It clocks in at about 6 hours of game time, which means the game has to pack in a lot of development in such a short amount of time. Unlike the first and second Life Is Strange and Tell Me Why, Twin Mirror is not an episodic narrative video game. Being able to get Sam to pick up a photo or investigate debris left behind from a car crash should not be as difficult as it has been.įinally, the way the story and characters progress in the game leaves a lot to be desired. This surprised me when Dontnod Entertainment should now be seasoned veterans at this kind of video game. For whatever reason pointing and highlighting an object in the game to interact with it is very clumsy and requires moving it just right to get the button press you need to activate it. Getting out of these parts of the game have been sheer dumb luck at times. I never know what to do here and Sam’s verbal hints on what to do aren’t as obvious. These sections, while stunning to look at even in its unsettledness, can be extremely confusing and frustrating. Sam would either be chased by dark phantoms and he has to find his way out by selecting a door to go through, or he’ll have to focus on imaginary twin Sam in order to get out of the mental hellscape he’s stuck in. When this happens Sam re-enters his Mind Palace but it’s a much darker and ominous place compared to when his mind is still and at peace. One of my biggest issues with the game came when Sam had his panic attacks. With all these elements at play, it should culminate towards an incredible gaming experience but it does stumble in parts. Aside from the Mind Palace, Sam is also occasionally assisted by his double or “imaginary friend”, a more self-assured and heart-centered version of Sam who appears to him during key dialogue moments or to help Sam focus whenever he finds himself having a panic attack. This time around Sam relies on the power of deductive reasoning by entering what’s called his Mind Palace, a strange and visually breathtaking mirrorscape to piece together how the scene of the crime happened, based on all the clues he gathers in the area.

Being that this is a Dontnod Entertainment video game you can almost always expect your main character to have some kind of unique power or ability to get them through the situation they’re in, and Sam is no different. Twin Mirror is a familiar and standard crime/murder story. While Sam is working through the ghosts of his past, he also gets pulled into investigating the death of Nick, suspecting foul play may have been involved instead of a tragic accident everyone is led to believe. Over the course of the game you learn Sam skipped town to escape the fallout from an article he published that cost many of the local miners their jobs, and a breakup with his girlfriend Anna after a rejected marriage proposal. However, Sam’s homecoming is far from warm and welcome for most of Basswood’s residents. Sam Higgs is an investigative journalist who returns to his hometown of Basswood, West Virginia to attend the funeral of his best friend Nick. When Twin Mirror came out on December 1st I was eager to check out what new adventure the studio behind Life Is Strange and the recent Tell Me Why will be taking players on this time. One of the developers who have been doing an impressive job of creating memorable stories and characters is Dontnod Entertainment. Interactive, point and click narrative video games are one of my favorite types to play, especially when key decisions in a game will shape how your story unfolds and ends.

Twin mirror game review