One of the first major decisions in Life is Strange: Double Exposure is to decide if Chloe is alive or dead. One of those options makes for a better story.
Did Max let Chloe die to save Arcadia Bay, or did she sacrifice the town to save Chloe?
This was the final important choice players had to make in the original Life is Strange, and one of the first players have to make at the beginning of Life is Strange: Double Exposure. That narrative adventure game, out today, once again stars Max Caulfield as she deals with the fallout of that decision and her powers a decade later. A new mystery pops up around Caledon University, where Max now works, and digs into old emotional wounds that this heartbreaking decision created.
Like the other major decisions in Double Exposure, the story permutates depending on the players’ choice regarding what happened to Chloe. There has been some controversy online surrounding what happens if Chloe lives, as she and Max break up between games, and some dialogue, texts, and other moments reflect that. While breaking up that popular relationship was already a bold move by developer Deck Nine, Double Exposure is a more emotionally poignant game if you make the other decision.
While there’s no canon answer, I think Double Exposure is better if Max had to let Chloe die.Thematically relevant
To understand why I believe Chloe being dead works, we have to look at Double Exposure on a more thematic level. On the surface, it’s about Max investigating the death of her friend, Safi, and finding out how that’s connected to Safi’s book deal being canceled and the suicide of a girl named Maya Okada years earlier. Thematically, it’s about how traumatic events or decisions we made years prior won’t ever truly stop being a specter and influence over us if we continue to ignore those feelings or isolate ourselves because of them.
