Some of the investigative aspects of the game where you have to gather enough clues to provide an hyphosis on what happens during certain events in the game took a while because there is not enough of a helpful prod to point you in the right direction if you feel lost like I did at times. It also features some rather clumsy gameplay mechanics and design choices that took a bit for me to wrap my head around. In Twin Mirror, although admittedly a tonally different game, while I was still looking to get the best possible ending I could get, I otherwise didn’t feel enough attachment with the characters and the relationships they have – in fact, the relationship between Sam and his imaginary alter ego The Double feels somewhat like a caricatured representation of autism, not helped by scenes near the end of the game – to the point I didn’t care if they lived or died. When I didn’t do enough to save her in my main playthrough after saying the wrong thing, I legit screamed out in terror because this was a character I cared for and sympathized with for what she went through. To use an example within Dontnod’s catalog, there’s the situation involving Kate from the end of episode two of Life is Strange. And certainly not to the point where I would legitimately feel horrible if something suddenly happens to a character I connected with. It is inconsistent and at times somewhat incoherent too.Īnd as a game that is built around the choices you make, there doesn’t feel a whole lot of serious stakes to the decisions that are made within Twin Mirror.
And if you played the original Life is Strange, that’s saying something (and I say that as someone who has Life is Strange 1 within their list of top ten games ever).
It also doesn’t help that Twin Mirror’s story has serious gaping holes in its storytelling as well as some very cringy dialogue at times. Its story of journalist Sam Higgs coming back to his hometown two years for his best friend’s funeral only to then fall upon a massive murder mystery that evolves into something more as it progresses is lackluster and very, very uncompelling. In fact, Twin Mirror as a whole doesn’t even live up to what has come from the studio before in terms of its general quality from its episodic narrative stuff like Life is Strange or in some aspects its action-adventure stuff like Remember Me or Vampyr (I can’t speak of Tell Me Why as I’ve not played it yet).
There is a section close to the end of the game that somewhat approaches that comparison in a way, but otherwise, it doesn’t meet those vibes I felt before its release last week and as a result, I regret giving the comparison. Back in the summer, I said there was massive potential in Twin Mirror in that it felt like French developer Dontnod Entertainment’s tribute to Twin Peaks, inspired by not only the initial looks at the game from its 2018 reveal and some of the cinematic inspirations it had, but also from a section towards the end of the first Life is Strange game that had the vibes of what Lynch created.
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