Life Is Strange: Double Exposure’s expensive “early access” period began yesterday, October 15, which allows folks to play the first two episodes of the game before the full launch on October 29. However, a revelation in those early episodes has sent shockwaves through the series’ fandom, especially those who were invested in the original game’s love story between its time-traveling protagonist Max Caufield and her punk best friend Chloe Price. Spoilers ahead.
In a scene in the first episode of Double Exposure, a now college-aged Max sits at a diner with her friend Safi. Max has been enigmatic with her new friends, so Safi is grilling her on her past and demands some answers. This is the segment that lets the player determine which of the original Life Is Strange endings is “canon” to them, as well as solidify the nature of Max and Chloe’s relationship. Were they best friends or high school sweethearts? That’s up to you to decide, but it looks like there’s no version of events where Max and Chloe are still together, and Chloe either died at the end of the first game, or the two girls split up.
In a vacuum, this development could make sense. People grow apart, especially friends and significant others from high school. But given what Max and Chloe went through together in the first Life Is Strange, it does not sit well with fans that their relationship would be discarded off-screen.
in Life is Strange, Max and Chloe have a relationship so profound that it literally tears apart the fabric of reality. for deck nine to boil that relationship down to "the blue-haired best friend once in her life" demonstrates a gross and fundamental misunderstanding of the game pic.twitter.com/J3gCmTEKy5
— Tommy Culkin (@tommy_culkin) October 14, 2024
there is no direct sequel game to the original life is strange to me. i'm so happy that Max and Chloe lived happily ever after in the comics and that is MY canon thank you very much. pic.twitter.com/aAHxirdsAT
— ace || 🍉 free palestine 🍉 (@bmblbs) October 14, 2024
hey remember how in the comics chloe waited for max to come home for two whole years while they were timelines apart not even knowing if she'd ever see her again. she still waited and hoped for her return. she built them a whole ass house to live in, in the town she used to hate.
— keno ꩜ (@KENOASTRAL) October 14, 2024
Chloe is a "free spir…" No she isn't! She literally hangs onto people cause she has severe abandonment issues after her dad and Rachel were lost to her. You absolutely baffons who wrote this atrocity of a character assassination! pic.twitter.com/F7G39QrDkB
— Kev (Rambling bout Arcane and LIS still) (@breakingdead1) October 14, 2024
Confirmed Chloe and Max break up in double exposure I’m fucking done with the life is strange series
Every game Deck nine has made for this series was just mediocre as hell and now them disrespecting the fuck outta fans and milking dont nods original characters. Ugh. pic.twitter.com/GV44PJdlEx
— a really cool username (@really_username) October 14, 2024
Saying their breakup is "ultimately true to their characters" WTF HELLO ???? HAVE WE PLAYED THE SAME FUCKNG GAME ???? "Max, i'll always be with you" ???? "Don't look so sad, i'm never leaving you" ?????? "That's ok, we will, forever" ??????? https://t.co/rpY6V64LMP
— Aiden (@AiidenArt) October 14, 2024
Chloe’s reasoning for leaving Max is apparently due to the time-traveling photographer’s inability to move on from the events of the first game. This is part of Max’s arc in Double Exposure, as she has sworn off using her time-rewinding abilities after they had catastrophic consequences. It seems like Max is dealing with a lot of trauma from her past, even many years later, and if Chloe is alive, her inability to move forward is what broke down the relationship, according to a letter the player can find. Not that the explanation is satisfactory to everyone.
Damn Chloe.
Well maybe stop dying and we won’t need to be afraid and rewind
Also fuck deck nine, Chloe would not say this#SecretsOfCaledon pic.twitter.com/nVG5sLqRUE
— Pricefield for life (@LovesPricefield) October 15, 2024
Ultimately, we still don’t know if Chloe’s role in Double Exposure is just a dialogue option and a postcard because the full game isn’t out yet. But given how big of a reveal this is for longtime fans, I have to wonder if releasing the sequel in pieces was the wisest option. If Chloe does show up and things are different by the end of the game, I imagine some fans would be more willing to sit with and examine this development. Or maybe this reveal makes more sense in the context of the full game. I’ll hold judgment until I see the game through to the end, but I’m not surprised that fans aren’t thrilled to find these characters in such a different place from where they left them. We’ll know more when the rest of the game is out on October 29.
