September 9th, 2020
Tell me why is the new Tell Tale game from Dontnodentertainment. The studio of Life is strange and Life is strange 2. Tell me why is the follow-up to Life is Strange 2. Only this time it is about Alison and Tyler Ronan.
The story Before you start with this article, we must report that there are spoilers mentioned in this article. So tell me why is about Tyler and Alyson Ronan. Tyler and Alyson are brother and sister. However, Tyler is transgender, and now goes through life as a man. Tyler and Alyson have had a troubled childhood with a troubled relationship with their mother, Mary-Ann. According to Tyler, this is because Mary-ann cannot bear that Tyler is transgender. This seems to be a tense situation, an unstable mother struggling to raise two children and barely making ends meet. Eventually it comes to a boil with Alyson eventually killing her mother. This happens on a whim because she wants to protect Tyler from Mary-ann. This is where the whole story of Tell me why begins. You want to find out what drove Mary-Ann and if she really wanted to kill Tyler.
The gameplay Tell tale games are not about fast action or quick reflexes. The point is to properly explore your environment and catch all possible hints. The more you investigate, the more things you find, and the more collectibles you find, the more chance of different outcomes. The great thing about tell me why is that you decide in which direction the game will go. Do you want to guard your good relationship with Alyson or do you prefer to hang out and go against everything? It is all possible, but it does have consequences. The different possibilities make the replay value of the game so high. Once you have completed a chapter, it is nice to try again and then choose option b and see what consequences this entails. Dontnod Entertainment has announced that there are 2 endings and 1 secret ending for which the necessary criteria must be found. We won't reveal the secret but it's pretty spicy.
The atmosphere and graphics The atmosphere, environment and graphics are truly a picture. Sometimes it seems like you are really in the mountainous regions of America. You almost feel the cold. The game is available in 4k and you really see the necessary time that the production has put into the environment. There are so many small details everywhere you walk by, but when you find them you get a lot of respect for the makers.
The choices We have already briefly mentioned that there are several possibilities for a situation. However, compared to Life is strange 2, it is a bit on the meager side. With LIS2 you could get 20 different endings. Here it is only 3. This is a shame because it shows that not all choices you make have an impact.
The conclusion Tell me why is a beautifully compelling story. It offers everything that Life is strange 2 also has and only slightly less interesting characters and unfortunately a little less choice. All in all was a fun game where you always want to know how it ends. That is why it gets an 8.5 from us.