The first Life is Strange featured a lot of teen angst with Max and Chloe in their Arcadia Bay adventures, all while Max had the ability to rewind time. The plot shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, since Dontnod is hardly a studio that backs away from telling these kinds of unique stories. Yep, Tyler is a transgender man and this is definitely the first time a video game has put players in control of a trans protagonist, but that isn’t all that makes him interesting. Alyson works at a convenience store doing what she can to make ends meet, while her brother Tyler had just graduated from a correctional program he was put in after murdering their mother following an unfortunate instance as she tried to cope with Tyler’s transition in sexuality. The game puts you in the shoes of Alyson and Tyler Ronan, twins from the fictional town in Alaska who are reunited after 10 years.

Tell Me Why brings us to humble towns within Alaska, where it’s the norm to leave on your car on a ferry and enjoy scenic routes. Spoiler Warning: I will mention specific instances in the first chapter, but each of them are fairly trivial and shouldn’t impact how players should progress through the story. It’s a linear, choose-your-own-adventure type of experience much in the vain of the games Telltale made popular with titles such as The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us.

Tell Me Why is very much cut from the same cloth of the Life is Strange games. Now with Tell Me Why, Dontnod looks to break even more barriers, and the minority American in me is ready for the ride. From the the friendship of Chloe and Max in the original series to the brotherly love between second-generation Latino-Americans in Life is Strange 2, the progressive world building and storytelling prepped by the Paris developer has been as “woke” as it gets. Say what you want about linear narrative experiences, but the work Dontnod has done with the Life is Strangeseries has been some truly captivating stuff.

Xbox looks like they have an exclusive winner in Tell Me Why, Dontnod’s latest narrative experience.

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