Transferring emotions in games can be tricky, but in ‘Life is Strange: True Colors’ it works perfectly

You see more and more texts in games like: ‘press this button to meditate and take in the beauty of nature’. The game presents you with a main character who silently looks ahead while music plays and the camera focuses on scenic vistas. It raises questions: this is a game, shouldn’t we do something?

Feeling such still moments in Kena: Bridge of Spirits forced on, like empty spaces full of artificial beauty. But in Life is Strange: True Colors the silence is a canvas on which you can spread your own feelings about the story. It advances, it does not interrupt.

The word ’empathy machine’ is increasingly being used to describe games. Three recently released games– Kena, Life is Strange on Lost in Random – want to put us all in the shoes of young women who have lost something. But the way in which that happens makes these three emotional adventure games very different experiences.

Allegory for personal problems

For a long time the French Dontnod was behind the wheel of the special story game series Life is Strange, in which young people suddenly gain access to superpowers that serve as an allegory for their personal problems. Of Life is Strange: True Colors US developer Deck Nine officially takes over. The formula remains: this time we play the Chinese-American twenty-something Alex, who, after a life in the American foster system, can finally move in with her brother in a picturesque mountain village in Colorado. Her supernatural ability to experience other people’s emotions haunts her. Then her brother dies too – was it murder?

Deck Nine outshines Dontnod and manages to move with precision. You get plenty of time to get to know Alex’ brother Gabe, his best friends Steph and Ryan and the rest of the village. You are no longer stuck to a completely linear story with a puzzle or dialogue choice here and there, but you can explore on your own.

It takes effort to convince a player to want to read every stray scrap of paper in a game world and speak to every character, but the dialogues of True Colors are so strong that you quickly fall in love. All the more effective are the tough moments: Gabe’s death, the shocking revelations, quarrels with villagers, and the exploratory romance—with girlfriend Steph or boyfriend Ryan, your choice.

Meditative moments always come after the blows. The intense emotions that a scene can evoke about mourning after the death of a loved one can calmly descend. Sometimes you want to let the beautiful landscape images continue until the indie rock song in the background is all done.

Meaningful Interactions

How different is Kena. As the titular spirit guide, you must put to rest lost souls by matching important objects through jumping and shooting puzzles. In between you fight restless ghosts, with a game-milded toolbox of spear and bow. Gimmick is the ‘Rot’, cute black critters that can move objects in front of you and hold enemies.

Kena never manages to satisfactorily connect this puzzle and combat work to the story it wants to tell. When you realize that a sweet character you’ve helped is also a restless mind, a tear wells up. He doesn’t fall: you haven’t had any really meaningful interactions with this person. What remains are beautiful pictures.

Lost in Random takes the concept in a different direction. You are Even, a young girl in a world where a die determines what you will become when you grow up. One day your sister Odd is taken by the evil queen, whereupon you follow her. Along the way, you’ll befriend a living die that helps you fight: during each battle, you collect crystals, time stops, and roll the die. With the points you get you can buy cards, which can summon swords or bombs, for example.

It’s a funny concept that is worked out a bit clumsily. You’ve collected all the cards quickly, so you’ll be ready in no time in terms of strategy – the creators could have given it an extra twist.

The dark fairytale atmosphere is convincing, but true True Colors tempts you to love the village, succeeds Random not in that. An interesting moment when Even almost gives up because she suddenly realizes that she is just a child, seems to be a brief revival of real emotion. It won’t be long.

At the end you will find the evil queen, who cannot accept the arbitrariness of death. You wait, no, yearn for a version of this ending that ties into Even’s quest. But the time will not come. Our dark fairy tale ends in a happy ending; the emotion evaporates.

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