Tell Me Why (2020)

Me gusta describir a Tell Me Why como una película atrapada en un juego. Nos ponemos en la piel de dos gemelos con un trauma de su pasado que quieren resolver qué fue lo que en realidad pasó aquella noche de 2005 usando sus poderes de hermanos¿?

Es una historia llamativa pero a mi parecer no tan cautivadora. Lo sentí como un juego lento y aburrido. Si tuviese que describir tal cual lo que viví, diría que es un juego en donde no pasan cosas ciertamente interesantes más allá de la trama principal. De todas formas lo disfruté. Los gráficos, la música, los paisajes y los detalles fueron increíbles. The Book of Goblins es impresionante, 20 historias diferentes fundamentales que te ayudarán en el camino para resolver puzles a medida que vayamos avanzando. Las esculturas de madera son otra belleza que nos deja este juego. Lastimosamente el arte visual no estuvo a la altura del gameplay y la historia y es una pena porque si le agregaran un poco más de ese "algo" hubiese sido un juego perfecto, corto pero conciso.

Sacando todo lo bueno y malo de lado, me di cuenta que en este tipo de juegos de "encuentra a la persona sospechosa de hacer tal cosa" siempre es la persona que menos te esperas que sea. Por ejemplo, cuando se reveló que Tom era el padre biológico de los gemelos no fue algo que esperaba, estaba 100% segura que era Sam, todas las pruebas y textos que encontrábamos en el camino me hacían creer que Sam era a quién buscábamos, pero sorprendentemente era la última persona que se me pasó por la mente, Tom.

★★★⯫☆ 3,5/5

toying with writing something on this game with willow, so I'll hold back on writing too much here. this game is... interesting. quite interesting to think about if not always to play. complex thoughts and blunt execution is dontnod house style. if their reach is always gonna exceed their grasp, I'm glad, this time, it's because the grasp is actually quite decent but the reach is just so, so long. it'd take stretch armstrong. I can't be arsed to google whether they have stretch armstrong in france.

for personal reasons, the theme of "you have to accept that some truths are choices, and the facts are lost to time" lands as both incredibly true and brave, and also very hard to sit with. this game is right about this theme, in this context, but I want to scream about times it's wrong. it is not drifting into moral relativism, into "maybe truth doesn't exist," but people who are could see themselves in this story, and I'm having a hard time with them right now. it is not the game's fault. the game is telling its story honestly. I wish it were a little further afield of mine, is all.

if I don't end up writing something elsewhere, I'll flesh this review out.

Aside from the typical, excruciatingly slow movement of Dontnod game characters, Tell Me Why's story feels more like a story that would have been better told as a book / movie / mini-series.

It just doesn't have the same game element, or 'hook', as LiS (i.e. I don't think twin telepathy as they accidentally uncover the truth behind their mom's death — where the player mostly interacts with the characters' surroundings to go through their junk and "remember" stuff — is in the same level as kids with unexplained destructive powers) or other similar games like ones by Telltale.

Sure, it has some cute moments that made me giggle and some sad ones that made me tear up a bit, but a few sprinkled here and there (approximate) a 3-hour-long chapter doesn't feel worth it. I'd like to think I'm not exaggerating with this, because the fact that I could use my phone or laptop while "playing" this says a lot.

So, I'll just say: I hate Life is Strange! (SUE ME)

I only picked this game up because it was on gamepass, the dude looked hot and the description sounded interesting.

Tell Me Why doesn't really advance this genre of video games in terms of gameplay, but the story is excellently written, the puzzles are inventive and the mystery is... very mysterious!

Narrative

Alyson is about to pick up her brother Tyler, who she hasn't seen in years due to an incident in their youth. They are meeting up to sell their late mothers house. However in the house they find several items that seem odd concerning the circumstances surrounding their mothers death all these years ago. They decide to try and figure out what happened all these years ago. Story is told through dialogue and reading. There is a few cutscenes as well.

Gameplay

It's dontnod gameplay. Walking around, reading stuff, talking to people, and that one mysterious power that you can use to do certain things. In this case the two main characters have "the voice". This means they can telepathically talk to each other and they can "summon" memories in certain places. These memories are partly used to uncover the plot. There is also a childhood book they have, the book of goblins, that they wrote with their mother. Their mother hid all kinds of clues in the stories, and she hid puzzles in the house for them to solve.

Setting

The story is in a small fishing town in Alaska. An everyone knows everyone town. They grew up in a cabin in the woods here. They wander around the cabin to find out the secrets, and around town to talk to people from their past. The setting is very beautiful, tall mountains, lovely lake, snow everywhere. It's really a sight. The art style of the game is similar to life is strange. A mix between realistic, and more of cell shading (I think, I am not an expert on these terms). I really like this art style and think it looks great.

