Life is Strange: Double Exposure, like many modern blockbusters, is released with the optional Ultimate Edition. To give you a quick breakdown of the different versions of the game: The base game costs $49.99. The Deluxe Edition, which gives you two additional outfit packs, costs $59.99. The Ultimate Edition, which gives you three more outfit packs plus “Exclusive Cat Content” and “early access” to the first two episodes, costs $79.99.
Early Access, in this sense of the phrase, is a farce, but that doesn't matter.
I didn't look at what the Ultimate Edition included when I downloaded the game, so I didn't know there was extra content waiting for me. As I played, I thought the outfits were free extras, since I could dress Max up as an older emo with dyed gray streaks in her hair and purple lipstick or put her in a skeleton onesie, but I didn't realize there was any more story content at all. That's why I so empathize with fans who bought the more expensive version of the game and were disappointed. It's simply not worth the money, and very few definitive editions like this are.
Here, Kitty Kitty
Many fans were quite intrigued by Double Exposure's exclusive cat content. There are many ways this could have been used: perhaps the cat acts as an emotional support animal, perhaps it has a well-defined side story, or perhaps it has a heavy presence in Max's life.
But the cat was so completely unremarkable that I didn't even realize it was supposed to be DLC – I thought it was just an entirely secondary part of the story, a nice touch added so you could get an achievement by petting the cat. In Chapter 2, Max hears meowing outside his door and opens it to find, you guessed it, a cat.
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You can choose the color and name of the cat, feed it, pet it and occasionally take photos of it. Later, when Max's house is broken into, you can talk to him in an attempt to calm him down. At the end of the game, if you collect the right clues, you return it to its owner, who was looking for it the whole time. Other than that, it hangs around your house in one of the timelines, waiting for pets, which I imagine is a lot like a real cat.
Obviously, this is not very substantial research, if you can call it that. You barely interact with the cat, his quest has absolutely no bearing on the overall story, no other characters ever acknowledge him, and you don't even get any cute collars to wear. I thought the cat was an afterthought, thrown in to give the players a bit to smile about amidst all the doom and gloom of Max Caulfield's miserable fortnight. But making people pay for this? $30 for a lot of outfits, early access to a buggy game (three TheGamer editors encountered the same game-breaking bug during this time), and a weird-looking cat? Come on.
A company with bad business practices? Revolutionary
It won't surprise anyone if I say this is normal. Companies have been selling useless DLC for as long as microtransactions have been around, because, you know, money. As long as there are people who love the series enough to shell out the extra money, they will sell everything they can.
What's particularly unpleasant in this case is that the exclusive cat content is also advertised to players between chapters, something I didn't see as I already had the Ultimate Edition. Yes, the game advertises more content to you as you go Already playing a game for which you paid full price.
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And it's not advertising a substantial expansion that would significantly add to your gaming experience, it's advertising some new fake coats and sweaters for Max to wear and a cat for you to look at. For the exorbitant sum of 30 dollars. That's a couple of days of shopping. These are several boxes of real cat food that I could use to feed the real felines in my house so they don't try to steal my groceries again.
I liked the game and think it doesn't deserve a lot of the criticism it has received from fans, but in this case the backlash is completely justified. It's blatantly disrespectful to the players who love the series the most, and for no reason other than profit. This wasn't a side mission, it was an afterthought.
Max Caulfield, a photographer in residence at the prestigious Caledon University, discovers his new closest friend, Safi, dead in the snow.
Murdered.
To save her, Max tries to rewind time, a power he hasn't used in years… instead, Max opens the way to a parallel timeline where Safi is still alive, and still in danger!
Max realizes that the killer will soon strike again, in both versions of reality.
With his new power to move between two timelines, can Max solve and prevent the same murder?
ORDINARY GIRL, EXTRAORDINARY POWER
Max finds himself embroiled in a thrilling supernatural murder mystery that's more dangerous than ever!
CROSS TWO TIMELINES
Forge allies and pursue suspects across two versions of reality, shaping both timelines through unforgettable choices.
RACE AGAINST TIME
A relentless detective has Max in his sights and Safi's killer gets closer and closer with each clue discovered. Can Max survive long enough to do the impossible?
DECIDE THE FATE OF CALEDON
Explore two versions of a bustling winter campus, each filled with clues, secrets, and tough decisions.
