How to fix Life is Strange: Double Exposure chapter 2 crash

Fixing this game-breaking crash in Life is Strange: Double Exposure is quick and easy

GLHF / Square Enix

The first two chapters of Life is Strange: Double Exposure are out now for purchasers of the premium edition of the game, with players around the world stepping back into the shoes of Max Caulfield in a new adventure with new powers. In our preview of the fantastic first chapter of Double Exposure, we enjoyed what the game had to offer, but our time with the game came to an abrupt halt after experiencing a game-breaking crash early in chapter two. 

Despite assurances from Square Enix that the bug that caused the crash had been fixed in the retail version of the game on PC, since the game’s release we’ve had numerous reports from players that they’re experiencing the same crash at the same point. Thankfully, the solution to this is pretty simple, and with a quick tweak of the settings, you can move on to the rest of the chapter. 

Life is Strange: Double Exposure – How to fix the chapter 2 crash on PC 

Life is Strange: Double Exposure can crash for some players early in chapter 2, after Max hears a ringing sound and goes to investigate. She promptly finds the source of the sound, and surmises that it’s related to her new timeline-jumping powers, after which the player is supposed to switch between timelines to test that theory. Attempting to switch, though, causes the game to crash immediately. 

To fix this crash, open up the game’s settings, and then navigate to the Accessibility Settings tab. Scroll down to the setting that says “Simple Power Effects” and switch the toggle to “Yes.” This should allow you to activate Max’s powers without the game crashing, at the cost of some screen effects. 

Turning this setting on should fix the crash / GLHF / Square Enix

Square Enix has also added this solution to a scroll message on the game’s title screen, alongside a message saying that if the game is abnormally bright, players can adjust this in the game’s settings. In our experience, this can be caused by a few things, such as the HDR setting being on while using a non-HDR monitor, the shadow quality being set to low, and the brightness slider itself being too high.