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Meet Chris Again in Life Is Strange 2

Our Verdict

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

For

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

Against

  • Some low-res textures in close-ups

Tom'due south Guide Verdict

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

Pros

  • +

    Beautiful art style and setting

  • +

    Exceptional soundtrack

  • +

    Engaging central gameplay gimmick

  • +

    Likable characters

Cons

  • -

    Some low-res textures in close-ups

Life Is Strange: True Colors specs

Platforms: PC, PS4 (reviewed), PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series Ten/S
Price: $lx
Release Date: September 10, 2021
Genre: Adventure

Life Is Foreign: Truthful Colors is the newest and boldest entry in the beloved franchise from programmer Deck Nine. This time around, you get all v engrossing capacity 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 affect the story and characters within it.

The game's main character is an empath with the ability to see and feel the emotions of those around her via colorful auras. The game explores her unusual souvenir – or expletive, as she ofttimes thinks of it – to its fullest extent. You'll have to determine how to solve the problems that inevitably arise from arresting and influencing these emotions – sometimes with devastating results.

As you'll find out in this Life Is Strange: True Colors review, this isn't just a captivating tale, filled with important crossroads and interesting characters. It'due south also a solid step forward for the Life Is Foreign series in terms of product values, bringing the franchise up to the large-budget standards information technology has long deserved.

Life Is Strange: True Colors review: Story

Life Is Strange: True Colors revolves effectually protagonist Alex Chen. After spending her troubled teen years in foster care, she reconnects with her brother Gabe for the showtime time in most a decade. Though their shared traumatic childhoods left both siblings shattered, Gabe has since fabricated a good life for himself every bit a functional adult in the quaint mining town of Haven Springs, Colorado. Equally the story begins, he's invited Alex to come live with him in his apartment above the bar where he works.

(Paradigm credit: Deck Nine)

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

Unfortunately, Alex'southward superpower of extreme empathy, which lets her see and feel other people's emotions, is ever getting in her way. Considering she's unable to control the extent to which these emotions bear upon her, she quickly finds herself overwhelmed by the day-to-day problems of her new associates. And, just every bit she's trying to grapple all that, she'due south blindsided past a traumatic death, and forced to deal with survivor'southward guilt.

(Image credit: Deck Nine)

Though Alex's integration into normal life isn't a smoothen ride, her story isn't all doom and gloom. That'south largely cheers to a cast of charming characters, who apace go an integral office of her life. She'south surrounded by welcoming citizens, merely it's Gabe's best friend, Ryan, and the local radio DJ, Steph, who grade the backbone of Alex'southward budding social circumvolve. They too act as two potential beloved interests.

Still, even when these pals aid Alex express mirth and enjoy her new life, she still has to find time to manage her own life, program community events and unravel a mystery that may atomic number 82 to shocking revelations about Haven Springs' past. This unsettling path to the truth forces Alex to face up complex ethical dilemmas, which lead us to question our own moral frameworks, and decide what kind of person we want Alex to be.

Life Is Foreign: Truthful Colors review: Gameplay

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

(Image credit: Deck Ix)

The constant onslaught of everyone else's feelings can leave Alex feeling resentful of her power. Still, she likewise acknowledges that her empathy tin can be a valuable resource. Many pivotal junctures in the game have you absorb another graphic symbol's emotions and subsequently visualize their thoughts. This lets you lot gain valuable insights into their past and present. Afterward, you'll unremarkably get a fresh batch of discussion topics or deportment to pursue.

Y'all may decide whether you should deepen or break a friendship, whether you should court Ryan or Steph, or whether to blot someone else'south negative emotions at the take a chance of your ain mental health. But there are as well enough of optional objectives that tin touch the story and characters on a smaller calibration, also. These might include giving an insecure jogger a pep talk, assisting a human with finding his lost dog or merely deciding whether or non to clean upwards your messy apartment.

(Image credit: Deck Nine)

Most chapters let you explore with Alex to see the full breadth of what Haven Springs has to offer – and in that location'south quite a bit to meet. You lot can do 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 lot want to soak in everything, you can 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 cognition about the town'southward history and residents.

While you're at information technology, you tin as well round up collectibles in the form of items with auras. Each object contains a memory of someone who was fastened to it. A few items are well-subconscious and tin can exist a little tricky to find, which is yet another incentive to thoroughly search open areas. However, a post-game chapter select makes it easy to clean these upwardly, so missing a couple of collectibles during your first playthrough isn't that big of a deal.

Life Is Foreign: True Colors review: Visuals and sound

The Life Is Strange serial has needed a facelift for quite a while. As such, it's great to come across Truthful Colors implement extensive refinements without sacrificing the franchise's signature art direction. While occasional low-res textures on clothing and surfaces look like they vest four generations dorsum, True Colors has a prettier and more realistic iteration of the series' trademark watercolor-meets-clay aesthetic. This finally lets the world and characters in Life Is Strange achieve their full potential.

Motion capture and facial capture, in item, are much improve this time around effectually. These ensure that grapheme motion 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 uncommonly talented cast, it'due south difficult not to get engrossed in Truthful Colors.

(Epitome credit: Deck Nine)

Meanwhile, Haven Springs is simply 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 merely making your way through a town square lined with flowers, this little slice of Colorado heaven is as marvelous to look at equally it is to explore.

Truthful Colors is teeming with phenomenal music, too. Nothing hither is quite as memorable as the original game'due south dreamlike "Something Practiced," or Life Is Strange 2's upbeat anthem "Lisztomania." But True Colors however sounds impressive, with a passionate original score from Angus & Julia Stone.

(Image credit: Deck Nine)

The Stone duo's drove of upbeat indie jams and folksy acoustic pieces feel correct at dwelling in the Life Is Strange universe. At that place are also some killer tracks from artists like Phoebe Bridgers and Novo Amor, too equally a scattering of splendid covers. Most remarkable, though, is the way that each song plays at the perfect moment in the story. Information technology reminds us that music can be just as vital to storytelling as graphics and dialogue – perchance even more so.

Life Is Strange: 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 as yous shape the twisting path to i of its multiple endings. But more than anything else, Truthful Colors is exactly what the franchise needs: a more than cohesive journey, with major improvements to visuals, animation, and vocalisation piece of work. At terminal, Life Is Foreign feels similar a big-upkeep experience from beginning to cease.

Billy Givens is a announcer with nearly two decades of feel in editing and writing beyond a wide variety of topics. He focuses peculiarly 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-improvement sites such as Lifehack and produced in-depth analyses on subjects such as health, psychology and entertainment.

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

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