Life is Strange Remastered Collection stirs emotions with motion capture

With Life is Strange: True Colors a qualified hit in the U.S., the stage is set for the return of a classic. The Life is Strange Remastered Collection features two games in one package: the original Life is Strange and its prequel, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, both with improved graphics. 

Return to Arcadia Bay

Life is Strange Remastered Collection will feature enhanced visuals, including a new engine, improved environments and lighting, and finally, motion-captured facial expressions. That last one is critical, as one valid criticism with the original game is that the characters’ expressions often didn’t match the emotion of the scene, even when their voices did. Characters kept a kind of neutral, poker face even through the most intense moments, breaking the game’s immersion. The mo-cap features will help bring the Remastered version in line with True Colors, which was praised for deftly capturing emotional beats with its life-like animation. 

That said, some issues remain. Fans have noticed an enormous gap between the E3 trailer footage and the official game screenshots given to the press, as shown here.

That’s quite a disparity and there’s no official explanation for it, or even which version is from the actual game. Which is a shame. So much relies on the Remastered version looking good, given that the enhanced visuals are the only changes we can expect between it and the original versions. 

A Necessary Delay?

There is some good news, though: the Remastered version was supposed to launch September 2021, at the same time as Life is Strange: True Colors and as part of its Ultimate Edition. However, the Remastered Collection launch was delayed to 2022, with Square citing they “want to alleviate any additional pressure on the Life is Strange team by giving more time between the release of Life is Strange: True Colors and the Life is Strange Remastered Collection.” 

I take it as good news that the development team was given more time to work on the game’s visuals. Lots of games—case in point, Battlefield 2042—could have used a little more polish before launching, to say the least. Here’s hoping that Life is Strange Remastered will look more like the official screenshots—or better.  

When is the Life is Strange Remastered Collection Release Date?

Life is Strange Remastered Collection will release on February 1, 2022, for PC, Stadia, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Purchase Life is Strange Remastered Collection PC keys at the best prices from our comparator today.