I’m interested to say the least.
I won’t pretend to be a huge fan of Dontnod Entertainment, and it’s not because I don’t like their style but more so out of indifference and the fact that I have a tendency to run at certain games with an ADD-style approach. Very likely I own most of Dontnod’s library in one way or another, I just haven’t had the right mood to play them. What I have played is the entirety of Life is Strange, portions of Vampyr, and also episode one of Life is Strange 2, and enjoyed them considerably.
Tell Me Why is an interesting adventure game to come out of the minds at Dontnod Entertainment. It follows the Life Is Strange model of presenting a mostly realistic world except one or two characters effectively has super powers. Max could reverse time, Daniel had telekinetic powers, and Jonathan Reid could drink blood.
In Tell Me Why you play as the twins Tyler and Alyson who return home to confront the demons of their past. Tyler is transgender and transitioned to a male in the intervening events between the two leaving and their return. We learn instantly as the game begins that Tyler’s mother attempted to murder him and was killed in self defense ten years prior. Also Tyler and Alyson have the ability to speak to one another telepathically when nearby and they can procure visions of the past in the form of their childhood memories when they are around items of nostalgia.
It looks like the big plot point in Tell Me Why is going to be helping Tyler put to rest his biggest questions regarding their mother. What happened to Mary-Ann and why did she go insane in those final days? What do the other townspeople know and what part, if any, did they play in her fall into insanity? It’s a small town and nobody wants to talk about its dark past. There may also be a creeping villain at play.
The gameplay is very reminiscent of the Life is Strange titles. There’s obviously no running and gunning in this small Alaskan town and the hokey action sequences of the late Telltale Games variety are nowhere to be found. Mostly it’s a lot of talking, walking around, and interacting with objects. You do have to pay attention every once in a while to the fine details because the game does give you tests of knowledge if you want to pay certain dialogue choices or puzzles but otherwise it’s a pretty laid back experience.
One aspect that will definitely play into the story is the idea that the twins’ memories are not objective fact. Both Alyson and Tyler have shaded their memories with their own biases and it’s up to you at certain points to decide whose version of events is more reasonable. Do you take the other twin’s version for the sake of keeping your bond together or go with your own version instead? These differences generally speak to the motivations of the people involved. Was Mary-Ann a loving mother, or was she a terrible person?
The bond between the twins strengthens and shatters as you make decisions and I have a hard feeling that this is going to end up a superficial gameplay mechanic as history has shown us with prior games in this genre.
Thankfully Tell Me Why was created with help from GLAAD, so Tyler’s status as a transgender man becomes part of his character rather than his only defining trait. Interactions with characters in the backwater small town Alaska can border on bigoted, but remarks made by characters are clearly out of ignorance rather than spite and are quickly corrected. At no point is Tyler being a man used as the butt of a joke, nor do you get the stereotypical drunk, gun-wielding MAGA-hat wearing yokel shouting “I dun care what yew say, yer a woman and should get in the kitchen. Build the wall!” that I think many of us feared would show up at least as a minor antagonist. Tell Me Why is inclusive without feeling preachy or condescending to the group it’s trying to represent, which is rare in video games these days.
Ultimately the big feature that is going to pull people to Tell Me Why or push them away is that the game is very dry, at least in the first episode. Each episode should take roughly two to three hours to complete and there are three releasing on a weekly schedule. At least right now the game is a bunch of people walking around, taking in the scenery, and talking. And talking. And talking. And talking. And talking. And talking. While it’s set building and establishing characters, there are no big stakes in episode one to get the blood pumping and I feel like a lot of people will get bored and turn it off about halfway through.
Tell Me Why is a great game for Game Pass. If you’re not wholly invested in what is effectively Twin Peaks the video game, having the game as part of your monthly subscription makes it a lot easier to convince yourself to download and give it a chance. If you’d rather hold out until the full game is out, it’s just a short while to September 10.
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