Life Is Strange shows its True Colours and we are very impressed
Life Is Strange: True Colours video game.
How are you presenting yourself these days? A nice, crisp, ironed shirt on top – Mario Kart boxer shorts on the bottom? Or perhaps, if video calls aren’t in your life, PJs have become every-days? Beard trimmer for the head as well as the chin? (Sure it’s all the same hair!).
Video game companies have started taking the same approach, and Square Enix is the latest example. No longer required to have trade shows in person, they have let their standards slip – and are instead resorting to half-hearted streamed events, usually focusing on a few trailers and often with no real announcements.
In saying that, Square Enix caught our attention with their own variant, called Square Enix Presents. Firstly, they laid out the agenda ahead of time, so there was no room for disappointment. There was nothing on Final Fantasy VI, their most exciting title in development. But to our surprise, the lead title, Life Is Strange: True Colours, really caught our attention.
Life Is Strange is a series known for two things: episodic entries and a focus on contemporary stories with a supernatural twist. We liked the first two games, but the disjointed nature of the episodes didn’t help with engagement with the story.
Life Is Strange: True Colors addresses that directly by becoming a fully-fledged game upon launch – no episodes. We were also introduced to a very nice premise for the story. We will play Asian-American Alex Chen, who returns to a small town in Colorado after eight years away, to reunite with her brother Gabe. Shortly after he arrival, Gabe is killed in ‘senseless accident’ and Alex is left to unravel the mystery.
What makes True Colors even more interesting than the standard adventure mystery is that Alex can both read and manipulate people’s emotions. Hence the title of the game – Alex can ‘see’ emotions on people, in the form of colours. She can affect people’s moods too, but with the disadvantage that these emotions can also overwhelm her and cause a loss of control.
True Colors doesn’t look like it will veer too far from the teen aesthetic of previous Life Is Strange titles, but this entry certainly has more weight behind it. If nothing else, we always love exploring small town American mysteries.
Despite the intriguing Life Is Strange sequel, the rest of Square Enix Presents flattered to deceive. We received an update on Marvel Avengers than only seemed to confirm the game is in complete limbo. Black Panther is coming to the game, and Hawkeye was shown, but we can’t see that brining players back to the fast-dying game.
A brief update was also shown on Outriders, the looter-shooter coming on April 1. More on that here when it releases officially. Finally, the only piece of real news was the announcement of Project Athia as ‘Forspoken’. Although Forspoken won’t release until 2022, the brief trailer shown looked very pretty, with an overpowered girl dancing along vast landscapes.
Overall, Square Enix patted down their hair before the video call, and put on a nice jumper – but we all know they never really got out of their slippers. Here’s hoping the next ‘Presents’ is a little more swanky.
Maybe Microsoft will pull out a nice suit for their next livestream event, which actually takes place this Friday at 2pm. This time around, they are focusing on indie developers, which often turns out some of the most exciting announcements.
So far, we’ve only been told that there will be over 100 games features and ‘new’ trailers and gameplay ‘for more than 25 games’. We will get to see the latest from developers like AnnaPurna Interactive, Devolver Digital, Humble Bundle, Team 17 and more. The biggest name on the docket is probably S.T.A.L.K.E.R . 2, which we are told will only have new artwork and a developer update, but still exciting for fans who have waited years for that game.
We’ll also see updates for Second Extinction, The Wild at Heart, Voidtrain, Exo One, and there will be engagement from some top Twitch streamers to make the event more fun.
Sounds like Microsoft is getting the hair gel ready, and maybe even taking a shower, for Friday’s event. We’ll be there! (In our PJs).
