Life is Strange: True Colors

 PlayStation 5
User Score
6.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 231 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 140 out of 231
  2. Mixed: 41 out of 231
  3. Negative: 50 out of 231
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  1. SuperkenGaming
    Sep 12, 2021
    7
    Life Is Strange: True Colors
    The power of an empath
    Life is strange true colors is an 8 hour long narrative adventure game where you play as Alex Chen, You’ve been apart from your brother in juvi, youre reunited, theres boy girl drama, soehting happens in the town of haven, you set out with your friends to get to the bottom of it, and.. I just didn’t like it.. Usually in life is strange    Life Is Strange: True Colors
    The power of an empath
    Life is strange true colors is an 8 hour long narrative adventure game where you play as Alex Chen, You’ve been apart from your brother in juvi, youre reunited, theres boy girl drama, soehting happens in the town of haven, you set out with your friends to get to the bottom of it, and.. I just didn’t like it..
    Usually in life is strange games im glued to the seat, feeling like I cant wait for the next chapter or episode, but after the first chapter, I never felt this feeling for the rest of the game, the pacing is so slow, the entire story takes place in the same little down, rarely do you get dialog options or choices, making you feel more of a bystander than someone actually making a difference in a town that needs saving in your eyes.. I flet like I was just mildly partaking in a drawn out, slow boring stoy, by occasionally having to find a feather or a bottle of alcohol to progress the story.. though I will admit, there was one decently cool chater where yooure larping.. theres a final sequence in that chapter where the astetics of the entire game changes,as you see through the eyes of a child, and I just wish the entire chapter was like this… which brings me to your power.. its not a life is strange game without a super power.. your super power here is… reading emotions.. basically youre an empath, you can read emotions, get into the min of people to help them overcome those emetions to push the story forward, but I never felt like this was a cool power, it was kind of just there, no real persuasion or again dialog options to move the needle.. just ocassionally hold down a button and here some internal dialog to find out how a charcter is feeling and help them feel better…
    Overall I was pretty disappointed in true colors..
    Did I cry once or twice? Sure… but did it just happen to be one really good scene and didn’t really earn those tears? That’s how I feel. The charater building is lacking here, moments with your brother or love interests just down get deep or personal enough for me to ultimately care as much as I feel I should about the story and its outcome..
    I don’t regret my time spent with true colors, but I feel with how little actually happens her and how little you get to interact with the story, theres far too much filler..
    I give Life is Strange: True Colors
    a 6.5/10    … Expand
  2. DrummBumm
    Sep 23, 2021
    6
    This was an OK game. I thought the story was pretty interesting and the characters are pretty well developed. There are also some moments/twists that come out of no where to keep things interesting and break up the monotony of the tedious nature of the dialogue. A lot of times throughout the game I feel the characters are a little slow when reacting to each others dialogue which made itThis was an OK game. I thought the story was pretty interesting and the characters are pretty well developed. There are also some moments/twists that come out of no where to keep things interesting and break up the monotony of the tedious nature of the dialogue. A lot of times throughout the game I feel the characters are a little slow when reacting to each others dialogue which made it feel kind of robotic. Your choices only make small differences as well, not effecting the outcome in a major way. The game certainly holds your hand throughout, so there is really no difficulty or challenges in completing it. Very much a story only game which makes a lot of it very boring. I'd recommend this as a rental to collect easy trophies/achievements, definitely not worth the $60 price tag.… Expand
  3. MadBert91
    Nov 3, 2021
    7
    La historia es entretenida, aunque sin llegar al nivel de los dos primeros. Le sigue faltando un doblaje al castellano tan necesario para un juego NARRATIVO. No me encontré ningún bug reseñable y a nivel jugable responde bien.
  4. gonzalo_arg
    Oct 10, 2021
    6
    As a fan of the series and previous entries, I expected something better but ended up in a disappointment.
    The game is too short, it’s only 8-9 hours doing side quest and finding the collectibles. I think it’s not worth the full 60 dollars being that short.
    Story was so bland and light compared to LIS 2, or even the first one. LIS 2 had a lot of tension and intersting moments to remember,    As a fan of the series and previous entries, I expected something better but ended up in a disappointment.
    The game is too short, it’s only 8-9 hours doing side quest and finding the collectibles. I think it’s not worth the full 60 dollars being that short.
    Story was so bland and light compared to LIS 2, or even the first one. LIS 2 had a lot of tension and intersting moments to remember, but not this one.

