la finca tell me why ain't nothin but a heartache

Something I always dislike in these kinds of games is when they end with a choice, rather than a consequence. I think it's the best story Dontnod has done yet, with a far stronger ending than Life is Strange 1. But I haven't played Chapter 3 yet, so I'll see how I feel after that. But I think this style of writing is what will keep it from really burrowing down inside me the way the best kind of art does. Like I said, I really like Tell Me Why and I'm not trying to shit on it at all. I guess you can say that TMW isn't intended to be put you through the wringer like TLOU2 does, but, I mean, it's a game about two kids who killed their mother, y'know? Trying to keep it light when the subject matter is so inherently dark just doesn't really work for me. I can't help but be reminded me of The Last of Us 2, which shares a number of themes with TMW, but is a far more raw, unflinching approach to young adults dealing with brutal trauma and I found the game far more emotionally effective for it. There's no trauma so great that picking the right dialogue choice and seeing the happy icon appear at the top right of the screen can't solve before the end of the episode. When one of them comes out with a line like 'I was hurting and I didn't feel like you heard me' they just feel like caricatures. These characters don't sound like young adults from rural Alaska who've had their lives ripped apart by a traumatic event they talk like you'd expect TV show teens to talk in a therapy session scene. I'm not crazy about the writing, though, specifically how sanitized and clinical it can feel when characters open up to eachother. It's a lovely looking game, too, and when they stretch their cinematic chops I find it really impressive the intro cutscene of Chapter 2, the slow-mo musical montage of the twins playing around their house as both adults and children was amazingly well done. I really like the twins and I love the whole premise of the creepy twin connection mixed with some fairy tale styling. It's easily my favourite of Dontnod's interactive storytelling stuff since the first Life is Strange.

I finished the second chapter yesterday after getting sidetracked with other games, and I really like this.

La finca tell me why ain't nothin but a heartache