to continue living her life without Chloe. I chose the Bay ending in LiS and stick by it; I can't condemn an entire town to save a single person and I don't think the Bae ending was thematically fulfilling. So the fact that we have a whole game dedicated to a post-Chloe Max that can canonise either ending doesn't bother me. I liked that Max addressed her trauma from everything that happened in Arcadia Bay. It was interesting to me. I like her much more as an adult than I ever did as a teenager.
The characters are considerably more memorable in Double Exposure. I know who they all are! In LiS, there was a gaggle of teenagers I couldn't tell apart and had no interest in. I actually cared about Gwen and was happy when she didn't indulge Max's nosiness. Loretta was very well realised and I took joy in telling her to back off. Moses was my astrophysics bro. I even had a difficult time choosing between love interests for the first time ever, when it historically has been very easy for me. Warren was elbowy and the personification of comphet, no thank you; Sean dating anyone felt weird due to his circumstances; and Ryan was so baked into the plotline of TC with exquisite dramatic tension it was impossible to not choose him.
In DE, I chose Vinh because I can't resist Protagonist/Sketchy. While I enjoyed it, I definitely had moments of, "aw, Amanda is so sweet! Can't I date her too?" Maybe I'll double dip next playthrough.
The OST was a banger. This is the first time I've downloaded an LiS soundtrack! I think I ran to Spotify as the credits were playing. The last song before the credits, with the scene it accompanied, really hit me in the heart and I was emotionally compromised. A lot of thematic beats, such as Max refusing to go through what she went through at the end of the first game and forcing the world to give her a third option, or when she decided to stay in Caledon and open up to people and finish what she started, felt written for me. I am fully invested in this part of her journey; it's a shame the game underperformed financially and may not get a follow up.
It reminded me a lot of Across the Spider-Verse. Is it as good as Across the Spider-Verse? Of course not. But the similarities are wholly things both properties get right and do very well.
The setting was lovely, although I wish we had been given more opportunity to explore. The gameplay did railroad a bit more than I would have liked, including not warning me when the story was going to move forward. Swapping between timelines was fun, yes, but a bit underutilised.
I really liked how Safi lost her mind at the end and set herself up as the Magneto to Max's Professor X. I don't care that it's unpopular, I'm all in on that plot. Let's MCU this shit. Safi can recruit Evil Daniel Diaz and his bleach blond frosted tips.
This is the first game I've played in a bit (possibly all year) where I'm really eager to jump into a second playthrough. I want to slow down and check out all the little things I missed. And not accidentally choose the clown makeup during a romantic scene.
no subject
no subject
In Mass Effect 2, the game ends with a suicide mission where you can get many of your party members killed off. Mass Effect 3 is a direct sequel continuing the plot of 2; the game's writing and programming basically had to bend over backwards to make this connective tissue work, including creating "replacement" characters for certain storylines. For example, if ME2 party member Amanda Hugenkiss was supposed to provide you vital information on Planet Pizza Party in ME3 but died in the suicide mission, suspiciously similar substitute Ben Dover would would take her place. This also meant that Amanda's role had to be reduced from party member to cameo to accommodate the fact that the story needed to carry on regardless if she was alive or dead. This was not a seamless process and probably ate up a significant portion of ME3's budget/bandwidth. So I totally understand why Chloe not appearing regardless of the ending was a thing.
And, like, it's not like her presence isn't felt. Max both deeply mourns and carries Chloe. Many of her decisions and actions are an indirect result of everything that happened in Arcadia Bay.
To answer your question! The things in the game are great. I saw on PSN stalking that you own it but haven't played it yet? Is that correct?
no subject
I saw on PSN stalking that you own it but haven't played it yet?
I don't own it, but Ginger does! Tem and I are planning to watch them play at... some point? We'll need to find a time when Ginger, Tem and I are all a) available and b) in the mood for an emotionally intense game, which can be tricky to coordinate.