I understand most of the critiques towards the game, but I still found the game truly enjoyable. Spoilers ahead.

I've seen a lot of people upset about Chloe's lack of screen time, mostly if you choose the Chloe lived option; a lot of people felt like it was out of character for them to just have a falling out. I'm sorry, but if that outcome surprised you, you didn't pay enough attention to the first game and Before the Storm. We saw Rachel latch onto Chloe and use her, and Chloe then did the same to Max. The shippers argue that Max and Chloe had this crazy love and connection, but in every romance scene between them, Chloe never seems to feel as strongly as she did with Rachel, or pulls away first. This was clear to me as a player during the first game that this was a teenage love; deep, life changing, but temporary. I was very satisfied with the way the game showed how much the events of Arcadia Bay adn Chloe affected and still affect Max, whether you choose to have Chloe live or not.

The other big issue I saw was that people seemed to feelt that the support cast of the game was shallow, that they didn't get enough screen time and didn't affect the story much. I'll give you that, Max does go through the story in a much lonelier way than in any other LIS game. However, while SOME characters did lack depth, I found myself greatly surprised at how much some characters grew on me. The deeper motives and feelings of characters like Safi and Vinh had me really wanting to learn more and more, which thankfuly, it seems we will get in the next game . I do wish characters like Moses and Amanda had more screentime, but it didn't keep me from falling in love with them at all.

I did get upset at how they handled the storm. I do believe it was a very unnecessary comeback, as I feel it cheapened the storm of Arcadia Bay to just be like "not this time, storm!". With the way the UI is made, Moses' multiple references to astronomy, and the general theme of planets following throughout the game, i for sure thought it would be another natural disaster involving astronomy and was greatly disappointed to see that thread become loose.

The game failed to approach controversal subjects in the way it did in the first few games. The first game especially had a way of bringing up beautiful ideologies and philosophies that had you thinking for days later, and Double Exposure missed the mark there, even if it had really good opportunities.

The biggest issue with the game however was Lucas. After Jefferson, it became really predictable that he would be the "big villain", if we can even call it that. Lucas was the only character that truly was shallow to me. Jefferson was a deeply complex character with serious issues and obessions, while Lucas' whole thing was that he was just... pathetic.

Now that I've discussed about the cons, here are the pros.

The game is beautiful. I'm so happy that I have a computer able to run this game on max settings to fully appreciate the beauty of the graphics. However, beyond just that, what truly stunned me was the way the characters are animated. When playing a game, no matter whether it's story dirven, there's usually always this "plastic" feeling where the character's emotions can be portrayed very well through the voice acting, but the physical expressions are very limited; they always feel so cinredibly overexaggerated, or annoyingly lacking. The character's facial expressions and body language in this game were mesmerizing. I fell in love with all of their quirks, their truly unique body language and habits. Characters like Safi, Amanda and Gwen trulyn shined there for me: it was the first time that a game felt this immersive to me. The way the characters move and talk feels so real.

The ending finally ties in the games together! I was worried this would be an Assassin's Creed situation where some games felt like they followed the same story and others don't, even tho some characters were reoccurring in multiple games. I'm excited to see where that will lead, but am a little anxious as to how they'll achieve this, because I would truly hate and avengers assemble type of situation.

Even though Lucas was an easy guess, the story remained intriguing and I didn't feel like there was any "boring" moment. Time flew by while playing, and the twists and the investigation kept me wanting more and more.

Representation! I like that the game included so much representation: race, sexual orientation, gender, etc., without justifing any of it. There doesn't need to be an explanation or a huge backstory to include representation. None of it was questioned, it was just a fact! It's refreshing.

Again, as I said before, unlike most people I don't feel like most characters are shallow. After finishing the story, it is clear that Safi has many issues, even though she isn't a bad person. She's done a lot of terrible things, like getting Gwen fired , and involving Lucas' son in their feud . She even borderline has a god complex, but her inner turmoil, her circumstances, her deep love for Max and Moses had me hooked.

While I do wish Moses had been given a bigger role, I appreciated Max's loneliness in all of this. With the way the story went, it felt like going through this alone made her reflect on the events of Arcadia Bay and process them in a way that I believe she wouldn't have been able to do had she had another sidekick Chloe style. I think it's development that her character truly needed, because at the beginning of the game, it definitely feels like she is still the Max from Blackwell Academy; at the end of the game, to me it felt like Max had g rown up so much, which I think was necessary for her to be a compelling character still if they are to bring her back for another game.

ass. just play the original again.

naw bro tf is this game