Announced last March after a lot of rumors have happened, Life is Strange: True Colors available now for PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. After a captivating first installment, a prequel and a second installment with different protagonists, now comes a new title developed by Deck Nine instead of Dontnod Entertainment. With a new graphics engine and released in full, moving away from the release of episodes separately, Square Enix invites us to explore a story full of feelings and mystery.
On this occasion, Life is Strange: True Colors is progonized by Alex Chen, a young woman who has always been away from her own and has hidden her curse: a supernatural ability to feel, absorb, and manipulate the intense feelings of others, which you perceive as colored auras. However, after moving to a small town to reconnect with his brother, a tragic accident changes everything and Alex is forced to control his powers to discover the truth behind the dark secrets that lie in his new home.
The mystery of discovering what is happening
By being released in a complete way with their five episodes available to play at once, Life is Strange: True Colors reflects very well what its mission is: to present a story with a touch of mystery that invites you to reach its end. If the first Life is Strange stood out for the way it treats its protagonists and the second installment showed social problems or the relationship of two brothers, this new title highlights how to handle feelings and how to help those in need.
The game formula is practically the same as that of the previous installments, the player controls the protagonist in the third person through a town of considerable size compared to previous game scenarios, but it is based on talking with the characters and dealing with all kinds of objects. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the map of the town, where practically the entire story takes place, is a good size, the game has short loading times when entering buildings or changing the scene, something that does not quite convince those of us who are used to the new generation of consoles.
The novelty in gameplay is evident when using the power of alex, because pressing R2 on the DualSense allows you to explore the feelings of the characters to know what they are feeling at all times. Likewise, the collectibles of this game are also collected using the power of Alex, since it is the memories that some objects have stored found in all areas where the story takes place, which invites replayability in the event that not all are collected in the first pass. It should be noted that this new installment once again has a menu showing Álex’s mobile and diary to discover how his relationships and thoughts with the rest of the characters are progressing.
Decisions return
However, to advance the plot of the game there is always a clear objective that is achieved by exploring the area a bit and talking to the necessary characters. However, the remarkable thing about any Life is Strange is knowing as much as possible about everything that surrounds the plot to make the best possible decisions, because once again the course of the story can vary considerably, getting closer to a character more or less, hiding a secret or helping the neighbors more or less … Knowing the feelings does not end up being entirely important, although the game wins more for discovering the background of the characters than for the course of their history.
Luckily, the game has more new features that offer a real touch of freshness. From the beginning there are a number of arcade machines They offer classic minigames that can be enjoyed at any time. Likewise, throughout history there also appear a series of specific activities such as the recreation of a medieval story, table football games, riddles and even more surprises that we prefer not to reveal but have ended up offering a badge for this adventure.
There are also a number of small side missions with which we can help the people of Haven Springs, the place where history unfolds. Doing so will sometimes give us PlayStation trophies or Xbox achievements but, if you fall for the charm of this ideal town, you will end up doing everything for pleasure, because the magic of this new Life is Strange is to absolve the player again and now yes to be able to have him for hours inside his world by not having waits between his episodes.
Higher audiovisual quality
Of course, Deck Nine has had to have a considerable budget to develop Life is Strange: True Colors. From the beginning, the change of the graphics engine It is obvious to the players despite maintaining the visual style of the saga. Hacen Springs is an idyllic place and its residents, especially the protagonists, manage to express themselves thanks to a series of worked facial animations. Above all, perhaps once again, the game’s soundtrack stands out, full of themes that fit perfectly in certain moments, whether they are exploration, conversation, tension or action.
With texts to a perfect Spanish and a good dubbing in English, Life is Strange: True Colors does present some other performance flaws. In the case of PlayStation 5, there are some other jerk evident before a temporary drop in frames at some point of exploration and the camera has had some other failed turn at a specific moment. However, these are minutiae that do not interfere with the enjoyment of the story and possibly disappear in future free updates.
A remarkable new story
Alex had the difficult task of imposing himself on the Max of the first Life is Strange and it happens as in the second installment, not being able to connect with the player as much as happened the first and only time. However, True Colors is a remarkable new story about 10-12 hours long with replayability for collectors and those curious to know what would have happened if they had made a different decision.
True Colors will delight those who enjoyed Life is Strange and enjoy the interactive story genre, it is also a great game for those who are curious about it. However, it will not penetrate the rest of the players nor will it suppose a before and after. His story is enjoyed, but it is not the thriller that will remain for everyone’s memory. Of course, Deck Nine has shown that the saga can still offer new stories that invite us to reflect and it has also known how to create a new power through an adventure that presents novelties in the gameplay and bets correctly on an evolution that adapts to the new times.