Tell Me Why

 Xbox One
User Score
5.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 292 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 145 out of 292
  2. Mixed: 42 out of 292
  3. Negative: 105 out of 292

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  1. GamergodsFail
    Sep 24, 2020
    8
    Tell Me Why is an interactive game about twins having a unique super ability to share their thoughts, feelings and memories. More importantly, it's an eye-opening narrative experience on how transgenders or even gays suffer from domestic abuse, human rejection or other issues they face in society. It brings us a new perspective of such a sensitive matter, and it's just one story of many toTell Me Why is an interactive game about twins having a unique super ability to share their thoughts, feelings and memories. More importantly, it's an eye-opening narrative experience on how transgenders or even gays suffer from domestic abuse, human rejection or other issues they face in society. It brings us a new perspective of such a sensitive matter, and it's just one story of many to be told about mental illness, even if the pacing and blank facial expressions of this particular journey will sometimes take you out of it.… Expand
  2. SuperkenGaming
    Jan 2, 2021
    7
    Tell Me Why
    Twin Power
    Tell Me Why is a 7 and a halfhour 3 chapter long cinnmeatic adventure game where you play as two twins, Alyson and her trans twin brother tyler, the set up of the story is that tylers mom was going to kill him because she found out he wanted to be a boy, so he stabbed her in self defense, 10 years later youre released and reuniting with your twin sister. The main    Tell Me Why
    Twin Power
    Tell Me Why is a 7 and a halfhour 3 chapter long cinnmeatic adventure game where you play as two twins, Alyson and her trans twin brother tyler, the set up of the story is that tylers mom was going to kill him because she found out he wanted to be a boy, so he stabbed her in self defense, 10 years later youre released and reuniting with your twin sister. The main focus is understanding why your mom would try and kill you, reliving your memories with Alyson using your twin powers, not much gameplay here really, walk around, find memories, occasionally do puzzles, the only thing that’s going to keep you pushing is this unique story and its mystery, something dontnod is great it, you cant wait to start the next chapter thanks to its mysterious endings, even if the rest of the game is a drag.. and sadly it is.. Tell My Why’s biggest issue is its pacing, it has so many great story telling and cinematic moments, but so after the story is needlessly drug out to try and hit that 8 hour long number, I don’t want to be sifting through folders in a police station for 20 minutes, I don’t want to be sitting on a fairy just waiting for this ride to be over, walking around the house and figuring out what I can interact with to throw a sticky note on it… Tell Me Why’s story could’ve been told if half the time… it really is tough to get through thanks to these lengthy snooze fest sections…
    But ultimately its story pulled me through…
    I didn’t care much for this world or its characters, but I was after the same answers as tyler was the whole time, and in that.. Tell Me Why succeeds
    I give Tell Me Why
    a 7/10    … Expand
  3. AdamKronus
    Oct 2, 2020
    10
    An amazing game, with a touching story and that portrays well the dilemmas of a person facing a new world after actually meeting. It serves as a milestone for the presence of transgender characters in the game scene.
  4. Matias8654
    Nov 8, 2020
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Un juego muy en la linea de life is strage, pues es el mismo estudio. Lo único que talvez me hubiese gustado es el poder tener una visión del alma de la madre, pero de hay en mas muy disfrutable el titulo… Expand
  5. Xplocion
    Nov 18, 2020
    9
    The good:
    Narrative game of elections. Much Text. Nice graphics. Much to discover. Entertaining puzzles. Inclusion that doesn't feel forced. The decisions are not completely black / white. "Interpretive" endings. 1500 G "Easy" Achievements, 100% of the game can be completed in at least two passes). It's on Xbox Game Pass (you can try it out and finish it just by paying your membership).    The good:
    Narrative game of elections. Much Text. Nice graphics. Much to discover. Entertaining puzzles. Inclusion that doesn't feel forced. The decisions are not completely black / white. "Interpretive" endings. 1500 G "Easy" Achievements, 100% of the game can be completed in at least two passes). It's on Xbox Game Pass (you can try it out and finish it just by paying your membership).

    The bad:
    If yours is "Much Text", it is not a game for you. Situations of the pain of others ... If the story does not hook you, surely you will leave it halfway.