    Storytelling, voice acting, animations are good as usual, that’s why I’m rating it a 6.
    It’s a shame because it could’ve been much better. I think it was a mistake to drop the old system of selli h chapters separately, since each chapter could last 3 hours.    … Expand
  5. sityoazzdown
    May 9, 2022
    7
    A game that I snagged on sale for half off and enjoyed, however this being a premium priced game, I would not neccesarily reccomend you check it out at full price. Powered by a great cast of characters and touching story, this choose your adventure style game kind of falls flat in other areas.

    Pros: - Compelling story in a cheesy way - Great small cast So-so: - the small side    A game that I snagged on sale for half off and enjoyed, however this being a premium priced game, I would not neccesarily reccomend you check it out at full price. Powered by a great cast of characters and touching story, this choose your adventure style game kind of falls flat in other areas.

    Pros:
    - Compelling story in a cheesy way
    - Great small cast

    So-so:
    - the small side content

    Cons:
    - choices barely matter, story is set in stone.
    - Wished this game had qte prompts.
    - Really short game for $60, questionable replay value.

    Great story, but with weak player choice input. Beat this game in two days with not much replayability. Solid game, but not worth $60,,, snag on a sale but only if you like games like telltales, Speaking of telltale, I wished this game would had been more like detroit become humans branching paths, but alas your choices barely matter.    … Expand
  6. tomason
    Apr 30, 2023
    7
    Hasta ahora el más flojito de la saga. No es mal juego, es bastante chill y pasé un buen rato jugandolo, pero a la historia le faltó fuerza y momentos memorables e interesantes. Más viniendo de una historia tan intensa como la de LiS 2. Algo que no me gustó es que en PS5 para jugar a 60fps se le baje la resolución a 1080p. Creo que se podría haber equilibrado mejor eso con una resoluciónHasta ahora el más flojito de la saga. No es mal juego, es bastante chill y pasé un buen rato jugandolo, pero a la historia le faltó fuerza y momentos memorables e interesantes. Más viniendo de una historia tan intensa como la de LiS 2. Algo que no me gustó es que en PS5 para jugar a 60fps se le baje la resolución a 1080p. Creo que se podría haber equilibrado mejor eso con una resolución dinámica. La música como siempre es muy buena.… Expand
  7. SuperDuck23
    Jan 3, 2022
    7
    A gentle but meandering story that is weighed down by the usual flaw of the Life Is Strange series – drawn out chapters. If there were three chapters here instead of five, the game would be a lot better for it.

    The characters are well developed for the most part and none of them feel out of place like in Life Is Strange 2 – although I’m not sure a weed café is the most realistic type of    A gentle but meandering story that is weighed down by the usual flaw of the Life Is Strange series – drawn out chapters. If there were three chapters here instead of five, the game would be a lot better for it.

    The characters are well developed for the most part and none of them feel out of place like in Life Is Strange 2 – although I’m not sure a weed café is the most realistic type of establishment in a tiny town full of about five shops (how on Earth do they stay in business?!). However, I really appreciated how the game captures the feeling of a small, country town with great success.

