Life is Strange - True Colors in the test: fantastically beautiful

Life is Strange: True Colors makes almost everything right. In the long term, however, the series could end in a dead end.

Meanwhile, a certain rhythm has established itself. On a Life IS Strange the main series of Dontnod follows a spin-off with a meaningful subtitle of Deck Nine Games. Life is Strange: True Colors is the latter. The Studio from Colorado has learned a lot and did not make the same mistakes as Before The Storm, at least largely: True Colors is polished on high gloss, the graphic is neat and the playing time can be seen. In addition, the developers present us a soulful and, above all, comprehensible history in a US small town in the home citizen state of the team.

Small note: Life is Strange: True Colors is a game in which the story is the most important aspect. So we will not get around smaller spoilers to talk about the game. We avoid hard spoilers.

A new life in Haven Springs

The young protagonist Alex Chen had no easy life. She hit himself through several children's and youth homes without a real chance to escape ever from this system. One day, Alex's brother managed to restore the contact, and so he asks her to come back to her hometown Haven Springs. Alex finally sees a real chance on a real home in a loving environment and sets off.

Although the game starts with a gloomy undertone, the mood switches immediately if you go with Alex your first steps in Haven Springs. The small town in the middle of an idyllic region of Colorados welcomes you with warm colors and many details that make the village lively. Here and there is tools around, passers-by walking around, birds chirping and a small river splashed in front of them. We inevitably ask ourselves why someone should ever leave this place. Although Deck Nine Games has moved the unique graphic style of the Life Is Strange series further towards realism, true colors still look like a worthy successor. From a technical point of view, the title runs smoothly down to smaller rucklers and graphics offices.

Shortly to Alex 'Arrival in Haven Springs quickly becomes clear that music plays an important role in Life's Strange: True Colors plays. In the first few hours Alex loudly listens to different songs again and again. Later, she even has a turntable and can visit a disk shop in Haven Springs, which develops an important anchor point. Generally, the title offers a grandiose sound backlash. The pieces of music - the vast majority are licensed pieces of real musicians - always seamlessly add themselves into the respective scene. Mostly somewhere a turntable or a Jukebox or Alex makes music even music. Only with German synchronizations do you have to make some smears. The speakers do most of the time about solid work, but really outstanding they did not notice us. There is also Gronkh's role as deputy pike. Honestly, Gronkh's speaker is even one of the worst.

Engraving decisions

Immediately after Alex 'arrival, the developers in the form of gifts take their hands and lead you through the main places in Haven Springs. Almost casually, with your kind of dialogue, you can decide what a relationship you want to have. Are you angry? Are you looking forward to the sibling reunion? All this is left to you and has partly crass impact on later conversations.

This applies to all decisions that you are true in Life Is Strange: True Colors. Once you are unfriendly to someone, the person later no longer will be charged to grab the arms in a critical moment. Help her a person with obvious psychological problems? Sure, it's none of your business. But what if the person is doing something? In all these questions and many other, who come to you, you put the course for the further gameplay and even for one of the five ends. So you should think well how you encounter your counterpart.

Great drama with all human problems

Unfortunately, we can not tell you about the story much more without drifting deep into the spoiler territory. But we want to roughly outline a few examples to make clear the brilliance of the authors at Deck Nine Games. Life is strange would not be life is strange if the protagonist would not be confronted early with a hard fate. This is not different in True Colors. In the further course of the game it is about clarifying the circumstances of this disaster. Alex and her new friends have legitimate doubts about the official version of the incidents.

Deck Nine Games does this time on the previously established episode format, but the authors tell the authors in the style of a TV series. At the beginning of each of the five chapters is on the target that can not be reached immediately, but only after X or Y has been done to return to the parent plot again at the end of the chapter. Through this narrative, the main action moves something in the background. But that's not bad, because Alex experiences in Haven Springs so many stories about the residents who are convincingly staged without exceptions that their experiences are almost more interested in our own problems.

The power of empathy

A small pinch of supernatural skills belongs to every Life IS Strange. Alex ' Superpower is to feel the emotions of their fellow human beings and thus to be able to perceive their thoughts a bit. In order to help the residents and friends with their problems, this ability is extremely useful. A small example from the second chapter, as spoiler free: Eleanor is the owner of a flower shop in Haven Springs. Suddenly the older lady looks up and anxious beyond the 60. Alex 'gift allows you to find out what is wrong with Eleanor. Frequently, the optics of the environment changes something to reproduce the problems of the figures. Since Eleanor seems to have forgotten something, in this example, a gentle fog about the floor of the business. You have to analyze certain items that an aura goes out. They tell you more about what the characters are oppressed. Have you clicked everything, you can ask the right things in the subsequent dialogue to push the flower shop operator gently towards the solution. Therapist Alex has struck again.

Every chapter is full of this kind of stories. Do not always take a lot of space, but you will always be confronted with very personal problems, which could also have our right neighbors. That makes Life Is Strange: True Colors incredibly alive and coach. Deck Nine Games succeeds to meet the many serious topics such as mourning management, jealousy, serious illness or love that in history will meet their place and treat them in a very personal framing.

The protagonist Alex does not remain on the route at the many emotional events. In the course of the game, two of their new friends as Love Interests emerge: a young and rather calm crane and the local, quite extroverted Radiomoderator, which incidentally operates a record shop specialized on rock music and a great fat for fantasy and all sorts of nerdkram Has. For whom Alex decides, leave you leave. Although the romance does not occupy much room in history, but she defines Alex further and rejects it with the time in the riograph of the living figures of Life Is Strange: True Colors.

The gameplay, ... yes now ...

A great story, fantastic side actions and a beautiful world! But what about the actual gameplay? Unfortunately, that could, however, could not reach the same depth as the narrative. Much of the interactions consists of walking around and talking to people. However, Deck Nine Games always loosens the Telltal-like approach with small mini-games, such as a kicker lot or the arcade machine, which stand around here and there in Haven Springs. The LARP has remembered particularly positive, which is already worked up in the first chapter and takes about half of the game. Unfortunately, we can not tell you about spoiler reasons, but anyone who can unite similar weaknesses like our female Love Interest in itself will love this section.

Certainly the developers from a city like Haven Springs could have gotten out more in terms of variety. However, we are very glad that the authors could focus on history and rely on enough resources to provide them competently. Life is Strange has never been the series who would have benefited from an inflated Open World. Although True Colors are quite more open than the very linear predecessors, from a real Open World you can still not speak here - maybe one of a semi-open village. At most.

Conclusion

Deck Nine Games has with Life Is Strange: True Colors basically done everything right. The team has succeeded in telling a grounded story that could play (the supernatural capabilities excluded once) quite in a true US small town. The story is consistently staged competent and both Haven Springs and his inhabitants grow to the heart of a very fast heart - so fast and so much that you are honest interested in your well-being. However, there is now a certain formula. You play a young woman with supernatural skills that are part of the central gameplay, and have to work up a hard fate. Are you aware of, right? The involved studios should be careful that they do not maneuver the series with the next titles in a dead end.

Life is Strange: True Colors

Per

Fantastic story

Many additional actions

Figures with credible problems

Characters that grow to the heart

Beautiful game world

Sympathetic protagonist

Many exciting decisions ...

... with noticeable effects

Great soundtrack

Meaningfully used empathy ability

No more episode format

Great attention to detail

Contra

Hardly real gameplay

Never playfully challenging

First formula recognizable

German srach edition waxed

4.5 / 5 stars

Now Life is Strange: True Colors buy!