Review for Tell Me Why. Game for PC and Xbox One, the video game was released on 27/08/2020
After the good action adventure Remember Me, released in 2013, Dontnod Entertainment has found consecration in the generation that is coming to an end thanks to Life is Strange, a gripping episodic graphic adventure based on the paranormal powers of the young protagonist. Released in 2015, Life is Strange proved to be a critical and public success, with over three million copies sold from its debut to 2017 and with an excellent attach rate, which once again demonstrated the potential of the "new" (in quotation marks, because we have been talking about it for a decade now) episodic formula inaugurated by the now defunct Telltale Games.
After the great success of Life is Strange, published by Square Enix, other publishers have moved to have their adventure à la Dotnod: we are talking, in particular, of Bandai Namco Entertainment, which should soon bring us Twin Mirror, and of Microsoft ( let's be precise: Xbox Game Studios), which publishes today the first episode of Tell Me Why, output exclusively on PC and Xbox One.
Tell Me Why is made up of three episodes, which, unlike usual, debuted shortly after: the first was released on August 27, the second on September 3 and the third arrived today. The total price is € 29,99, if you don't have Game Pass, which includes it since launch. We can only welcome this new roadmap, given that the usual three or four months to get our hands on an episode of two / three hours has often proved to be a frustrating and distracting mode of use.
Perhaps it could be argued that three episodes are not many to develop (or acclimatize / become attached, on the player's side) a story with complex characters; approximately, the game will take you between seven and ten hours, depending on your propensity for exploration, collection of all collectibles, etc.
The playful formula (and not only), however, is the usual one. Tell Me Why too, just like the two Life is Strange, is a modern third-person graphic adventure, which puts us in the shoes of two young people (less young than usual) gemelli endowed with paranormal powers, which they decide to investigate their family's troubled and traumatic past and their community.
Compared to the graphic adventures à la Telltale Games, Dontnod renounces the Quick Time Events (and I don't regret it, personally, Ed) and overall prefers a rhythm more staid, than in Tell Me Why it appears perhaps overly staid: The intense moments are condensed in the final bars of each episode, which culminate with a shocking revelation, while the previous couple of hours follow one another exploration and more routine chat.
The events are set in the (fictional) Alaskan town of Delos Crossing, and revolve around the twins Ronan: Tyler, a transgender boy who served a ten-year sentence for killing his mother, suffering from mental disorders, and Alyssa, who instead she remained in Delos Crossing, where she befriended Michael, a homosexual boy belonging to the Tlingit people. Upon Tyler's return, the twins decide to return to the childhood home with the intention of arranging it in view of a sale - which is also a symbolic act of clear break with the past - but, once there, countless memories emerge that they lead them to dig in search of the truth, guided by a beautiful storybook made with their mother.
The main theme Dontnod expertly combines others themes, all related to problems that face daily minorities. Tyler, as mentioned, is a transgender guy and Michael is homosexual; to develop this theme in an appropriate way, the developers made use of collaboration of GLAAD, a well-known non-profit activism organization LGBTQ. But we are not just talking about sexual minorities: precisely there damaged psyche of Tyler and Alyson's mother is the common thread of the opera. Not surprisingly, the official website of the game includes CheckPoint, a charity that cares about the mental health of the gaming community, among its partners. Dontnod deserves credit for having dealt with all these issues in a sober and non-invasive, but not superficial, way. Everything not necessarily confers greater credibility (we are still talking about a kind of dark modern fairy tale), but certainly greater complexity, which is up to the player to grasp, even with his choices.
Finally, Tell Me Why also tells of an ethnic minority, i Tlingit, even if in a decidedly more tangential way than the other themes; in this case, however, the focus is not on possible discrimination, but on the complex and sometimes shaky that these communities live between modernity and their cultural heritage (Dontnod's point of reference in this case was the Huna Heritage Foundation) . It could be said that it is more functional to the setting than to the complex of themes: in most of the rooms you can admire works of Tlingit art / crafts, such as masks, totems and murals. In this way, a setting that is already quite unusual in itself is further characterized by the painstaking work of Dontnod, also attentive to environmental sounds. Graphics and sound (with an excellent selection of songs) are definitely in line with what has already been appreciated in the various episodes of Life is Strange.
Just like the latter, Tell Me Why has multiple endings, but not too different from each other, I seemed to understand (I had problems until a couple of days ago, because there was a bug - already fixed - that caused the freeze of the game after the crucial choice, Editor's note). The choices weigh above all on the s with the other characters, but they do not radically modify the events.
Tell Me Why is a complex and profound adventure, which delves into the recesses of the mind and explores its traumas. On a playful level, it is not the best game of Dontnod Entertainment and, all in all, it is not even the most compelling, but it remains a very valid exponent of the modern narrative video game.
► Tell Me Why is an Adventure type game developed by Dontnod and published by Xbox Game Studios for PC and Xbox One, the video game was released on 27/08/2020