The music is very typical of dontnod as well. Poppy, and kind of dramatic. It fits the mood well, but not my personal favourite music. The small town vibe makes for a interesting sort of whodunnit mystery. With just a few people, who all have their secrets and may know a lot about each other. I think it is a nice choice for a setting.

Other

The game has some issues. For instance, my phone got stuck in my hand for a few scenes. These small bugs have snuck into this game. The camera was also pretty bad. Often I was right in front of an object but could not interact. I had to walk back a little and actually turn around to interact. The character was narrating something about a picture she was not even looking at. The hitbox of stuff was very weird. It got a bit annoying at some point, but I got used to how to get stuff to interact pretty quickly.

Conclusion

The game was enjoyable, but not great. I loved the artstyle, as usual from dontnod games. Setting was interesting and beautiful. The puzzles that the mother left behind were pretty epic. I mean if someone made that kind of stuff in real life they could probably sell it. Really intricate wooden puzzle boxes with lovely paintings on them, looked amazing.

Story was your basic figure out our past. It was a bit predictable. Ending wasn't all that interesting. Aly's character I didn't like all the much, a bit whiny. I did really like Tyler, he was cool. And Aly's coworker Michael was great too. I did just got a bit bored near the end. Story dragged a bit too much, and I couldn't care that much anymore. The original Life is Strange has a much more exciting story with a lot more at stake. Same with the second Life is Strange. Characters are also better in those games.

So in the end, I did enjoy it. I'm happy I got it for free, if I had paid full price I would've been more disappointed. But it could be fun to pick up in sale if you liked previous dontnod games or narrative games in general.

I like what Dontnod does. I liked the story that was unfolding. I liked the characters and the development I saw in the first chapter......I hated how SLOW and plodding this game and the dialogue felt.

I just felt like I was constantly moving through mud to walk from place to place....and everything just happened so SLOW.

Unfortunately, I only made it through chapter one, and I don't think i'll look back at this point.

~David.

I use game loosely because just like with the Telltale games and Dontnod’s other games you don’t do very much other than walk around and press the A button on things. Then you hear a line of dialogue or see a cutscene and that’s that. It’s basically like one of those anime visual novels but a bit more interactive and constructed in the Unreal Engine so it’s got great graphics. Speaking of the graphics, even if you have a nice gaming PC like I do, I’d still recommend playing it on an Xbox Series X instead. Apparently neither version of the game has native HDR support, but the Xbox’s auto-HDR feature works so well on this game that you could’ve fooled me. It looks just as good as if the game had a native HDR function. It would not surprise me to learn that Microsoft did some manual tweaks to this game’s auto-HDR profile. It also runs at native 4K on the Series X so you aren’t missing out on resolution by going with the console version either.

The story is pretty realistic yet simple. It’s written well enough for you to want to reach the conclusion and you will feel some emotions at times, but don’t expect it to blow you away. The inclusion of the LGBT issues was welcome, but perhaps over done. Tyler is obsessed with being trans, with it being pointed out constantly in the story and other characters. Yet they tried so hard not to offend anyone with this game, you never see Tyler being misgendered or deadnamed which is unrealistic.

It’s not a game I see myself replaying other than a quick run through skipping all the cutscenes to grab a few missing achievements. Getting every achievement requires completing the game twice. But once you’ve done that it goes on the pile of “games I enjoyed while they lasted but I don’t have a reason to revisit”

Like Earth.

Anyway, this game from a mechanical and "gameplay" standpoint is pretty immaterial, even by walking sim standards. There is very little to control and only a few choices and ultimately it is not much impact you are making.

The story "twist" I figured out in the first half-hour, but like a crime procedural on network TV it did not really bother me and I was interested enough in seeing it play out.

It terms of representation it is a bit too naive and "safe" to really mean anything. It does not feel realistic or meaningful but inoffensive so I guess it is a wash. It is very easy to groan at the overly sensitive and performative "woke-ness" of EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in this tiny Alaskan town.

This is a lesser DONTNOD game but if you have GamePass and like those sort of games it is worth a run-through. If you want to try a good one of these you are better off with Life Is Strange 2.

DONTNOD’s latest adventure game is about a pair of twin siblings Tyler and Alyson Ronan who are reuniting for the first time in ten years. Their reunion is bittersweet as the twins plan to sell their childhood home in fictional Delos Crossing, Alaska. After going through their own belongings, Tyler and Alyson enter their deceased mother’s room only to discover that their mother has been hiding more secrets than the twins previously suspected. While Alyson is content to leave the past behind, Tyler is eager to learn more about their mother, Mary Ann. Alyson eventually relents to Tyler’s wishes and the pair quickly discover that no one in Delos Crossing seems interested in talking about Mary Ann.

