In typical series fashion, the Life is Strange: Double Exposure ending puts its players in a hard place.
Centered on the protagonist of Square-Enix's first game, Max Caufield, Double Exposure picks back up Max's story 10 years after the devastating events of Arcadia Bay.
This time around, an older Max uses a new set of supernatural powers allowing her to teleport at will between two different timelines as she investigates the motivations behind a murder.
Breaking Down the Life Is Strange: Double Exposure Ending
The Life is Strange series is known for its mind-bending endings, and Life is Strange: Double Exposure seems to be no exception.
The latest entry into the long-running Square-Enix adventure game series focuses on Life is Strange protagonist Max Caulfield as she works as a photographer-in-residence at the prestigious Caledon University in Lakeport, Vermont.
It has been 10 years since the events of the first game, and Max has closed herself off from her powers of being able to rewind time at will after learning in the first game the devastating (and potentially world-ending) consequences that come with messing with the timeline.
However, she is thrust back into her super-powered ways in Double Exposure, after it is revealed that her first at Caledon, Safiya "Safi" Llewellyn-Fayyad has been murdered.
This leads her to discover a new ability where she can pulse between two different timelines, one where Safi is alive and another where she is dead.
Through her investigation between the timelines, she discovers and tries to fix other problems by people in both realities, seemingly making (what she sees as) inconsequential adjustments to the live and dead timeline.
She also realizes that not only can she phase between these two different universes but can also bring objects back and forth, using things from one universe to solve a problem in another.
This all culminates in Episode 5 of the episodic adventure game, where it is revealed that Safi is not dead at all. It turns out the fellow Caledon student used her potential murder to draw Max's powers back out of her, as she wants to assemble a team of sorts made up of super-powered individuals like Max.
Safi is revealed to have powers herself, showing that she is a shape-shifter and created the two timelines by transforming into Max and splitting reality.
This comes to light as a new storm arrives (one akin to the massive weather event that sought to destroy the world at the end of the first Life is Strange). Seemingly perturbed by Max's messing with time again, this killer storm is a manifestation of the timeline fighting back against Max.
The player is then offered a final decision from Safi. Either go off with Safi to use their powers together and (essentially) rule over the world or leave Safi behind.
Whether the player picks to go with Safi or not, the game ends fairly similarly with Max combining the two timelines and saving the residents of Caledon, just like she did with Arcadia Bay (for those who chose that ending) in the first Life is Strange.
All of this comes before the game ends with a Marvel Studios-esque tease, with the text "Max Caufield will return" being splayed across the screen as the credits start to roll.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
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