Life is Strange: True Colors feels like a return to form for the series in many ways and an evolution in some aspects but it’s bogged down by its mediocre narrative and questionable direction.
True Colors has a lot of the ingredients that made the first Life is Strange special, most notably on the amount of focus on the environmental storytelling to make the central location feel lived in. Life is Strange truly shines when it gets a central location that evolves with each chapter and is sprinkled with characters that progressively develop and react to what’s happening in the story. Every chapter in True Colors, minus the final one, opens the town of Haven Springs up for the player to free-roam through. Giving the player the chance to explore, find interesting information about the town and its inhabitants, and helping out said inhabitants through whatever they’re going through during that chapter. True Colors’ Haven Springs feels like the best evolution of what the team learned from the previous game to deliver a gripping setting.
An underrated aspect of Life is Strange that has always made the series stand out to me is that these games really make you live in the moment. They’re not trying to fill the playtime with plot progression, actually, most of the playtime is spent with the player just taking it all in whether it’s to appreciate beautiful scenery or to ponder over what’s happening in the main story. This has made way for the “Moment of Calm” spread across the games to become series staples and True Colors does them fantastically. Life is Strange uses music in very special ways and in True Colors, it seems like they’ve made the conscious decision to use save licensed music to be played during those Moment of Calm sections. Giving each Moment of Calm its own vibe based on how the characters are feeling and the type of monologue they’re giving. I especially love that they added Moments of Calm to be shared with other characters, giving you the choice to linger on whatever you’re doing with a character to make it more of an intimate moment. True Colors provides the set-piece and the player gets to choose if they want to extend their time in it or if they want to get to the next one faster, it provides a fantastic way for players to pace themselves.
Alex is up there with my favorite protagonists in the series, it feels like they took the best parts that made Max and Chloe work as characters and ended up creating a complex and dynamic main character that I wanted to see the story through with. Another return to form that hasn’t been present in the series since the very first Life is Strange is getting a protagonist that has superpowers again! This time, Alex has the power to visually see people’s emotions and if the emotion is particularly strong, she starts feeling it too. Much like Max’s rewind powers in the first Life is Strange, Alex’s set of abilities changes how you explore the world and how you interact with its characters. Emotions are visually represented as auras surrounding characters in a color that represents the emotion. Most NPCs have these auras which allows you to tap into their thoughts and help them out if they need to or just peek into what gossip or recent story development has been on their mind. This mechanic is used as a powerful tool for the environmental storytelling in True Colors.
When these emotions get too strong, they can completely shift a character’s view of what’s around them, giving Alex the ability to tap deep into their psyche to unravel what they’re going through. These moments are the highlight of True Colors for me, with some of them becoming some of my favorite moments in the series, especially a touching and heartbreaking one that happens in the second chapter that will live in my mind as a standout moment. What makes Alex such a fun protagonist to play as is that she eliminates the chance of the protagonist not understanding where a character is coming from and misjudging them. Alex can immediately put herself in other peoples’ shoes and understand them more deeply through their colorful auras. Stuff like this shape Alex’s abilities into becoming a very unique visual and literary tool.
My biggest gripe has to be with the story of the game though. I won’t be able to say much without getting into spoilers but what I can say is that the story keeps building the anticipation of the player through the return of having a mystery drive the narrative. However, the aftermath of that mystery ends up not being worth the anticipation, making True Colors have the most unsatisfying conclusion in the series for me. I spent most of the final chapter clicking my tongue and shaking my head in disappointment. I genuinely hated the conclusion to the story. However I don’t want to let that ruin the great time I had with the first three quarters of True Colors.
Life is Strange: True Colors does so much right that I can’t help but root for it. I had a really special time in Haven Springs and even though I didn’t leave it in the best note, I’m holding on to everything I liked from it. Fantastic setting, dynamic characters, indie music, and a questionable narrative? All the ingredients to a quintessential Life is Strange experience.
True Colors has a lot of the ingredients that made the first Life is Strange special, most notably on the amount of focus on the environmental storytelling to make the central location feel lived in. Life is Strange truly shines when it gets a central location that evolves with each chapter and is sprinkled with characters that progressively develop and react to what’s happening in the story. Every chapter in True Colors, minus the final one, opens the town of Haven Springs up for the player to free-roam through. Giving the player the chance to explore, find interesting information about the town and its inhabitants, and helping out said inhabitants through whatever they’re going through during that chapter. True Colors’ Haven Springs feels like the best evolution of what the team learned from the previous game to deliver a gripping setting.
An underrated aspect of Life is Strange that has always made the series stand out to me is that these games really make you live in the moment. They’re not trying to fill the playtime with plot progression, actually, most of the playtime is spent with the player just taking it all in whether it’s to appreciate beautiful scenery or to ponder over what’s happening in the main story. This has made way for the “Moment of Calm” spread across the games to become series staples and True Colors does them fantastically. Life is Strange uses music in very special ways and in True Colors, it seems like they’ve made the conscious decision to use save licensed music to be played during those Moment of Calm sections. Giving each Moment of Calm its own vibe based on how the characters are feeling and the type of monologue they’re giving. I especially love that they added Moments of Calm to be shared with other characters, giving you the choice to linger on whatever you’re doing with a character to make it more of an intimate moment. True Colors provides the set-piece and the player gets to choose if they want to extend their time in it or if they want to get to the next one faster, it provides a fantastic way for players to pace themselves.
Alex is up there with my favorite protagonists in the series, it feels like they took the best parts that made Max and Chloe work as characters and ended up creating a complex and dynamic main character that I wanted to see the story through with. Another return to form that hasn’t been present in the series since the very first Life is Strange is getting a protagonist that has superpowers again! This time, Alex has the power to visually see people’s emotions and if the emotion is particularly strong, she starts feeling it too. Much like Max’s rewind powers in the first Life is Strange, Alex’s set of abilities changes how you explore the world and how you interact with its characters. Emotions are visually represented as auras surrounding characters in a color that represents the emotion. Most NPCs have these auras which allows you to tap into their thoughts and help them out if they need to or just peek into what gossip or recent story development has been on their mind. This mechanic is used as a powerful tool for the environmental storytelling in True Colors.
When these emotions get too strong, they can completely shift a character’s view of what’s around them, giving Alex the ability to tap deep into their psyche to unravel what they’re going through. These moments are the highlight of True Colors for me, with some of them becoming some of my favorite moments in the series, especially a touching and heartbreaking one that happens in the second chapter that will live in my mind as a standout moment. What makes Alex such a fun protagonist to play as is that she eliminates the chance of the protagonist not understanding where a character is coming from and misjudging them. Alex can immediately put herself in other peoples’ shoes and understand them more deeply through their colorful auras. Stuff like this shape Alex’s abilities into becoming a very unique visual and literary tool.
My biggest gripe has to be with the story of the game though. I won’t be able to say much without getting into spoilers but what I can say is that the story keeps building the anticipation of the player through the return of having a mystery drive the narrative. However, the aftermath of that mystery ends up not being worth the anticipation, making True Colors have the most unsatisfying conclusion in the series for me. I spent most of the final chapter clicking my tongue and shaking my head in disappointment. I genuinely hated the conclusion to the story. However I don’t want to let that ruin the great time I had with the first three quarters of True Colors.
Life is Strange: True Colors does so much right that I can’t help but root for it. I had a really special time in Haven Springs and even though I didn’t leave it in the best note, I’m holding on to everything I liked from it. Fantastic setting, dynamic characters, indie music, and a questionable narrative? All the ingredients to a quintessential Life is Strange experience.