Tell Me Why Episode 1 Review (Video Game, 2020)

content warning: violence against women, violence against children, transphobia, foul language

Tell Me Why is an episodic adventure game from Dontnod Entertainment. This is the studio that developed Life is Strange and Remember Me. They have some specific themes and a mechanic they really like exploring in their games. Their beautifully animated adventure games are about the power of memory, suggestion, and time.

In the first episode of Tell Me Why, we meet Tyler and Alyssa. They are twin siblings who were separated 10 years ago by the courts. Their mother, Mary-Ann, was struggling with mental wellness problems and attempted to murder Tyler; Tyler stabbed her in self-defense and was sentenced to a youth rehabilitation center. Now, Tyler and Alyssa reconnect in person to sell their childhood home and get closure for the tragedy that defined their lives.

The story of Tell Me Why is full of incredible twists and turns. Tyler and Alyssa are trying to remember what happened 10 years ago during a dark and stormy night. They quickly learn their their own perception of their relationships with their mother and their hometown are very different from each other. People Alyssa trusts implicitly are people Tyler chooses to actively avoid and vice versa. They have only a few core details that agree on, which are secrets to the rest of the world.

Dontnod loves a novel memory mechanic to drive the exploration of theme and fill in the gaps in the core mysteries of their games. Tell Me Why has two that work beautifully.

First, Tyler and Alyssa are that kind of twins. You know the kind I mean. They have their own secret language. They share thoughts, feelings, and emotions. They can also speak to each other in their minds, holding private conversations in public that no one else knows about.

Second, they can physically recall their memories. Tyler or Alyssa will see a glowing pattern of orbs when they’re together, allowing them to replay their memories like a video. It’s a hazy, pixelated vision of the past, but one that let’s them uncover secrets like a missing key or long-forgotten arguments.

The conflict starts to build between the two when they realize their memories are not identical. When it first happens, you get to see both versions of the memory. Maybe it’s some small detail like exact wording that is different. More likely, it’s that Tyler and Alyssa remember the people they like more as being infallible while the people they don’t like are consistently monstrous in their behavior. You as the player eventually have to commit to which version of the memories is real.

Tell Me Why is a story about identity. Tyler is a trans man. His sister Alyssa accepts him with no hesitation; their mother did not. The three of them lived in a remote house across the river from the small Alaskan town they had to rely on for supplies. They were already outsiders because of Mary-Ann’s liberal politics. When Tyler returns home, he learns that he had good reason to be worried about the town’s reaction to his real life.

Here’s the thing. From meeting with the Dontnod devs in the past, I trust them to tell this kind of story without hesitation. They care about inclusion, equality, and justice. They want their stories to reflect not necessarily the real world but a version of what the real world should be. They will tackle issues of abuse and cruelty without forcing the player to do exploitative acts of emotional labor.

To be candid, a major part of the mystery in Tell Me Why is transphobia. Tyler and Alyssa believe Mary-Ann tried to kill Tyler because he cut his hair short. She followed him with the gun after seeing the haircut. They don’t want that to be true, but it’s what they remember. As the story progresses in Episode 1, the twins are looking for any evidence that proves what happened that night. Their mother was always abusive, but they really do want to believe that their mother didn’t grow to hate her child because of who he truly was.

The only minor drawback for me is that I wish there were more interactive elements in the game. The nature of the memory mechanic means a lot of the story is told through cutscenes. You can move around and control the camera angle, but your actions do not actually impact the gameplay. Sure, moving will alter the directional audio, but you still get the same story. I’m sure there will be more branching narrative choices in Episodes 2 and 3, but Episode 1 really exists as the exposition of the game and a very well paced tutorial.

Tell Me Why Episode 1 has an excellent story to tell. I had to force myself to take breaks just so I didn’t sit in front of my monitor for almost three hours straight, nose to screen, trying to find out everything I could. I am pacing myself on my first run on the game, but I could easily see myself sitting down and playing the entire thing straight through in the future.

Tell Me Why Episode 1 is available on Xbox One and PC. It’s also available through Xbox Games Pass.

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