Tell Me Why

Tell Me Why is a story experience by Dontnod, famous for creating the Life is Strange series. I haven't played that game, but I assume there's some similarities here. I was a big fan of their game Remember Me, which is a completely different style game, but had a strong plot based on memories. You could say Vampyr's plot also has memories as a theme, so it's a theme that the developers like to explore.

I'd draw comparisons to Telltale's style games but this has no action, so don't expect Quick Time Events here. It has some of the clunkiness that the likes of The Walking Dead had too; slow walking and sometimes awkward to interact, find the right hotspot. Another similarity is the game is split into chapters and a summary is shown at the end of each one to show your choices and explain your relationships with each character. There's only 3 chapters though, but each one is lengthy which total around 9.5 hours playtime.

You could compare to Gone Home. That was set in a house with loads of objects to look at, but then there wasn't much to it other than discovering some extra info about your sister. This has similarities to that but is a grander scope with a much stronger plot and involves more characters.

Alyson reunites with her transgender brother Tyler after being apart for 10 years. They go to their family home to clear it out with the aim of selling it. In their mother's (Mary-Ann) room, they find a book on raising a transgender child. This shocks the siblings as they believed their mother was strongly against it. As a child, when Alyson helped Tyler cut their hair to a shorter style, their mum seemed angry and seemed to want to shoot him. In self defence, their mum was killed and Tyler was sent to a camp whilst Alyson was raised by a policeman and Uncle, Eddy.

They also rediscover their ability to communicate telepathically with each other which they believed was just a childhood imagination. They seem to trigger memories and are able to watch recreations together. You learn more about their past, their relationship with their mother, their mother's mental health issues, relationships with other residents in the village, find out who their Father is, and learn more about what possibly happened that tragic night. The transgender character is the main focus at first, but as the story unravels, the focus switches to uncovering the truth because things aren't quite as they originally thought.

Since it is a story-based experience, there's barely any gameplay. It's a case of listening to the conversations then finding the next thing to trigger more conversations. When there is a dialogue tree, it's usually just 2 options to choose. There's some choices that depend on clues you have found (and some sections seem to be optional), or choices to make based on assumptions of which memory is correct (there's times where Tyler and Alyson recall a different version of events and you have to choose which one you want to believe). The ending also uses this mechanic, and so is really a binary choice of what you believe, or want to believe happened. Some people may find this very disappointing, and may compare it to the ending of Mass Effect 3 which very much was a binary choice. I think it's different to that because the ending fits the theme of the game (memories) and contextually makes sense.

There are some puzzles which are okay. They often involve looking at a Fairytale book which their mother wrote "The Book of Goblins". A few of these puzzles allow you to skip them by brute forcing mechanisms open, but I didn't use that option. The Goblins represent the kids, and it turns out the other characters are also based on people Mary-Ann knew.

The voice acting is really good, although there were a few moments where the characters seemed to act a bit angrier than I expected from the dialogue choice.

The graphics are really impressive, and sometimes I stopped to appreciate the beautiful lakeside backdrops. The town has a lot of detail too; it really feels like a lived-in world. There's loads of objects in each building you go to, with plenty of decorations, including pictures, notes and flyers which give you more detail about the inhabitants and their life-styles.

It's not something you would replay. Telltale gives you a good illusion of choice, but this is very linear for the most part. There's a few optional stuff to do and the memory choices, but no way near enough variable content to warrant a second playthrough. I often say this with these types of "games" - but this could easily be a book or a film. I did really enjoy the story, but I feel others may feel there's not enough gameplay, or choices to make them feel as invested as I was.

This is Dontnod's masterpiece tbh, there's head scratching moments with the storytelling for sure but I LOVED the protagonists. With more years of experience writing heavy, dual narratives there's not nearly as many "cringe" moments in the dialogue, and the characters' motivations are supplemented by their powers rather than being a contrived gimmick (The hindrance of the time rewinding ability during Kate Marsh's suicide attempt in LiS 1 comes to mind). This also has got to be the most graphically beautiful adventure game of its kind. Absolutely worth experiencing!