Life Is Strange: True Colors Review
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May 18, 2022
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May 19, 2022
Live in small-town Haven Springs in Colorado’s mountainsides and discover its secrets the best Life is Strange game yet!
Introduction
Games that are heavily driven by a strong story has always been one of my favorite games. Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead, Galactic Café’s The Stanley Parable, and Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain are some of the games that I can pull out from my archive of favorite story-focused games that continue to push the story-telling narrative that games can, in fact, be an art form that rivals even big blockbuster films coming out this season.
I did enjoy my time playing the first Life is Strange game and replaying it again when the remaster that came out fairly recently (Even had the collector’s edition with the soundtrack I still play sometimes!). And while I did wholeheartedly love the short, yet sweet The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, I’d rather explore Chris’ story rather than Daniel and Sean’s in Life is Strange 2 which displays even more downsides that I have experienced in the original game that made me a little bit less excited for the next chapter. And I am void of any sort of emotion for the prequel game developed by a new developer, Life is Strange: Before the Storm by Deck Nine, that fully explains the whole backstory behind Chloe and her relationship with Rachel before Max Caulfield.
So, imagine my shock when I preordered my digital copy of Life is Strange: True Colors with no other reason than being driven by whatever is left of my interest in the series and be absolutely body-slammed in amazement by how good the story is and how it is backed up by the game’s looks.
It’s almost as if that Deck Nine has taken a step back to get their bearings in order and took the time, effort, and passion to understand and eliminate the flaws that have plagued the previous entries of the series and created something that is not only best game in the series, but may be in the running for the best storytelling and visuals of the generation, as well as free advertising for the state of Colorado.
The Story
First things first, a pro tip before you I start to explain a small part of the story since I do not want to spoil it too much: The story of this game is best enjoyed when you didn’t watch any of the trailers like me (but if you did, that’s okay!).
Life is Strange: True Colors begins with a single continuous, stationery shot slowly zooming into our main protagonist of the latest entry in the series, Alex Chen. Who is being interviewed for the final time by Dr. Lynn, employed by the orphanage she’s about to leave to assess the state of her mental health and asking her about moving in to Haven Springs, a small fictional town located in the mountains of Colorado with her long-lost brother of eight years, Gabe Chen.
Just like the power to turn back time a-la Time Hollow style like Max Caulfield and Chloe’s ability to backtalk her way to turn the odds to her favor, True Colors has a completely new ability for Alex to use. This power allows her to sense and absorb the emotions of other characters and listen to their thoughts on why they are feeling that way and even influencing their train of thought, but at the cost of her mental state. This grants her the power to be fully empathetic to the inhabitants of Haven Springs and potentially saving them from conflicts against one another or themselves.
The Visuals
I’ll be honest with you, True Colors has the best-looking visuals in any of the Life is Strange games, bar none. The first opening shots of Alex walking into Haven Springs and then taking in the sights and atmosphere of the small mining town in Colorado had my jaw dropped for a good two-and-a-half minutes before coming to my senses when Alex came along. The ambient occlusion and the way it presented lighting to the environment is on par with some AAA games and its simple graphics at the highest settings still display an impressive amount of detail in all of the objects you can observe up close. You still have the ability to read notes and other pieces such as comics and vinyl covers clearly, and even the artwork on those feel genuine.
Compared to Arcadia Bay where the cold colors of blue in the school hallways feel lifeless and unforgiving and the warm lighting from the sun in forests littered with manmade objects makes it feel polluted, Haven Springs in Colorado is absolutely stunning during the daytime and at night. Making you feel welcome in this small and remote, but humble town.
Playthrough Highlights
Throughout my entire 14 hours of playing through this game and going through all of the endings it had to offer, I have never had this much fun in playing a Life is Strange game since the first one came out.
If I had to put into words, playing True Colors is lot like playing Stardew Valley if the story were more fleshed out and detailed. Because of the number of townspeople in the map, I still remember each and every one of their names by heart and chose the correct dialogue options after getting the know their characters further into the game.
In addition to that, this is also the first Life is Strange game where it felt that your choices and the consequences that follows after actually does matter. The game filters out moments where a sort of ‘butterfly effect’ will occur when you exhale the wrong way. These decisions that you will make will either be a minor inconvenience or a significant impact when you are further into the story.
Another highlight of True Colors that I like is how unforgiving it can be and punishes you when you make the ‘wrong’ decision or dialogue option when you are put in a difficult position and forces to act on your feet while doing so. Because of True Color’s theme of empathy and understanding human emotions and conflicts, you have to put yourself in Alex’s shoes and decide for her or yourself to resolve it. Gone are the days where you can rewind time to get a favorable outcome, when you screw up and make everyone sad, you’re going to have to live with it for the rest of the game.
Another aspect of trying to resolve conflicts is whether or not it’s worth giving up a part of your own self in order to peacefully settle the issue. Sure, you have all the power in the world to understand make their pains go away and pretend like nothing’s ever happened. But just because you have the ability to do so, doesn’t mean that you necessarily want to. Forcing you in a position to do your absolute best to tackle the problem head on with everything you got. And when everything fails, use your powers as a last, last, last resort.
Concluding Thoughts
If you have never played Life is Strange before, I wholeheartedly recommend you to pick up True Colors to get the best possible experience in the entire series. Bar none.
The pacing of the story is very well-timed and solid, the visuals are absolutely stunning and matches the atmosphere of Colorado and an humble, safe, and welcoming air of the small mining town of Haven Spring with a coterie of great characters that you can get along with, and the game handicapping you from wanting to use your powers to solve a problem at the risk of yourself and forcing you to live with your choice for the remainder of your playthrough. Life is Strange: True Colors is the perfect entry to the series that gets everything right in a ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ game and Deck Nine definitely knocked this game out of the park. And with the upcoming DLC focusing on Steph’s story one year before the events of the base game, I look forward to it with my newly-invigorated excitement for the series in the future.
Credits
Author: Ryan L.
Game: Life Is Strange: True Colors
Developer: Square Enix
Release Date: August 12, 2021