    Life Is Strange: True Colors is another mixed bag – albeit a better one than its predecessor. Maybe one day the writers will finally be able to learn that sometimes less is more – or at least understand the difference between meaningful character moments and inconsequential filler.    … Expand
  8. iva66
    Oct 19, 2021
    5
    I won't believe the critics ratings anymore. Shorter, didn't feel anything for any of the characters. The first 2 were much better.
  9. marvsfontanilla
    Oct 22, 2022
    7
    Story: 7
    Graphics: 6
    Sound: 8
    Gameplay: 7
    Game Time: 10 Hours (Main Story + Extra)
  10. Siruru
    Sep 11, 2021
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The first three episodes of the game show you this wonderful little world with its nice set of characters with different traits and personalities that's definitely benefiting from Alex's power. When the game starts to truly shine by the end of episode three however, all of the sudden the game decides to rush to the end like somehow the developers were reminded that they only had time for five episodes and the actual plot of the game had gone nowhere yet. Like listen I'm the first person who prefers a game that focuses on a single storyline without showing that much of the world it's built on if that's what you want, what you can't do though is shove all these different characters in my face and try to convince me to get interested in them if you're suddenly going to ditch them mid game to tell the story you wanted to tell in the first place. So somehow the developers thought it would be a good idea to spend 85% of an episode on a LARP that has nothing to do with the story and does not progress any of the character's arcs on any way, shape or form and then cut like 50% of episode 4 because I don't know if was me or that episode didn't last more than 15 minutes, and then all of the sudden tell me the whole back story for my character in the last 20 minutes of the game to then have her choose her forever happy ending with a character I've spent 15 minutes with. Overall the game feels rushed to me, the romantic choices are so obvious it feels like you're on a TV show picking your bachelor /Bachelorette and the actual story fell completely flat on its conclusion. Next time either take your time with the world you built and make more episodes or tell the story and cut out the the pointless parts. This games tries too hard to make you like the characters and completely forgets that's telling a story, you can't have it all Deck Nine.… Expand
  11. Sety
    Sep 12, 2021
    7
    I love reading other peoples minds. It’s fun and Spring Haven and it’s mystery were compelling. It still felt like it’s a shadow of the first life is strange game. Because it wasn’t released per episode, it also felt like the openings and endings per game were dry and not too emotionally impacting. Guess it’s because they decided not to play music or keep the endings per episode too long,I love reading other peoples minds. It’s fun and Spring Haven and it’s mystery were compelling. It still felt like it’s a shadow of the first life is strange game. Because it wasn’t released per episode, it also felt like the openings and endings per game were dry and not too emotionally impacting. Guess it’s because they decided not to play music or keep the endings per episode too long, but it lost a cinematic style in my opinion that previous LIS games were amazing at having. The dream sequence really hit home with me. I’m Asian, so I also think that Alex really portrayed what my household was like.… Expand
  12. jongo31
    Sep 14, 2021
    7
    Edit: They've recently added motion blur and now the game is playable, so I've adjusted my review accordingly. The fact this game only runs at 30 FPS on a next generation console is a disgrace. It's not like they've added any motion blur to compensate, and it honestly looks horrible, especially on a large screen.

    The developers stated they'd done this on purpose for "cinematic" reasons,    Edit: They've recently added motion blur and now the game is playable, so I've adjusted my review accordingly. The fact this game only runs at 30 FPS on a next generation console is a disgrace. It's not like they've added any motion blur to compensate, and it honestly looks horrible, especially on a large screen.

    The developers stated they'd done this on purpose for "cinematic" reasons, but that's a load of BS, they could have taken a leaf of of Ghost of Tsushima book and capped the cut scenes to 30 FPS. Considering this game can run at 60 FPS on PC it's clearly a cover up for the fact this game is just a poor port to console. It has its bugs and the raytracing literally doesn't work. Maybe future patches will fix these issues, but the poor frame rate is a deal breaker as it kills the immersion, and for me, makes the game unplayable.    … Expand
  13. karhukas
    Sep 20, 2021
    5
    Non-spoiler review here, from a perspective of a player who really enjoyed the first LiS, the prequel and was rooting for Deck Nine to succeed with assumed creative freedom. My score for the game is average but describing the game as such would be unfair. The best way to summarize True Colors is a "could have been", which makes it ultimately worse than being average throughout.

    I'll    Non-spoiler review here, from a perspective of a player who really enjoyed the first LiS, the prequel and was rooting for Deck Nine to succeed with assumed creative freedom. My score for the game is average but describing the game as such would be unfair. The best way to summarize True Colors is a "could have been", which makes it ultimately worse than being average throughout.

    I'll start off with the positives: the game has the familiarity of a Life is Strange, even to a fault. The fonts, the walking pace, animations, thoughts and comments Alex makes about stuff around her (posters, flowers, gnomes), text messages, a journal: all that is here, if you were hoping for it. The soundtrack is good, and helps shape the overall atmosphere, even though it lacks the impact of the first game. I also enjoyed the humor and a choice for your character to be awkwardly sarcastic, which made (my) Alex Chen different from both Max and Chloe, while still sharing some of the same sensitive aspects of their personalities. The initial set-up for the game takes time and getting to know the people around town works, since you are arriving there for the first time as a blank slate. The anticipation, excitement and anxiety of a "new life in the unknown" is portrayed well through dialogue, text messages and even the town's own "facebook group", which is probably the highlight of the game. Overall, the first 2-3 episodes of the game made me feel mostly excited about everything that... could be.