    Meh !:
    This game despite its high sentimental load and inclusion does NOT feel forced, they did not make a fool of themselves with false campaigns of belonging to something or marketing campaigns of "you're going to cry and the feelings and emotions" (like The Last of Us 2 or Last Guardian)    … Expand
  6. Ismy
    Apr 2, 2021
    8
    Dontnod has developed a game full of sweetness and a story about different themes, with a great attention to the Transgender thematic.
  7. gkeeganofficial
    Sep 14, 2020
    6
    Tell Me Why is the next game from Dontnod Studios: the creators of the Life is Strange series, one of my favorite videogame series of all time. As with these games, Tell Me Why features a choice-based narrative with supernatural elements and taking a deeper look into the main characters' lives, personalities and minds. Something few games are doing nowadays. I was excited for this game,Tell Me Why is the next game from Dontnod Studios: the creators of the Life is Strange series, one of my favorite videogame series of all time. As with these games, Tell Me Why features a choice-based narrative with supernatural elements and taking a deeper look into the main characters' lives, personalities and minds. Something few games are doing nowadays. I was excited for this game, expecting a heart-wrenching yet beautiful story and being forced to make difficult choices. However, the final product left me very disappointed.

    I tried not to compare Tell Me Why to Life is Strange, but it was hard considering the studio's legacy and how high they set the bar with those games. This game is the story of Alyson and Tyler Ronan: two twins who after a tragic accident have to be separated at a young age. When they are reunited a decade later, they start to unravel secrets of their past that change the entire perspective of their lives.

    As with Life is Strange, there is a supernatural element to the game. The twins have the ability to remember things that happened years ago watching them play out in the present. This is something that looked cool in the trailers, but in the game it is extremely boring and doesn't really do much. They also have the ability to talk to each other through their minds, this is an something that you only get to use two times in the entire game. And it is completely useless. The dialog choices and story are extremely linear, there are absolutely no difficult decisions that you have to make.

    The technical aspects of the game were bad. The conversations and interactions felt insanely videogamey and unrealistic. It was a massive downgrade from. Basically Tell Me Why is like playing through a 9-long hour cutscene. I got so bored towards the end that I started making all the wrong and intense choices just to make the game more interesting. And still nothing much happened in the story.    … Expand
  8. Random_DS
    Sep 15, 2020
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Well... The game isn't on the same level as Life Is Strange 1, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Not every game can be a 10/10. First of all, I loved the Book Of Goblins a lot. All the detail put into the art and the actual stories is awesome. I really cared for the story too, even though I always had a sneaking suspicion, that Mary-Ann wouldn't ever kill their kids. She seemed to be too caring of a mother to ever do that. But the ending still wrecked me. (R.I.P. Leo).I was afraid of Tyler being trans before release, especially after what The Last of Us 2 was. But this game didn't actually force the subject to be the main focus. He was just trans, because that's who he is. The story spent the exact amount of time on the subject it needed to. And Alyson was a well crafted character too. So they nailed that as well.
    The graphics and the world design is classic Dontnod, no complaints there either.
    Where this game stumbles though, is the execution. There was just too much of looking for stuff to advance the story. Besides, when choosing between the memories, it was clear the second or third time, that you have to always choose the one that belongs to the twin you're not playing as, if you want to get the "good ending", and didn't want to tear them apart. This made those moments a little tamer than they should've been. And the same is kinda true for the final decision on the dock. It just doesn't make sense to choose to stick to your original memory of Mary-Ann thretening to kill Tyler.
    Some people also found some dialog slow and unnecessary, but personally, I thought they were just like they should be in a Dontnod game.

    So it's still solid overall, kinda on the level of Before The Storm, or a tad lower. I would've given it an 8.5 if Metacritic would allow .5 scores in the user reviews. But it clearly doesn't deserve a 9, so I had to bring it down to 8.
    But anyway, I would still recommend everyone to try this game out. It's also on Game Pass, so there's nothing to lose there.    … Expand
  9. aelinae_g
    Dec 16, 2020
    9
    Très bon jeux de la société dontnod qui nous place dans une histoire autour de la transsexualités. Le scénario est intéressant et très bien mené.
  10. SergeantDan
    Feb 7, 2021
    9
    I have individually reviews on all 3 chapters varying in score because all of them have to be set and looked at separately and as a combined product. Combined they are a 9/10. If you would like to see what I think of each chapter their all in my bio. But in conclusion this game is an experience. The characters aren't forced. This is a new IP so nothing comes out of left field. It justI have individually reviews on all 3 chapters varying in score because all of them have to be set and looked at separately and as a combined product. Combined they are a 9/10. If you would like to see what I think of each chapter their all in my bio. But in conclusion this game is an experience. The characters aren't forced. This is a new IP so nothing comes out of left field. It just works well the way they did it and it the characters can grow on you if you do the story right. There is a chance if you perform the story poorly you might hate who the characters become. But the way I did it I loved how everything came together.… Expand
  11. rohan002
    Sep 18, 2020
    9
    This is a surreal game. I like their approach of story telling. Maybe the game could have more choices & outcomes like Tell Tale games but I was so lost in the story. This game really deserves better ratings!
  12. lessacebola
    Sep 22, 2020
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A Dontnod nos surpreendeu mais uma vez, os gráficos tiveram uma grande melhoria comparado ao Life is Strange 2, a narrativa continuou magnífica, mais uma vez eles conseguiram tocar em assuntos "polêmicos e delicados" de uma ótima forma. O jogo tem alguns pontos fracos na minha opinião, a jogabilidade é um pouco bugada, existem muitos textos desnecessários que são meio que obrigatórios para continuar com a história, por fim, a telepatia entre o Tyler e a Alyson é pouco explorada no jogo e não muda quase nada nos momentos importantes.

