I love the Life is Strange series. The first game was my favorite. I found his core gameplay mechanic of going back in time and altering the course of events and the fact that he had to see the impact of his changes on other people’s lives appealing. The second was also very good. You touched on stigma, homelessness, and the impact your actions have on people’s lives.
In fact, choices and consequences are central themes of the Life Is Strange game. In every game, you or someone with you has magical powers, and how you use them affects others. In Life Is Strange: True Colors, you are Alex Her Chen, a young Asian woman with the ability to feel and influence the emotions of others. You leave foster care and meet her brother-in-law Gabe Chen in an idyllic town called Haven Springs. This is a mining town, and there are many people around here who are employed by a large company called Typhon.
I don’t want to say more about the game because the story is what matters, but the game touches on emotional disorders, grief, and depravity. It was a great story and Alex Chen deeply resonated with me. Did I get sick of her lyrics yet? Does she resonate with you for the same reasons? Maybe not, but there are many reasons to love this game.
The strength of this series has always been in the writing. True Colors is sometimes poorly spoken, but the actual plot is moving and heartfelt. The open world is small, but full of life. It looks great, every character has their own story, and their relationship with Alex is changing. A lot has been said about games where “choices matter” and whether choices actually matter in this medium, but it’s important to sit down and think very hard before making any particular decision. What impressed me was that I was thinking about these decisions not just in terms of how the choices affected gameplay and subsequent outcomes, but in the way they made sense. It made me think about whether it was the right thing to do. That’s what I love about this series.
Life Is Strange: True Colors was only available for one year on Xbox Game Pass, but we hope many of you can experience its creative gameplay and themes. I have something to say here about the constant churn of Xbox Game Pass games and the constant exclusion of good games from the service. My point is that True Colors is already a year and a half old, so you don’t have to pay full price for a good game if you keep an eye out for sales. If you have 12 hours to spare before April 15th and want to enjoy an outrageous story, you can watch it for free.