Life Is Strange: True Colors review

Our Verdict

Life Is Strange: True Colors represents the all-time the franchise has ever been, and provides a perfect jumping-on point for newcomers.

For

• Beautiful art style and setting
• Infrequent soundtrack
• Engaging central gameplay gimmick
• Likable characters

Confronting

• Some low-res textures in close-ups

Tom's Guide Verdict

Life Is Strange: True Colors represents the best the franchise has ever been, and provides a perfect jumping-on point for newcomers.

Pros

• +

  Beautiful art style and setting

• +

  Exceptional soundtrack

• +

  Engaging key gameplay gimmick

• +

  Likable characters

Cons

• -

  Some low-res textures in close-ups

Life Is Strange: Truthful Colors specs

Platforms: PC, PS4 (reviewed), PS5, Xbox 1, Xbox Series X/S
Cost: $60
Release Date: September 10, 2021
Genre: Adventure

Life Is Strange: True Colors is the newest and boldest entry in the beloved franchise from developer Deck Ix. This time around, you get all five engrossing chapters in a single, up-front package, rather than staggered, episodic releases. The game tackles themes of family unit, friendship, trauma and redemption in an enthralling, narrative-driven adventure that asks you to make constant choices, which bear upon the story and characters within information technology.

The game's main grapheme is an empath with the ability to see and feel the emotions of those effectually her via colorful auras. The game explores her unusual gift – or curse, equally she frequently thinks of information technology – to its fullest extent. You'll accept to decide how to solve the problems that inevitably arise from absorbing and influencing these emotions – sometimes with devastating results.

Every bit you'll discover out in this Life Is Strange: True Colors review, this isn't only a captivating tale, filled with important crossroads and interesting characters. It'due south likewise a solid pace frontwards for the Life Is Foreign series in terms of production values, bringing the franchise upwardly to the big-upkeep standards it has long deserved.

Life Is Strange: True Colors review: Story

Life Is Strange: True Colors revolves around protagonist Alex Chen. Afterwards spending her troubled teen years in foster care, she reconnects with her brother Gabe for the first fourth dimension in almost a decade. Though their shared traumatic childhoods left both siblings shattered, Gabe has since made a good life for himself equally a functional adult in the quaint mining town of Oasis Springs, Colorado. As the story begins, he's invited Alex to come live with him in his flat higher up the bar where he works.

(Paradigm credit: Deck Nine)

Surrounded by the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, Oasis Springs is a pastoral place with rustic architecture and laid-back townsfolk. Information technology's the type of spot that Alex, as an introvert with a city punk vibe, initially finds a chip foreign. But every bit Gabe introduces her to the lovable residents, she finds herself intrigued by the thought of a fresh start in a place that feels far removed from her previous life.

Unfortunately, Alex'south superpower of extreme empathy, which lets her meet and experience other people's emotions, is always getting in her way. Considering she'due south unable to command the extent to which these emotions impact her, she chop-chop finds herself overwhelmed past the twenty-four hour period-to-day bug of her new associates. And, but as she's trying to grapple all that, she's blindsided by a traumatic death, and forced to deal with survivor'due south guilt.

(Paradigm credit: Deck Nine)

Though Alex'south integration into normal life isn't a smooth ride, her story isn't all doom and gloom. That'due south largely thanks to a bandage of charming characters, who chop-chop become an integral part of her life. She's surrounded by welcoming citizens, but information technology's Gabe'due south all-time friend, Ryan, and the local radio DJ, Steph, who course the backbone of Alex's budding social circumvolve. They also act as 2 potential honey interests.

Still, even when these pals assistance Alex laugh and enjoy her new life, she still has to find fourth dimension to manage her own life, plan community events and unravel a mystery that may lead to shocking revelations about Oasis Springs' past. This unsettling path to the truth forces Alex to confront complex ethical dilemmas, which lead us to question our own moral frameworks, and decide what kind of person nosotros want Alex to be.

Life Is Strange: Truthful Colors review: Gameplay

Life Is Strange: True Colors divides its time between chat and exploration. Sometimes, you'll play through dialogue-heavy story sequences, which require you to make choices that affect how the plot unfolds. Other times, you lot'll play through third-person sections that let yous walk around a location, talk to people and inspect items for exposition. If you lot're here for action, you'll observe very little, but the game engineers its own grade of excitement.