Tell Me Why is a narrative focused game, with light puzzle solving elements. If you have played DONTNOD’s previous Life is Strange games, Tell Me Why will feel instantly familiar. The bulk of the game involves walking around, interacting with objects and speaking with other characters. The few moments of gameplay are relegated to reading material to solve puzzles and doing basic button press mini-games. Some of these puzzles are surprisingly time consuming, especially one early puzzle that involves reading an entire children’s book.

The two gameplay quirks in Tell Me Why are the twins ability to visualize childhood memories and to communicate telepathically. Like in real life, memories are sometimes inaccurate and there are instances where Tyler and Alyson remember the same event differently. The narrative changes depending on whether you choose Tyler’s or Alyson’s memory as well as how you choose to react to specific characters. While it’s not as flashy as the ability to turn back time or use telekinesis like in the Life is Strange series, the ability to visualize memories is a great way to introduce more narrative story bits without having a cutscene wring control from the player.

The game is not shy about showcasing difficult topics. From the moment you boot up the game, there is a disclaimer indicating that trans and mental professionals were consulted in the game’s development. Tell Me Why is the first game that I know of, that features a trans person as one of the main characters. In addition there is a gay character with whom you can form a romantic relationship with. There are also depictions of anxiety, depression and poverty. All of these heavy subjects are handled with an appropriate amount of care. If there is one thing that feels out of place, it is that the game paints this very idealistic portrait of reality. The game never really introduces any form of significant opposition. The people of Delos Crossing are maybe a bit TOO polite, accepting and understanding.

Tell Me Why shows its budget constraints in its technical presentation. The title screen is very plain and boring; it’s a background of the twins with no animation. There is only a small roster of characters to meet and most of the settings are heavily recycled. Characters' lips don’t quite sync perfectly to their voices. And the game tends to have dialog cut into another line of dialog especially when walking around. With that said, the game looks stunning at times with wide vistas of mountains, rivers and trees. The few environments in the game are heavily detailed and feel lived-in. The character models, especially Tyler and Alyson, are handled with exceptional care on their faces, hair and clothing.

It’s hard to discuss any more about Tell Me Why without spoiling the story. The best I can say is that it’s a DONTNOD adventure game experience. There is excellent music, very creative direction/camera work and a plot that mostly comes together at the end. The game is far from flawless. There are several moments that require a significant suspension of disbelief and other sequences that feel like busy work. With all that said, Tell Me Why is DONTNOD’s most ambitious work yet. It dares to talk about sexuality, anxiety and poverty at a very adult-level not seen in many video games. The endings, especially the bad ending, left me with an emotional gut punch that I will be feeling for weeks.

Played the PC version.

in my eyes LIS was an ok game but nothing great, so I was not hyped to play this game but man it was a blast. I really loved the way the told the story and the mechanics Dontnod used. The shared memories of the brothers that they used to complete the puzzles about her mother's past and gather the missing pieces was really well implemented.

In the graphics department the game uses unreal engine. I would assume its UE 4. The problem with that engine is that I was stuck in 1360x760 resolution. Could not go any higher than that sadly. Even some fixes that I tried didn't work so keep that in mind. Luckily this games does not stress your PC and can run at 60 fps with a medium budget PC. Another thing really beautiful about tell me why is the setting and the photography. the snowy fields are so well done and good looking that it made me want to go to Alaska and the photography its really good, like far better than LIS. The use of wide angles and panoramic shots are soooo good.

Overall: I recommend this game if you like LIS and you can grab it in XBOX gamepass

It's an important game in matters of inclusion, and representation of LGBTQ, and other minorities.

But so boring!! In order to avoid any kind of trigger - all the problems felt irrelevant, and the choices you made as player had little influence. As a game so grounded by narrative - I could not empathize with their reactions and how easily they were dealing with everything.

The story was not believable. And the characters - especially the girl - just annoyed me. The exploration was not satisfactory and even the cute little puzzles, felt out of place.

Tell Me Why is a concise, occasionally affecting adventure game about grief and healing. Well-written and well-acted, with likable leads, lovely art direction, and a sparse but excellent score. Has got easily one of the coolest and most densely-decorated houses I've ever seen in any videogame. And it's really goddamn great to finally see a trans hero take center stage.

For once, it's interesting to see a small-town story where the mystery is just as small. Thrilling plot revelations are set aside to focus on the interior lives of the Ronan twins, and the payoff is a grounded and believable look at their reconciliation after 10 years apart.

Even with such a narrow focus, however, the middle episode drags a bit when retreading ground from the first, and the scant set of characters and locations is noticeable. The protagonists barely exist as characters outside of the central conflict, reverting to a default adventure game snark whenever the plot isn't moving forward. Most disappointingly, Tyler and Alyson's reconciliation is tied to a binary choice system which makes their whole relationship feel much more mechanical than it ought.

It's a short story told competently, against a beautiful backdrop. But I wanted to love these characters more.