Item: Life is Strange: True Colors
Rating: 7
Author: robiu013

Not gonna lie, I have a bit of a sweet spot for the melodrama of **Life is Strange** games. I previously only played the original and had some mixed feelings on it, but I still can't deny, that the game was a blast. After seeing **True Colors** announced on a Nintendo Direct, I knew I'll have to give it a try on no other basis, than it's a new **Life is Strang**e game.

  

Anyway, here's a rundown of my opinions:

\-Graphics are mostly good. The character models aren't the best I have seen in a story-driven game. I definitely prefered the cel-shaded comic book characters of **Tales From the Borderlands** and the facial captures in **Until Dawn** were more impressive, but they still do their job fine. I did love the ambience of the small mountain town, that is Haven Springs. It's just a joy to walk around the various colourful areas the town has to offer.

\-Gameplay is comparable to the original, if not slightly worse. Fans of the franchise are probably already aware, but **Life is Strange** loves to switch things up by coming up with a new gimmick for each new installment. The original had time reversal powers, in this one you're an empath, who can sense and affect other people's emotions. While a cool concept to switch things up in terms of story telling, empath powers just aren't as impressive in a video game as time reversal (well, unless they'd do it more like **Psychonauts**) and usually just result in you having to find some poorly hidden objects the character you are trying to emotionally impact has emotional ties to Psychonauts style, then use them as a hint to get to the next step of the pretty straight-forward and barely challenging puzzle. So yeah, the story-telling might still hook you, but in terms of puzzles the game just hands you the progress on a silver platter.

\-Gameplay is not just story-driven listening to dialogues and looking for emotional clues to solve the puzzle. The game occasionally tries to mix things up with different forms of mini games. The game features several arcade machines, which allow you to play classic 8-bit style games on, a chapter 2 segment makes you play 3 rounds of table football and the larping level of chapter 3 features classic **Final Fantasy** turn-based combat.

\-Given that this games' theme is emotions, the characters come up on top when compared to the original. A tragedy that befalls Haven Springs at the end of the games' first chapter permeates the characters moods in the otherwise idyllic mountain town and quite a bit of pretty cool characterization is born from it. Also gotta give credit for doing something interesting with the main character, as opposed to the original, where the main character was initially a bit too blank slate when integrated in the overall story.

\-The story is quite interesting, even if I have to admit, that the resolution was not my cup of tea. People might also take issue with the quirky millenial dialogues, that are present in the early parts of the game, but diminish as the game progresses as well as the idealistic "millenial" sense of justice, that becomes a bit of an issue for the main character when the game starts climaxing, where I really just felt like the characters didn't bother thinking their master plan through. I could also comment on how the town is like an escapist little hipster idyll packing a record store with all the obscure indie records your heart desires, a larping community, where the whole town cooperates and a hemp store with the main character happily exclaiming, that weed is legal now at one point.

  

Anyway, game is good if you are into story-driven games and don't mind the quirky attempts of the game trying to capture their target demographics sentimentalities.

Not gonna lie, I have a bit of a sweet spot for the melodrama of Life is Strange games. I previously only played the original and had some mixed feelings on it, but I still can't deny, that the game was a blast. After seeing True Colors announced on a Nintendo Direct, I knew I'll have to give it a try on no other basis, than it's a new Life is Strange game. Anyway, here's a rundown of my opinions:-Graphics are mostly good. The character models aren't the best I have seen in a story-driven game. I definitely prefered the cel-shaded comic book characters of Tales From the Borderlands and the facial captures in Until Dawn were more impressive, but they still do their job fine. I did love the ambience of the small mountain town, that is Haven Springs. It's just a joy to walk around the various colourful areas the town has to offer.-Gameplay is comparable to the original, if not slightly worse. Fans of the franchise are probably already aware, but Life is Strange loves to switch things up by coming up with a new gimmick for each new installment. The original had time reversal powers, in this one you're an empath, who can sense and affect other people's emotions. While a cool concept to switch things up in terms of story telling, empath powers just aren't as impressive in a video game as time reversal (well, unless they'd do it more like Psychonauts) and usually just result in you having to find some poorly hidden objects the character you are trying to emotionally impact has emotional ties to Psychonauts style, then use them as a hint to get to the next step of the pretty straight-forward and barely challenging puzzle. So yeah, the story-telling might still hook you, but in terms of puzzles the game just hands you the progress on a silver platter.-Gameplay is not just story-driven listening to dialogues and looking for emotional clues to solve the puzzle. The game occasionally tries to mix things up with different forms of mini games. The game features several arcade machines, which allow you to play classic 8-bit style games on, a chapter 2 segment makes you play 3 rounds of table football and the larping level of chapter 3 features classic Final Fantasy turn-based combat. -Given that this games' theme is emotions, the characters come up on top when compared to the original. A tragedy that befalls Haven Springs at the end of the games' first chapter permeates the characters moods in the otherwise idyllic mountain town and quite a bit of pretty cool characterization is born from it. Also gotta give credit for doing something interesting with the main character, as opposed to the original, where the main character was initially a bit too blank slate when integrated in the overall story.-The story is quite interesting, even if I have to admit, that the resolution was not my cup of tea. People might also take issue with the quirky millenial dialogues, that are present in the early parts of the game, but diminish as the game progresses as well as the idealistic "millenial" sense of justice, that becomes a bit of an issue for the main character when the game starts climaxing, where I really just felt like the characters didn't bother thinking their master plan through. I could also comment on how the town is like an escapist little hipster idyll packing a record store with all the obscure indie records your heart desires, a larping community, where the whole town cooperates and a hemp store with the main character happily exclaiming, that weed is legal now at one point. Anyway, game is good if you are into story-driven games and don't mind the quirky attempts of the game trying to capture their target demographics sentimentalities.

Life is Strange: True Colors

Review Title

Player Score

robiu013