Spielzeit:
962 Minuten
I finished the game a few hours ago and I'm honestly disappointed. For one thing, I missed signing up for the daily platypus facts^^ (in game) even though I read the poster and for another, the story, the themes, the characters seem rather superficial now. It's no longer comparable to the first LiS, which I liked a lot.
I was really excited when I first saw the trailer for Double Exposure and realized that Max would be the main protagonist again, because of all the other LiS games I've played (LiS 2, Tell Me Why, True Colors, Before the Storm), she's always been my absolute favorite character.
Her story, character and powers are the most interesting. Fortunately, most of the time in Double Exposure is still beautiful, funny and interesting. In some moments, you even realize that she has grown up and learned from the past. But then again, sometimes she hasn't.
The new ideas for the main story - I'd say up to chapter three - were good, exciting. It had potential. But then it falls off more and more. By the end, I can't even say that I can logically/rationally understand the motives and actions of some of the protagonists. They act in a gratuitously exaggerated, melodramatic way. They make a mountain out of a molehill. Perhaps the authors have forgotten important explanations in the emotionally charged dialogs that would help us understand what is actually going on?
The new characters are mostly boring or unlikeable and you get to know them more via a social media app on Max SmartPhone than in face-to-face conversations. I often didn't care if they were offended or not just because I wouldn't let Max act sexually pleasing towards them, for example. Also, I didn't notice any consequences that really affected me.
I also felt more than once that the game was too focused on a political agenda. To be clear: I don't think it's wrong to incorporate themes of sexual identity and orientation into a game. Previous games in this series have done this brilliantly: Just think of the story about Alyson and Tyler in Tell Me Why or the relationship between Max and Chloe in LiS 1. There, however, it was used in a more subtle and story-driven way.
In Double Exposure, on the other hand, almost every character is gay (including absolutely marginal characters whose conversations you can listen on campus), and you absolutely have to know about it. It seemed forced rather than natural.
It also seems as if the authors have created extra characters who, although they have a deeper character arc, are supposed to serve as hate figures for all the other characters and therefore have to gradually fulfill the prejudices that were previously attached to them by everyone else (including Max). While all the other “likeable” characters are showered with understanding and kind words, they are treated with begrudging resentment. At these moments, I couldn't follow Max's behavior.
As for the world design, it was a bit boring to explore the same places over and over again. All the other games in the series were more varied.
The initial settings for the graphics create an extremely blurry effect (even Max's face looked blurry). I set the secondary scale from 50% to 100% and it was much better.
Also, it wasn't always easy to follow the conversations of side characters, as the audio quality/volume fluctuated or the voices didn't always match the animations (I'm not talking about the cutscenes). So it could be that two NPCs were sitting on a bench and gesticulating, although only one person was speaking. I only noticed that a character lost their phone in one observation mission because Max repeated it again in a monologue.
The soundtrack is good (but not as good as in the first game). What I missed are the atmospheric chapter transitions where different characters and locations are shown while a song plays. In Double Exposure, songs were actually cut off harshly at the end of chapters instead (maybe it is a bug).
Another thing that bothered me was the UI structure at the beginning of each chapter where you can choose Max clothing. Yes, it's a nice idea to have a choice. But this UI also shows you disabled cards for clothing that you have to pay for (see deluxe edition of the game). If there is content that can't be used, then it shouldn't be shown.
👍 : 0 |
😃 : 0