Minor spoilers ahead - I'll avoid major plot points. I will mention the nature of the ending but not the specifics. You might want to avoid looking at the screenshots.
The high points: The voice acting, the facial expressions, and the script. Previous Life is Strange games had dialogue that even fans sometimes referred to as "cringe". While I don't fully agree, I at least understand where they're coming from. The dialogue in this one felt more natural.
The facial expressions were spot on, which is important for a game about emotions. The main character, Alex Chen, was particularly expressive. She had some of the best facial motion capture I've ever seen.
The scenery is beautiful. It simultaneously feels more open world and more restrictive than previous games in the series - most of the chapters give you free reign of Main Street, but the number of locations you visit is probably the smallest in the series. But while the area is small, it's an idyllic setting that make me long to visit Colorado.
Your choices matter. You're a newcomer to a small town, and you need to get to know the other townsfolk. You have to build relationships if you want them to stand with you later.
And Steph. Just Steph. I want to marry her, and I want to be her. She's easily my favorite character in the series, and it was nice to see her in a larger role.
The low points: The supernatural power this time feels a bit low key compared to the previous games. Alex has the power to read people's emotions, and skim their surface thoughts. Compared to LiS1's time rewinding, or LiS2's telekinesis, it's not nearly as impactful. But the game makes good use of it.
The plot is a bit slow, and the conversations are very wordy. In a way, it helps, because this is a game about building friendships and learning about the citizens of your new hometown. But it also feels like there's a lot of padding to make the game longer. Maybe it's because it was released all at once (instead of episodically like earlier games in the series), but it seems a lot shorter than the other games.
My favorite scene in LiS: Before the Storm was when you got to act in a school play. A good portion of the story built up to the play, and it had a great payoff. True Colors does something similar with a LARP event. Unfortunately, I found the LARP to be a little bit tedious and more complicated than it needed to be. It was a fun scene, but it just went on a little long.
There is a huge difference, graphically, between the main characters and the extras. While Alex is almost photorealistic, some of the other characters look like they were carved out of wood. There's one guy who looks exactly like the plastic Santa robot from The Santa Clause 2. It's funny when a group of people are in the same room, because the differences between the low res characters and high res characters really stand out.
Also, the game is full of graphical glitches, at least on the version I played (PS4). There was some serious pop-in during scene transitions, and sometimes sections of the screen would go black when Alex was using her powers. Hopefully these issues will get patched out soon. Oh, and the load times are insane.
The ending: Like the other games in the series, the ending does present you with a binary choice. However, this happened after the climax, so it was more like deciding which "happily ever after" you wanted to see. The actual climax reminded me of the courtroom scene in Chrono Trigger, with your previous interactions with the townsfolk determining which ones support you in your hour of need.
Screenshots:
My Choices:
No comments:
Post a Comment