Recent reviews by TJ Michael

Deck-Nine takes advantage of the single release format to create a more balanced story than previous entries in the LIFE IS STRANGE series. Not having to rely on dramatic cliffhangers to tide players over months between chapters, TRUE COLORS can take the time to create deeply personal emotional beats without re-traumatizing the player every couple of hours. Releasing TRUE COLORS, the 3rd major entry in a series of "Emotional Adventure Games", in 2021, may not be as groundbreaking as releasing the original was in 2015, but other than in pure novelty, TRUE COLORS is probably the most competent entry in the series.

If you've never played a LIFE IS STRANGE game. TRUE COLORS is a fantastic place to start. If you're the kind of person (like me) who evangelized the first game to all of their friends in 2015, you can be confident picking the game up as a worthy successor.

Do you remember that game you played when you were a kid? That weird adventure game you could never quite place?

You were stuck at your grandparents' house when you last played it. You weren't quite sure how it got there, maybe the guy who sold them their computer packed it in with a bunch of other "utilities", maybe one of your older cousins installed it the last time he was stuck here.

It doesn't matter, what matters is that it's the only thing you had to play there that wasn't Minesweeper or Solitaire.

Maybe it took place in a castle, or a cave, or some magical forest. You were six at the time. You're pretty sure it was some place vaguely fantasy-like, full of traps, hidden doors and playful puzzles.

You never did manage to figure them all out by the time your parents came to pick you up. Next time they dropped you off there the game was gone, your grandparents got a new desktop, and you couldn't even remember what that game was called.

There was something special about that experience, that memory, the unresolved mystery of it all. That feeling of being 6, of not knowing what could be hiding behind all those pixels. You never quite managed to find that game again, no matter how hard you continued to look, maybe it never existed the way you remember it.

Escape Lala isn't that game you played back then, but it's the closest I've ever gotten to that moment in my life so far.

Amazing game

Ever played Telltale's first Sam and Max series? Where the whole thing is pretty much great, except the first episode is slow, the next two are great, and then suddenly the fourth episode is both longer and more enjoyable then the last two combined?

Yeah, thats pretty much the quality distribution curve for Life is strange. Don't let the slowness (or the Slang) of episode one fool you, This is an amazing game, and desrves to be played.

I am a grown Man, and I cried twice during episode 4. Twice.

You'll get over the bad facial animation. Scout's honor.

Can't stop