Life is Strange: True Colors is a technical mess on the PlayStation 5

Life is Strange: True Colors doesn't show its "true colors" on the PlayStation 5. The game was launched yesterday and has its own version for the PlayStation 5 - it is "optimized" for the PS5. Admittedly, at the moment it doesn’t seem like the game is optimized at all for the PlayStation 5, nor for current consoles in general.

Loads at transitions between scenes may be an expected occurrence, but they are unexpectedly long-lasting. We’re talking about ten seconds here - it’s not the end of the world - but LiS: True Colors isn’t graphically detailed, nor is it an open game like some other titles that load much faster on the PS5 and XSX / S. After all, it's not that the loads are only at the transition between scenes - every change of interior and exterior is also accompanied by loads of about 10 seconds, and even the transition from the ground floor to the first floor of the same house.

But the game is not a technical mess due to the 10-second load. A far more obvious obstacle is the constant slowdowns of the game. LiS: True Colors is not a fast-paced action game that harms gameplay, but glitches are everywhere - when controlling the camera, in cutscenes, etc. In addition to the game, it also suffers from the so-called screen tearing, and the effect of cutting the image is visible even on the totally banal scrolling of the text on the main character's mobile phone. You already think that it is impossible that they overlooked that - they consciously launched the game in this state.

You probably think - it's not a big deal, the number of frames per second drops a bit and it's not a smooth 60, who cares? If so, it wouldn’t be noticeable - but the framerate drops well below 30 fps as this is a game limited to 30 fps. To make things weirder, there is a raytracing option that has virtually no impact on performance - neither negative nor positive. Performance is not improved by turning off raytracing. 

I’m not fooling myself that all games for the PS5 will be ideally optimized or will go at a smooth 60 frames per second. But even in a slower adventure like this, technical glitches can affect the gaming experience. You encounter significant twitches literally in the first three minutes of the game and all the time you have the impression that something is not right here, instead of following the story - follow when the twitch will occur in which scene. It’s not as unplayable as Cyberpunk 2077 on the PS4 console last year, but it’s not entirely as comfortable as it should be - and here we’re still talking about the current-generation consoles, which is why the whole thing is especially weird for one cross-gen title.

The somewhat good news is that this is likely to be ironed out by some update, although the developers have not addressed this as a problem so far. Life is Strange: True Colors doesn’t look so technically flawed that we should wait half a year for that repair. But if you're interested in the game and plan to play it on consoles - maybe you'd better wait a while longer.

By: Olivia J. - Gossip Whispers