(Image credit: Deck Nine)

The constant onslaught of everyone else's feelings can go out Alex feeling resentful of her ability. Notwithstanding, she likewise acknowledges that her empathy tin can be a valuable resource. Many pivotal junctures in the game have you absorb another character's emotions and subsequently visualize their thoughts. This lets you gain valuable insights into their by and nowadays. Afterward, you'll usually go a fresh batch of discussion topics or actions to pursue.

You may decide whether you lot should deepen or intermission a friendship, whether y'all should court Ryan or Steph, or whether to absorb someone else'due south negative emotions at the risk of your own mental health. Only at that place are also enough of optional objectives that can impact the story and characters on a smaller calibration, likewise. These might include giving an insecure jogger a pep talk, assisting a homo with finding his lost dog or merely deciding whether or not to clean upwards your messy apartment.

(Prototype credit: Deck 9)

Almost chapters allow y'all explore with Alex to see the total breadth of what Haven Springs has to offer – and there'south quite a bit to encounter. Yous can practise things like peruse the local record store, visit folks at the bar, relax on the dock by the lake or play retro-style mini-games on the arcade machines scattered about. If you want to soak in everything, you tin examine the hundreds of interactive objects that range from trivial stuff (concert flyers, sentimental knick-knacks, wall murals) to noteworthy points of interest, or revealing documents that yield further knowledge about the boondocks's history and residents.

While you lot're at it, y'all can besides round up collectibles in the class of items with auras. Each object contains a memory of someone who was attached to information technology. A few items are well-hidden and can be a little tricky to find, which is yet another incentive to thoroughly search open areas. However, a post-game affiliate select makes information technology easy to make clean these upwardly, and so missing a couple of collectibles during your beginning playthrough isn't that big of a deal.

Life Is Strange: True Colors review: Visuals and sound

The Life Is Strange series has needed a facelift for quite a while. Equally such, it'due south peachy to run across True Colors implement extensive refinements without sacrificing the franchise's signature fine art direction. While occasional low-res textures on wearable and surfaces look like they belong 4 generations dorsum, True Colors has a prettier and more than realistic iteration of the series' trademark watercolor-meets-dirt artful. This finally lets the globe and characters in Life Is Foreign attain their total potential.

Movement capture and facial capture, in particular, are much ameliorate this time effectually around. These ensure that character movement is considerably less potent, and that facial animations highlight the actors' distinct mannerisms. When you combine this with drastic improvements to the writing and believable performances from an exceptionally talented cast, it's difficult not to get engrossed in Truthful Colors.

(Image credit: Deck Nine)

Meanwhile, Haven Springs is only gorgeous, with something to see at every turn. Whether you're admiring the lush vegetation just below a snow-capped mount, pensively gazing out over a crystal-clear lake, or just making your way through a town square lined with flowers, this piddling piece of Colorado sky is as marvelous to expect at as it is to explore.

True Colors is teeming with phenomenal music, as well. Cipher here is quite equally memorable every bit the original game'due south dreamlike "Something Good," or Life Is Strange ii's upbeat canticle "Lisztomania." But True Colors nevertheless sounds impressive, with a passionate original score from Angus & Julia Stone.

(Prototype credit: Deck Nine)

The Stone duo'due south collection of upbeat indie jams and folksy acoustic pieces experience right at abode in the Life Is Strange universe. There are also some killer tracks from artists like Phoebe Bridgers and Novo Amor, as well as a handful of excellent covers. Most remarkable, though, is the way that each song plays at the perfect moment in the story. Information technology reminds us that music tin be just equally vital to storytelling as graphics and dialogue – perhaps even more and then.

Life Is Foreign: True Colors review: Verdict

Life Is Foreign: True Colors tells a riveting tale of tragedy, moral ambiguity and personal growth, offering you tons of choices every bit y'all shape the twisting path to one of its multiple endings. Simply more anything else, True Colors is exactly what the franchise needs: a more cohesive journeying, with major improvements to visuals, animation, and vocalisation work. At concluding, Life Is Foreign feels like a big-budget experience from beginning to end.

Billy Givens is a journalist with nearly 2 decades of feel in editing and writing across a wide multifariousness of topics. He focuses particularly on games coverage for Tom's Guide and other sites including From Gamers Magazine, Retroware, Game Rant and TechRaptor. He's also written for self-comeback sites such every bit Lifehack and produced in-depth analyses on subjects such every bit health, psychology and entertainment.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/life-is-strange-true-colors

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