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I was a big fan of the first Life is Strange, and I had some fun with Before the Storm as well, but Life is Strange 2 just didn't hit for me. It just...wasn't fun. Maybe I judged it too quickly--I gave up and sold it back to Gamestop partway through the second episode--and I've really tried to pin down why I didn't like it. I have no concrete answers; the only thing I could come up with was that some of the issues that are central to it (police brutality, racism, homeless youth etc.) just felt...idk, too heavy to be playing through a video game? I'm sure other people have done better analyses of it than me.
So I was a little hesitant about True Colors. This time I looked for reviews before buying. All the ones I saw were positive, and well-deserved! From the opening scenes, True Colors is a more vibrant, more beautiful game, with frankly superior voice acting (sorry, LiS 2), which matters a lot in a dialogue and cut-scene-heavy game like the LiS series.
The game did an excellent job of capturing the Colorado landscape, and Alex was both unique and relatable, staying her own true self no matter what path you led her down. You see so clearly how she was shaped by her history, and yet how she and Gabe are trying to break free of their family's difficult past and move forward, and really chose and shape their own destinies. (Minor spoiler) Seeing Steph again was great too, and I have no doubt she was popular with LiS despite her brief screentime in Arcadia Bay (end spoiler) I also loved the theme of taking on big business. Maybe it's cliche, but as I watch companies like Amazon and Google wield ever more influence over our society and the people who work for and consume from them, stories like Alex's--a seemingly hopeless push for justice against a massive company--seem continually relevant.
Alex's power stands out from Max's in how Alex's has been with her for much longer, and has had a much greater hand in shaping who Alex is and how she interacts with the world. This makes her "superpowers in a small town" story differ a great deal from Max's overnight acquisition of a power she can't explain. I also thought True Colors did a better job than the original LiS in making you feel like your choices mattered. I know a common complaint with LiS: Episode 5 was that it felt like all your previous choices didn't really matter; it all came down to Bae or Bay? With True Colors, your interactions with the townsfolk do make a difference in how the end of the game plays out for Alex, and not just in that you have a choice in romance arcs this time!
I had fun, and while I played through Steph's romance this first time, I will definitely play again to check out Ryan's path, and snag those memories I didn't catch the first time through!
So I was a little hesitant about True Colors. This time I looked for reviews before buying. All the ones I saw were positive, and well-deserved! From the opening scenes, True Colors is a more vibrant, more beautiful game, with frankly superior voice acting (sorry, LiS 2), which matters a lot in a dialogue and cut-scene-heavy game like the LiS series.
The game did an excellent job of capturing the Colorado landscape, and Alex was both unique and relatable, staying her own true self no matter what path you led her down. You see so clearly how she was shaped by her history, and yet how she and Gabe are trying to break free of their family's difficult past and move forward, and really chose and shape their own destinies. (Minor spoiler) Seeing Steph again was great too, and I have no doubt she was popular with LiS despite her brief screentime in Arcadia Bay (end spoiler) I also loved the theme of taking on big business. Maybe it's cliche, but as I watch companies like Amazon and Google wield ever more influence over our society and the people who work for and consume from them, stories like Alex's--a seemingly hopeless push for justice against a massive company--seem continually relevant.
Alex's power stands out from Max's in how Alex's has been with her for much longer, and has had a much greater hand in shaping who Alex is and how she interacts with the world. This makes her "superpowers in a small town" story differ a great deal from Max's overnight acquisition of a power she can't explain. I also thought True Colors did a better job than the original LiS in making you feel like your choices mattered. I know a common complaint with LiS: Episode 5 was that it felt like all your previous choices didn't really matter; it all came down to Bae or Bay? With True Colors, your interactions with the townsfolk do make a difference in how the end of the game plays out for Alex, and not just in that you have a choice in romance arcs this time!
I had fun, and while I played through Steph's romance this first time, I will definitely play again to check out Ryan's path, and snag those memories I didn't catch the first time through!
