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By flotsam
Tell Me Why – Chapter 1: Homecoming
DONTNOD Entertainment
The latest narrative adventure from the people responsible for the Life
Is Strange franchise, Tell Me Why’s first chapter sets the table (rather
satisfyingly it seems) for things to come.
It
starts with a flashback, and then reunites twins Tyler and Alyson,
separated for the last decade as a result of that flashback. They are
returning to their home town of Delos Crossing in Alaska to draw some
lines under some personal stuff. It fairly quickly promises to be far
more than might have been anticipated, as personal truths and memories
are exposed and explored.
An
immediate point of difference with any game I have played is that Tyler
is an openly transgender man. Both the Steam page and a statement at the
start of the game says that the makers conducted on-the-ground research
and partnered with a range of entities including cultural, mental health
and gender advocates in order to craft to craft a thoughtful
true-to-life experience. I wouldn’t dare to presume how authentically
the various issues are presented, especially those with respect to
gender and sexual identity, but there is a lot more information at the
maker’s website articulating their approach to the those issues, and
what I would say is they have clearly put a lot of effort into how they
went about that.
While there are some ignorant comments from people who haven’t met him
since his transition, Tyler is who he is, an element this chapter allows
him largely to just be. His identity isn’t ignored or irrelevant, but
re-establishing his relationship with his sister, and confronting
together the bits and pieces of their shared past, is the impetus for
moving on. They rediscover their ‘voice,’ enabling them to share their
thoughts, and also uncover an ability to view past memories in the real
world, an aspect which provides insights into what has gone before.
There are memories which each character remembers differently,
accentuating a notion that the reality of past events is to some degree
determined by your own recollection. You might have to make a decision
about which of the two recollections to accept, which is part of the
overall game dynamic that the choices you make directly affect how the
story plays out.
Another relevant aspect is the presence and depiction of the indigenous
Tlingit culture. A key part of the story and scenery, the goal was to
“portray these elements respectfully and
responsibly.” The partnership with an indigenous foundation
“informed many other aspects of the game, including atmospheric sounds,
Tlingit-language pronunciation and spelling verification, and
information on customs such as funerary rites. We also commissioned Huna
Tlingit artisans to create the many Tlingit objects, murals and designs
that appear in the game.”
There is emotional trauma as well as family violence, a factor in the
pre-game statement referred to earlier. I haven’t found those elements
distressing, but again I wouldn’t want to presume how it might affect
any individual player. Be aware of the warning and proceed accordingly.
The game plays with a combination of the mouse and keyboard, the latter
being the dominant input. I did find it a bit fiddly at times, the more
so because some of the ways the interface worked you have to manage on
the fly, but it isn’t a big impediment. You do get some on screen
instructions, so just fiddle and you should be fine. It may of course
have been more about me.
You will learn how to recognise that there is a memory that can be
triggered, as well as how to zero in on it. You need to be in the right
place in the real world to ‘see’ it, and I found this aspect a bit
fiddly as well. Again it might have been more about me.
The WASD keys move you around, and as you explore, small circles will
appear on items that can be further investigated. Often you just look,
reading a bunch of stuff and/or starting a bit of introspection with
Tyler or Alyson. but you will also gather inventory items, and these
will be utilised where needed if you have them in your possession so
there is no inventory management involved. You can also find
collectibles, items which as far as I can tell play no part in the game
other than to add a reason to explore thoroughly.
A
couple of puzzles in this chapter involved interpreting and then
applying information, and I am aware that there was a quite involved
puzzle that was completely optional. There are also memories that you
don’t have to find, but each will add to the tapestry of the narrative,
as will exploring as fulsomely as possible. Your immediate objective can
be seen at the pause menu, but you will miss a lot if you just make that
your goal.
DONTNOD does this stuff well, and it looks and sounds good, the voice
acting standing out. It autosaves at various points, and will take about
three hours. I understand there are two more chapters, and will come
back and give you a cohesive impression when I have played the others.
Chapter 2: Family Secrets & Chapter 3: Inheritance
Just under 9 hours all up and here we are at the end, in an epilogue in
which you play one of the twins depending on some choices you made. It
also features a variety of different details depending on other choices
you made throughout the game (different photos for instance,) indicative
of the state of certain relationships.
While there is puzzling to be done, you can actually avoid a chunk of
it, even ignoring it altogether if pushing through with the narrative is
your main goal. I do think though that some of the detail in the puzzles
as well as the things you can find if you rummage, rather than focusing
on the next objective, accentuated some of the narrative threads. Those
threads also added both breadth and depth, and helped to ground the
twin’s endeavours in a much richer and multi-layered world.
With respect to the narrative, I thought it stayed strong throughout, a
tad preachy perhaps here and there but worth the effort. It has the
capacity to surprise, and while you spend a fair bit of time watching
cutscenes, punctuated here and there by a click or two, I liked its
pacing. It encouraged a less busy interaction, in keeping with the
introspection and reflection of Tyler and Alyson’s digging.
If
you do hurry you might close some elements to further scrutiny. The
collectibles are perhaps the most obvious example; if you haven’t found
one when the cut scene triggers and moves you onwards, there is no way
back to go back and look again other than restarting from an earlier
chapter. I similarly got ‘ejected’ from one location before I had
completed one of the puzzles, which didn’t matter in terms of finishing
the tale, but if you like to do everything, take a cautious approach to
completing the current objective.
Which you can find in the menu, just by pressing the Esc key. Press
again to return. TAB is the other useful key, bringing up the Book of
Goblins, a compendium of homemade fairy tales and which fuelled the
twins early childhood adventures. It’s a neat item in its own right, but
it also contains clues to a number of the conundrums you encounter.
As
is often the case with these types of products, I did want a bit more to
do at times, and some of what there is just seemed to be there for that
purpose (the fishing might be an example). Having said that, there is a
lot to like in Tell Me Why, and while I will take a break from games
like this for a while, I will readily go round with the next DONTNOD
experience.
I played on:
OS: Windows
10, 64 Bit
Processor:
Intel i7-9700K 3.7GHz
RAM: Corsair
Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 32GB
Video card:
AMD Radeon RX 580 8192MB
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November 2022
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