Tell Me Why is a game from the same developers as Life Is Strange. This should give you an idea on the type of game that this is. It is a story driven game with limited gameplay and a ton of cutscenes and dialogue, so it can be very boring at first until the plot becomes clearer around 1.5 hours in. It is split into three chapters, with the first chapter eventually becoming free as a sort of demo.
The plot follows twins Tyler and Alyson. The pair haven’t seen each other in ten years and so are nervous when they finally get to meet up. Together, they return to the house that they grew up in, and have a lot of good and bad memories about. Eventually, it is revealed that the plot will be about the pair investigating and finally uncovering the truth about their mother’s death, how it relates to them, and the perspectives.
When the game was released, it was a big deal in that one of the main characters was transgender. The game doesn’t constantly remind you about it, but it does form a somewhat significant role in the story. It’s handled in a subtle way that gives it enough focus, but not to the point of it feeling forced. It’s actually really well done and feels natural.
The game starts off very slow, way more slowly than it should. There is a lot of dialogue between Tyler and Alyson to flesh out their characters so that we can gauge their personalities. Along the way, you’re treated with some spectacular views. Since it is set in winter, there are snow covered environments and it looks beautiful. Still, the gameplay is limited to you walking around and interacting with objects. It’s basically an adventure game and the puzzles are light and not very involved. As expected, there are dialogue choices that affect the story in a limited way, and it’s always interesting when the game gives you a summary on what other players picked compared to your own.
It’s a slow-paced game and the story feels muddled in the beginning. This is on purpose and it becomes clearer at around 2.5 hours in, when you’ve finished the first chapter. Several things suddenly slot into place and makes a lot more sense. The events that the characters referenced a few things before is now clear. There’s a lot of optional text and voiced dialogue, and it always feels like you might miss something important if you skip it.
A big part of the game are how the twins can telepathically communicate with each other. As they revisit places to piece together the events surrounding their mother, they are able to view recollections of their memory, which sheds light into the matter. It’s a simple gimmick that is little more than a glorified cutscene, although it adds to the mystique in the atmosphere of the game.
The beginning of each chapter is probably the worst parts of the game. You’re forced to do really mundane things that seems pointless. Helping out doing a stocktake of inventory? Tidying up the house? All of this dramatically slows down the pace, to the point of being detrimental. Yes, it’s a nice game to relax in but at the same time, it’s also one that can easily make you feel bored before you get to the better parts of the story. When Tyler does the investigate and unearths several nuggets of information, those are the best parts.
As per usual with dialogue options, there will be times where all of the options don’t quite fit what you want. Tyler at times can also seem too angry and hostile towards the other characters, while Alyson is more forgettable as a character. Some of these dialogue choices will affect the ending. The first two chapters also feel like it reuses each location at least twice, so it can feel repetitive.
Despite the build up to the finale, pretty much the whole game was leading up to it, the big reveal at the end felt underwhelming. It’s probably because there are only so few characters already, so when the identity of that one character is revealed, it’s not a huge shock since by process of elimination, there was only that one character left anyway. What makes it worse is that it didn’t felt quite right. The game is short, each chapter takes around two to three hours so the whole games takes less than ten hours to complete. This is assuming you don’t rush it and it includes all the times where it is unclear how to proceed with the story so you just interact with everything.
Overall, Tell Me Why is average. For a narrative driven game, the story and pacing are the most important things. The game’s story has potential and there are times where it is tense and enjoyable. However, there are plenty more times where the pacing slows right down to a crawl, showing mundane events that ultimately doesn’t add much to the story. Despite the whole game leading up to it, the conclusion felt undercooked and overhyped.
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