Life is Strange: Double Exposure “will respect both endings” of the first game as the devs seek to “honor the biggest and most impactful decision” you made

(Image credit: Square Enix)

Life is Strange: Double Exposure will let you continue main character Max’s story from either of the two possible endings in the first game.

This comes from the throwback sequel’s new reveal livestream, in which game director Jonathan Stauder explained Double Exposure’s approach to storytelling in a sequel to a game with two dramatically different endings. No spoilers here, but anyone who’s played through the first Life is Strange in its entirety will remember a very difficult choice at the end that, naturally, has a massive impact on the trajectory of the story going into Double Exposure. Thankfully, you can simply pick which ending you like most at the beginning of Double Exposure and branch off from there.

“It was really important for us at Deck Nine that, if we were going to make another Max adventure, that the game would have to respect both of those endings and Double Exposure does that very thing,” Stauder said. “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 to her past to her new friends is all reflective of that final choice.”

At another point in the video, narrative director Felice Kuan clarified that there’s an early scene in Double Exposure in which Safi and Max have a conversation in which the ending of the first game “naturally” comes up, and it’s then that you’ll be able to re-make your decision about what happens.

“It was very important to us for folks who are entirely new to the franchise that everything they need to know about her is right there in Life is Strange Double Exposure,” Stauder added. “And for returning players, we absolutely honor the biggest and most impactful decision that you’re going to remember from that first game and carry that forward to see how that plays out in Max’s latest adventure.”

In case it wasn’t clear by now, Life is Strange protagonist Max Caulfield is coming back for another dramatic, decision-centered, supernatural adventure set a few years after the events of the original game that started it all. This time around, Max is a college student who, after learning her best friend Safi has been brutally murdered, rewinds time and incidentally opens an alternate timeline travel where her friend was never killed. Thing is, the clock on Safi’s death is tickin’ in this timeline, leaving Max with precious little time to identify the killer.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure hits PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on October 29, with a Switch version in the works for release at a later date.

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After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar’s west coast Staff Writer, I’m responsible for managing the site’s western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I’m too afraid to finish.