Life is Strange: True Colors is the first mainline entry in the Life is Strange series since Square Enix handed over the keys to developers at Deck Nine. Dontnod, who created the series and its sequel has since parted ways with Square-Enix and the result has not been great. Fortunately though, Deck Nine seems to know what they’re doing with the series. True Colors is not only a beautiful Life is Strange entry. Deck Nine managed to give True Colors its own identity while still adopting it into the greater Life is Strange universe in a graceful way.
Life is Strange: True Colors
Developer: Deck Nine
Price: $60
Platforms: PS5(reviewed), Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Stadia, PC (Steam & GeForce Now)
MonsterVine was provided with a PS5 code for review
Life is Strange: True Colors’ protagonist, Alex, comes from a rough beginning. Her older brother never got along with their father. Things were only made worse after her mother died: Alex winds up in the foster care system and then in a halfway house. Fortunately, her brother Gabe found her and invited her to live with him in Haven Springs, Colorado. Getting off the bus and taking in this idyllic small Colorado mining town made me instantly jealous. Haven Springs is absolutely gorgeous, quaint, and surrounded by beautiful nature, mountains, and people.
The quaint serenity doesn’t last. Despite constant warnings, Gabe doesn’t survive a trip up to the mountains to save his fiance’s son. All around town are flyers warning that Typon, the mining company, is setting off charges up in the mountains that evening. Gabe called and reported someone being up in the hills, so why did the charges go off? Did Typon, not get the call in time or is something more sinister afoot? Alex is determined to find out who is responsible for the death of her last family member.
Alex Chen has the ability to read people’s strongest emotions. Early on in True Colors she meets Riley, the granddaughter of the flower store owner Eleanor, who is scared about her college application and is glowing purple for Alex. Alex is able to tune into that emotion, read why she’s having trouble, and even identify things as triggers to help understand that emotion. Deck Nine uses this to great effect by allowing you to identify items when using your ability to learn more about the people around town, filling out their backstories — of which there are many.
Despite being a small mining town in the middle of nowhere Colorado, Haven Springs has a colorful cast of characters. Jed the publican has a big personality and is enthusiastic about the town. Ryan, Jed’s son, is a Colorado State Park Ranger. Charlotte, the artist who also runs the town dispensary, her son Ethan, who writes and draws comic books that are sold in the local record store. Successfully using its environment, the town of Haven Springs is a character in its own right. Haven Springs is a place I never wanted to leave. There’s also the big bad mining conglomerate, Typhon, who Alex believes is responsible for her brother’s death. Typhon is represented by a few people around town who work for them. After all, how else would a small mountain town in Colorado survive without mining operations?
If you’ve never played a Life is Strange game before, it’s primarily a passive, narrative-driven story game. The camera rests over the shoulder of Alex Chen as you meander around town or other setpieces either interacting with objects or talking to people. The gameplay allows you to either head straight for the objectives presented or fill in as much of the peripheral story as you like. Talking to townspeople, reading hanging flyers, sometimes even just having Alex sit down will provide the player with an idle camera and allow her a moment to think. You’re allowed to experience as much or as little of the superficial as you like.
A mainstay in the series is the use of the cell phone to have the main character react to the asynchronous storytelling. Using the ‘MyBlock’ app, you’re able to keep in touch with the background goings-on around town without having to walk by a flyer or overhear nameless/faceless non-player characters talk about them. And to Deck Nine’s credit, MyBlock was not only interesting to read, but it was also very funny too. Another success in my book was they used the characters’ personalities to great effect in the MyBlock app, allowing characters to joke, poke fun at each other, and even toss in a little bit of good, old-fashioned left vs. right political leanings that we all hate to read so much in comment sections.
Most importantly, Alex is a fairly well fleshed-out character. Having not seen her brother in eight years, it becomes apparent very quickly that despite the 8-year gap in their history they still have a very strong connection. Along with the emotional baggage they share, Alex and Gabe share interests as well and have a whimsical, open-to-new-things air about them. They’re both music snobs who primarily listen to records and while Alex is a little stand-offish at first, both have good attitudes. Deck Nine did an excellent job making these two act like siblings.
At one point in True Colors, the townsfolk will want to cheer up Ethan, Charlotte’s son. One of the characters is interested in LARPing and decides to set up a town-wide LARP session that results in Alex playing a bard to Ethan’s Thaynor the warrior. This felt targeted because the two genres I love the most are narrative-driven adventure games and JRPGs. Treated to an adventure with Ethan er… Thaynor, I ran into various enemies and was able to control both of them in turn-based battles. I was really impressed that Deck Nine was able to push the boundaries of the narrative-driven adventure game that really only has you walking around a dead 3D world and interacting with highlighted objects.
The Final Word
Deck Nine manages to take Life is Strange’s classic signatures of indie music, small-town mysteries, and teenage angst and elevate it from the original creation. What could have been a bumbling soft-reboot of Life is Strange, Life is Strange: True Colors turned into the best game in the series so far.
MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
