PS4 Review Code Provided by DONTNOD Entertainment
Making their first solo-publishing debut, DONTNOD Entertainment continues to push out titles that has players making decisions that ultimately affect the storyline of their games. This time, they put players in the shoes of investigative journalist Sam Higgs in their latest title Twin Mirror. After having experience with games this team has released before, I was pretty excited going into a game that they were able to put together without any say from an outside team. What we got, in the end, is an interesting title that was definitely worth its playthrough.
Story
After returning to the small town of Basswood that he grew up in for his friend’s memorial, Sam Higgs finds himself facing a new investigation on what secrets lie within his hometown. Was his friend’s death an accident or is something more sinister hiding behind the events? It won’t be easy, but the truth is worth uncovering for this reporter.
Gameplay
A lot of the time you will spend walking around different areas of the game looking for the various clues needed to put together an idea of what took place in each scene. You can come to the wrong conclusion, so be sure to go through all of your options once you have all of the clues and decide which one makes the most sense. These conclusions ultimately guide your overall investigation.
There will be plenty of moments when interacting with other characters that you have to pick how the conversation will go. While sometimes it is a mundane and not essential choice, there will be moments that saying the wrong thing can completely sway the attitude of the other person and their ability, or willingness, to help you. It isn’t always obvious when these moments will take place, so be aware of your choices along the way.
One big part of the game is what they call the “Mind Palace.” Now, I’ll admit that when I saw this in the trailers, I am not exactly sure what I was expecting, but essentially this is like Sam’s thinking area. It is a creative representation of where someone goes when they get lost in their thoughts and are trying to remember something or put something together. