So when it comes to me playing interactive 'choice' based story games, I haven't actually been playing them that much lately. Ever since I finished the first 'Life is Strange' game a couple of years ago, I haven't tried to play any of them if I'm being honest here.
Indeed, even though I managed to buy an interactive game like 'Detroit: Become Human' for my Ps4, I haven't actually played it. I also skipped 'Life is Strange 2' for some reason and didn't purchase it when it was released a couple of years ago on different platforms.
Yet, surprisingly enough, even though I've been slacking with these games, a couple of weeks ago I decided to check the latest 'Life is Strange'. As I noticed that 'Life is Strange 3: True Colors' was released, I had to check whether its story was even remotely good.
Having now watched the full walkthrough of the game on youtube (I wasn't going to pay 69€ for the full game), I have to say that I was rather disappointed with the game. Even though there were some parts that worked, as a whole its story was poorly constructed.
Premise-wise, this time we're dealing with a young, troubled female called Alex, who decides to reunite with her brother Gabe. Once she's out of foster care, she goes to see him in Haven Springs in Colorado, a beautiful small town where life seems to be easy and simple.
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Indeed, unlike in her past - that we aren't really told much - in this place everything seems to be in balance. Her brother is living a good life with his girlfriend, who also has a son and everyone seems to be welcoming our protagonist's arrival to the place.
Catalyst-wise, the game's inciting incident happens when Gabe dies during a search & rescue mission for his step son Ethan. As Alex manages to save Ethan's life in the mountains, an explosion in the vicinity of an old mine causes a rockslide that takes Gabe's life.
Not surprisingly, the main story arc is about why the explosion happened and killed Gabe. As Alex notices, things aren't as simple as she had thought at first and people in the town - as she tries to help them - have their secrets that their trying to hide from others.
Theme-wise, it has to be said that I didn't have a problem with the story being about 'healing'. The idea of our protagonist trying to solve the problems of others with her empathy (she has a skill) is something that is pretty commendable in my opinion.
At the same time, the problem with the game is that story-wise pretty much everything in 'Life is Strange: True Colors' is way too amateurish. There are so many problems with the game's screenplay that - apart from the game's first hour - are just mindboggling.
For example, when you take a look at game's story, very few things make sense. The main storyline about the death of his brother and why it happened is so poorly constructed and is so full of plot holes that it's just painful to experience the story.
Indeed, if we exclude the beginning that works - basic things like exposition, pacing and story plausibility are all wrong. Severe mistakes are made like introducing new characters in the last act and using 'deus ex machina' resolutions again and again.
Furthermore, when you think about how short the game actually is (6 hours with a poorly placed 1 hour Larping scene at hour 4), that's not exactly a good thing either. There just isn't enough content to justify the game's price tag if we're being honest here.
In that sense, when it comes to 'Life is Strange 3' as a whole, even though I did enjoy some aspects of the game, those aspects are not enough. The good things like the game's relaxing atmosphere, its music and how beautiful it is don't really manage to outweigh the negatives.
Indeed, when you think about those bad things like some of the characters changing abruptly, 'Gabe' shown in a negative light (flashback) in the last act or the 'Usb stick plot', those were awful. You can't make mistakes like these if you want to be a professional writer.
In that sense, in the end, if you're perhaps thinking about purchasing the game based on how much you possibly liked the first game, I wouldn't get too excited. I wouldn't think that the third 'Life is Strange' is going to be worth your hard earned money,
On the contrary, even though the first 'Life is Strange' had its issues, there were still tons of good aspects in that game. Those solid aspects outweighed the negatives (weak last act), which is something that unfortunately cannot be said about this third game in the series.
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