Starting with Remember Me on the previous generation of games, Dontnod Entertainment has yet to do me wrong. They’re focus on narrative driven games in a variety of different genres has kept me interested and engaged with their works. Recently though, they’ve settled on a style of gameplay, that of 2015’s adventure title Life is Strange.
Life is Strange was a fairly big game, especially in critical circles, and made Dontnod the new king of narrative adventure games but each release since then has been less notable bringing us to one that might be flying completely under the radar for many. Tell Me Why is Dontnod’s latest release and it has been produced for Xbox Games Studios for release on Xbox platforms and included with Xbox’s Game Pass subscription.
It tells the story of Alaskan twins that have been separated for years after a traumatic event and deals with their coming to terms with the truth of that event, their mother’s history, and their relationship with each other. There is obviously more to it than that but as it is a standalone narrative adventure, I don’t want to spoil anything. I did find that the story was a bit predictable, at least until the final “big” reveal came. That’s not to say the final reveal comes out of nowhere, there are plenty of hints at it, the game just did a good job in pushing one theory before yanking it out and leaving you wondering.
Overall, the performances are generally well acted and if you’ve played any of the Life is Strange games, you’ll know what to expect visually. Similarly the gameplay isn’t a game changer, it is all pretty standard adventure gameplay. With a lot of picking up items and trying to find clues in them. Each episode has at least one big puzzle to solve and they are fun and satisfying to figure out, although if you aren’t up for deciphering it, the game will give a brute force option. I’m not sure how that plays out but, I suppose if you are impatient.
The big narrative hook here is that the two main characters (Aly and Tyler) are twins so it makes sense that the big gameplay hook deals with that link and gives Aly and Tyler a chance to remember together and also talk with their “voice”, a psychic dialog chain if you will. The “voice” piece is kind of whatever and it just kind of existed. The memory aspect plays into a behind the scenes relationship measurement. This relationship bond can be fractured or repaired based on your choices and will impact how you interact with Aly or Tyler (depending upon who you are playing as), as well as the ending. That said, I had splintered the twins’ relationship by the end of episode two but was able to repair it completely by the end of episode three.
And that’s the other thing, Tell Me Why is episodic. All three episodes are out now and can be played all the way through if you so desire. I however played them as they released weekly and really enjoyed it that way. While it doesn’t really impact the game, I do think if you are going to release episodes, they need to be on a set schedule and Microsoft and Dontnod nailed it with this one.
Tell Me Why is good but it’s not Earth shattering. Not every game needs to be but there is a sense of sameness now to Dontnod’s adventure outings. I enjoy the style, I just hope that they have something a bit more ambitious on tap than another teen/young adult drama. I won’t have to wait long to find out though as their next game, Twin Mirror, is on tap for a release by the end of the year. 3*
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