 Hello there, folks! I'm Philip Magnus and today I'm here to talk to you about, tell me why, the latest from Dontnod Entertainment. Back with another narrative adventure game in the vein of Life is Strange, the 2015 supernatural romping small town America that churned out the franchise. What I love about Dontnod is they aren't afraid to examine social issues. In fact, the studio has a fairly good track record in terms of sensitivity in its handling of racism, for example in Life is Strange 2. There were some issues, particularly in Episode 4, but overall, it was more good than bad. Tell me why shares that DNA, and it does so with pride. Alas, it shares also some of the less glamorous elements of Life is Strange, the two main technical issues in the form of janky lip-syncing and audio glitches which showed up about half a dozen times in the span of the first episode. The engine is improved graphically. With the textures of fabrics, for example, crisp and nice, it cannot, however, support the wonky hair of one of our two protagonists, Tyler. The hair clipped more than once, in ways both funny and horrifying, to be fair. It's been five years since Life is Strange, and I struggle to understand why characters talking should look this unnatural. Is the engine bad for it? I don't understand much about animation, but you would think that. In a narrative game that involves plenty of talking, one of the first priorities would be to make certain that characters talking with one another looks as smooth and natural as possible. With adventures, however, live and die by more than just their animation, namely, story and dialogue. Tell me why it doesn't begin with the most inspired writing I've heard in a Don't Know Game, and lest we forget, these are the guys who came up with that infamous vampire line. What is glass but torched sand, delivered in the most dramatic fashion that I could never do the justice of? It gets better, however, much better about 10-15 minutes in. The relationship between Alison and Tyler, our two protagonists, carries the game, and once the two of them move on from the awkwardness of not having seen each other for ten years, we get a pretty solidly written story. I should probably give you the backstory at this point. Ten years ago, something happened, and twins Alison and Tyler were separated. Tyler was institutionalised because he killed his mother, went after him with a shotgun after Tyler cut his hair, so the story goes. If this sounds a strange reason to go off on your kid, the twist here is that Tyler is trans, and that's the reason that Marianne, the twins' single mother, supposedly went crazy over. We see parts of this event throughout, in flashbacks which reveal the pieces of a puzzle that takes on what is a very intriguing shape by the end of this first episode. You play as both Tyler and Alison throughout different chapters, and the decisions you make with one will affect your relationship with the other, which I approve. What I dislike a little is that this first episode didn't have all that much in the way of decisions that felt like they truly mattered. Not compared to the Life is Strange games. What offsets this is the existence of puzzles. Fairly simple ones, to be fair, but more engaging than any of the rudimentary point-and-click elements in Life is Strange. There's a supernatural element as there always is in Don't Knots narratives, and I really like it. The twins have a bond which allows them to share each other's thoughts and feelings, as long as they're not too far away from one another. When Tyler was institutionalized, for example, the two of them couldn't hear each other anymore. The second part of this bond is the ability to see memories clearly, like so. Pretty neat, eh? Hinted at is also something a lot darker, even sinister. But I shall save that discussion for the spoiler review, hopefully coming a few weeks from now. Once all three episodes are released and I have wrapped my head around them. Tell me why tells a story that's a lot more personal than the one stole in Life is Strange and its sequel. The world is tighter, more laser-focused, self-contained. Tyler's transition and identity are handled with grace and care, and I'm well pleased with how they have managed in that aspect. Some choices come across as important. Picking between how Tyler remembers an event versus how Alison remembers it, for example, offers an incentive to replay the game a second time, as do a few other options. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for all dialogue choices. Once or twice, I came across a response that fit both of the available choices so well that if I were to replay the scene in question with the other choice, I'm certain I'd get that very same response I got the first time around. What I do love is that Microsoft decided to expedite the release of Tell Me Why. Unlike Life is Strange, some episodes of which dragged on over way too many months. The three episodes of this title go online once a week, three weeks in a row. It's a shorter game as well, which again makes for that tighter experience. Major cut-outs for that, as this actually feels like a proper mini-series, if you will, more than any other of these narratives we've played. You can do more with the dramatic tension too when you know what you'll be able to revisit just a week from now with the characters that you are growing more and more comfortable with. Despite some technical issues and a few examples of sloppy writing, I'm very excited to continue Alison and Talis' attempt to figure out exactly what happened that night 10 years ago. I hope the rest of the journey will be as pleasant as this first episode was, as well as doubt some of the issues, at least will be cut away by the end of the third episode's release window. Thank you guys for watching. If you enjoyed this video, please like it, share it, subscribe. Please subscribe. Subscribing makes me happy and don't forget to leave a comment down below. Tell me what are you thinking? Do you think you'll enjoy the game? Is it the kind of experience you're after? I'm very much into narrative games as well as all the strategy and action stuff I play on the side. Good narrative writing makes for some of my favorite experiences amongst them. Life is Strange, the original one. Tell me what you would like to see next as well. Any games you'd like me to cover? Any thing you will be interested in my opinion on? I'm thinking of trying to take some requests. Yeah, because that might be fun. That might get me out of my comfort zone. So by all means, leave your requests down below. Until next time, I'm Philip Magnus. Bye! Hence the supply run. Oh, right. Well, we'll get you set right up. It must be nice to be home. Uh, I'm not sure nice is the word for it.