    Mesmo assim o jogo é incrível e altamente recomendado pra quem gosta de uma história emocionante.    … Expand
  13. EnjoyGames
    Sep 25, 2020
    8
    My favorite part of this game is the story in chapter 3. It reveals who is the real mad hunter, which surprised me. It is not only a story about LGBT, but also about family and parenthood. It reminds me of the unloving mother in the movie "Ordinary People", which garnered 4 Oscars in 1980.
  14. elpatonocomepan
    Sep 27, 2020
    8
    el juego es bueno se podría decir un life is trange 3
    me dejo viseado y pensativo siempre un juego infaltable en tu catalogo de xbox
  15. SamThingElse
    Sep 29, 2020
    10
    This game is amazing! Seriously i love it! The story is great, i've fall in love with the twins, it has great representation. I like it so much i couldn't help coming here just to rate this positively. I obvously recommended.
  16. Nervuz
    Oct 25, 2020
    8
    Dontnod me dejo marcado con el primer Life is strange y sin duda alguna siento como si Tell me why fuera un paso maduro para sus historias, aun así, no deja de sentirse tedioso en algunos momentos del juego, sentirás que quieres adelantar mucho, pero aun con ese defecto, si llegas al final te encontraras con una gran historia y muy interesante plot que quizá te guste mucho o se te haga lasDontnod me dejo marcado con el primer Life is strange y sin duda alguna siento como si Tell me why fuera un paso maduro para sus historias, aun así, no deja de sentirse tedioso en algunos momentos del juego, sentirás que quieres adelantar mucho, pero aun con ese defecto, si llegas al final te encontraras con una gran historia y muy interesante plot que quizá te guste mucho o se te haga las cosa mas x del mundo, aplaudo este tipo de acercamientos por parte de desarrolladoras como Dontnod. Tell me why es una gran historia, pero no deja de sentirse que le falta algo mas para que pueda superar a Life is strange, pero hey!! esta en gamepass!! Dale una oportunidad.… Expand
  17. Rubisan
    Mar 28, 2021
    6
    Interesting in matters of inclusion but quite boring and slow... It feels quite real (it could be perfectly a real world story) and it has some positive and interesting things, but in terms of mechanic or action, you need patience with this one. In the end, I liked the characters and how they were growing up while living again certain memories of the past with an adult mind/perspective.Interesting in matters of inclusion but quite boring and slow... It feels quite real (it could be perfectly a real world story) and it has some positive and interesting things, but in terms of mechanic or action, you need patience with this one. In the end, I liked the characters and how they were growing up while living again certain memories of the past with an adult mind/perspective. But... it could have been much better in my opinion if a little bit longer, maybe? When I was starting to feel connected to the characters, I was already getting at the end of the game.… Expand
  18. Justicev8
    Oct 12, 2020
    10
    Great Game. Enjoyed it all along. Would recommend it to everyone who likes story Driven games in the life is strange steele.
  19. Sciza
    Dec 25, 2020
    9
    I loved this game. the plot is amazing and the choices are interesting, +the whole story about the goblin's book is incredible
  20. JEXICK
    Nov 25, 2020
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Muy buena historia y desarrollo de personajes espero no tarden tanto en sacar los capítulos que faltan… Expand
  21. Itsmaya
    Feb 4, 2021
    9
    A touching game with a great story and voice acting!
    If you like games that are like LIS or Firewatch I think you would love this game!!
  22. Sole_Survivor26
    Dec 30, 2020
    10
    Great Game, Cried a lot, loved the story, a fitting cousin to Life is Strange.
  23. HaktanT
    Jan 4, 2021
    8
    An incredible and mysterious adventure of two siblings by dontnod. Life is Strange 2 was one of my fav games as well, so when I heard about Tell me why, I got hyped real quick. And when the game out, it didnt dissapoint me as I expected. The cartoonish graphics, story, soundtracks and atmosphere were real good. I'd recommend it to someone who likes Story driven games.
  24. Jimmyw
    Jan 5, 2021
    10
    I dont understand all the hate just because the story has a trans character? what is this?? how old are people on this website... why does every single game that has something "out of the norm" get labeled "woke" and flamed to death...