    While the characters and voice acting are mostly great and uncanny valley is not a factor, the town itself is a mixed bag. First of all, Haven being a mining town, similar to Dontnod's Twin Mirror's Basswood, seems too much to be a coincidence. But despite this similarity, Basswood actually felt like a "backwoods little town" with an enjoyable and belieavable identity. True Colors' Haven feels like a downtown Seattle street surrounded by fake mountains and a lake for a-hole tourists to kayak in. The main street has a collector's vinyl store, a niche indie rock radio station, a weed store, an artisan ice cream boutique, a newly opening coffee shop (ugh) and some weird art and statues that don't fit in the environment at all. Haven feels more like a 20 year-oldish hipster art student's idea of a "cool mining town" and this made exploring more annoying than interesting, since you are reminded of this almost every other minute. All this is magnified by the fact that you don't get to explore any other area in this game, with one small exception. The main street, a few shops, your room, and that's it. I still can't believe how small the game. The only cool area is the town's bar, where all the main characters and miners seem to practically live, reinforcing the absurdity of having the aforementioned niche stores around when nobody would visit them anyway.

    The story being told at first through the environments and interacting with all the new people is well executed and I felt immediately attached to a few characters, especially to Alex and her brother Gabe. I was genuinely moved by a few moments early and mid-game and couldn't wait to see what happens next. The empathy "super power" mechanic is not inherently bad but the execution is very shallow. You just read someone's mind for a single sentence and most of the time you already know what they are going to "think" anyway. This same mechanic was done in a 2014 game Murdered: Soul Suspect and here it is used almost exactly the same way, which is kinda weird honestly.

    My biggest issue with this game, despite all the positives I mentioned, is that the initial promise on what is to come is never truly redeemed. The story seems logical when I think about it on paper and the twists were surprising, but the pacing and reveals of the final 2 episodes were so, so jarring, that they didn't have the intended emotional impact despite me being invested in the story at first. Characters suddenly acted in an entirely different fashion, your choices were not addressed nor did they have meaning even on a dialogue level and all of this happens within a 20 minute period and then the game is done. The final choice was obvious to me but the game tried to force me to go the other way, which makes me think that the writers didn't realize what they were portraying or rushed the game and didn't have time to consider the big picture. I couldn't wait to play LiS 1 again, making the opposite choices and see what happens yet I have no interest in replaying True Colors. The game is shorter than it implies and I feel a little betrayed and played for a fool having paid 50€ for it. Usually I don't care about this and I rather pay full price to support a good game but here it really bothered me. Stuttering 30fps on a PS5 on top of that.
    I think the original LiS was something that cannot be recreated. It was a game born from desperation and creative freedom by people who had nothing to lose. We still have that.    … Expand
  14. HBK-
    Sep 20, 2021
    7
    So I completed this game over the weekend, where do I start well the character development is beautiful . Playing this game I felt a connection with basically every character .. I don’t do spoilers but the story in this game is ummm decent I would say . Definitely worth playing and getting that platinum trophy 7.7 PSN -Deemoneyy30
  15. Richard4949
    Apr 19, 2023
    5
    Boring and boring. It was fun for about 3 hours and then it is painfully slow and full of liberal messaging too. And you can’t bypass a single cut scene or scenario
  16. quittit1
    Jul 23, 2022
    7
    I am not saying that you are not mad at me anymore because I’m always upset about you lol lol
  17. Madbert
    Jul 9, 2022
    7
    Sept 11, 2021

    La historia es entretenida, aunque sin llegar al nivel de los dos primeros. Le sigue faltando un doblaje al castellano tan necesario para un juego NARRATIVO. No me encontré ningún bug reseñable y a nivel jugable responde bien.

Awards & Rankings

33
#33 Best PlayStation 5 Game of 2021
36
#36 Most Discussed PlayStation 5 Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 67 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 52 out of 67
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 67
  3. Negative: 1 out of 67
  1. CD-Action
    Jan 19, 2022
    70
    Life Is Strange drifted away from exciting teenage stories towards serious narratives commenting on our reality. Alex’s ability elevated interactions to a new level but its potential feels unrealized. The game is also short and the story only livens up by the end of it. [12/2021, p.46]
  2. The Loadout
    Oct 29, 2021
    90
    Life is Strange: True Colors sets a new bar for the series. Deck Nine does a stellar job of exploring painful topics that evoke true emotion both in-game and out, using its cast of well-written characters and set pieces, all packaged within a gorgeous environment and a beautiful soundscape.
    Read full review
  3. Shindig
    Oct 26, 2021
    90
    The end result is a remarkable, powerful game. Life is Strange: True Colors stays true to the series’ roots, using supernatural twists and an underlying mystery as the backdrop for a story that’s focused on the quiet beauty of everyday life and the connections that form between people. Within that, it carves its own path with a moving exploration of the power of empathy and the importance of finding a place to call home.
    Read full review
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