    it was an insanely well told story and it kept a hold of me. I love games that, when I play them - hours and hours go by without noticing - and when I    I dont understand all the hate just because the story has a trans character? what is this?? how old are people on this website... why does every single game that has something "out of the norm" get labeled "woke" and flamed to death...

    it was an insanely well told story and it kept a hold of me. I love games that, when I play them - hours and hours go by without noticing - and when I don't play them, all I think about is when my next play session is. Very few games has done this to me - RDR2, TLOU 1 and 2, Detroit become human and Firewatch (wish it was 3x the length) and Tell me why. The premise, without getting into spoiler territory, is so intriguing. to me, the main char could be anything, Trans, Gay, Straight - whatever. Its the childhood trauma, piecing together where that trauma stems from, is everything as the main characters perceive nad remember?

    its a masterpiece in its own right and for the genre, it does absolutely amazing.    … Expand
  25. mlann
    Jan 27, 2021
    10
    there are so many people giving this game a 0 SIMPLY because this game features a trans character. I believe this type of representation is SUPER important, but this story doesn’t just get representation.. the score, the graphics, the story, the gameplay, all great in my opinion.
  26. Ray6701
    Dec 20, 2021
    10
    Awesome game it's amazing and interesting to me and incredibly cool and great graphics
  27. amansavant
    Jun 11, 2021
    10
    This games has some of the deepest and well defined characters in any games and u can relate with the person you playing as so well the story is amazing and anyone will have a great time playing this and the puzzles are also nice
  28. Alanbdjdjdhd
    Jun 16, 2021
    8
    Me gusta demasiado la historia de Tell Me Why lo único que no me gusta es su gameplay lo deberían de mejorar para siguientes entregas con esas mejoras sería el mejor esclusivo de Xbox
  29. Farbodltu
    Jul 2, 2021
    10
    The story is just so beautiful but gameplay is ao slow but i enjoyed playing this game
  30. Xbox_Alive
    Sep 14, 2020
    7
    Tell Me Why is the latest narrative adventure game from DONTNOD Entertainment, the studio behind the beloved franchise, Life is Strange. In this intimate mystery, reunited twins Tyler and Alyson Ronan use their supernatural bond to unravel the mysteries of their loving but troubled childhood. Set in beautiful small-town Alaska, Tell Me Why features true-to-life characters, mature themesTell Me Why is the latest narrative adventure game from DONTNOD Entertainment, the studio behind the beloved franchise, Life is Strange. In this intimate mystery, reunited twins Tyler and Alyson Ronan use their supernatural bond to unravel the mysteries of their loving but troubled childhood. Set in beautiful small-town Alaska, Tell Me Why features true-to-life characters, mature themes and gripping choices. As you conjure up memories of the past, your choices will affect the twins’ relationship, determine the strength of their bond, and shape the course of their lives. Tell Me Why unfolds across three chapters, all of which released the summer of 2020 and allows 3 chapters of gameplay to enjoy. This is quite an unusual game ad it's either going to be a love or hate experience for players, just make sure to give it's fair shake when you finally tae the time to sit down with it on your Xbox One.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

43
#43 Best Xbox One Game of 2020
12
#12 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 45 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 45
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 45
  3. Negative: 0 out of 45
  1. GamingBolt
    Oct 31, 2020
    80
    When all is said and done, though Tell Me Why doesn’t necessarily disturb the established Dontnod template too much, it executes it well enough that that doesn't ever seem like an issue. Excellent characters, strong writing, and a deeply personal plot help the player connect with the story. In the end, that most criticisms of the game can be boiled down to “I wish I had had more time to spend in its world and with its characters” should, ultimately, be all that really needs to be said about Tell Me Why.
    Read full review
  2. Atomix
    Sep 17, 2020
    75
    Tell Me Why tells a compelling story with some of the most memorable characters in videogames of recent years, but the narrative sometimes feels rushed and some of its best moments feel a little bit too short.
    Read full review
  3. TheXboxHub
    Sep 15, 2020
    90
    Tell Me Why on Xbox One is DONTNOD's strongest game to date. It is quiet, introspect, mature and superbly written and performed, with visuals that are easy on the eyes - the novel release approach also helps things. There are still some factors holding it back from perfection, but I sincerely hope this is the start of a great partnership between Xbox and DONTNOD, as I feel this game is a perfect example of the type of content Game Pass is perfect for delivering.
    Read full review
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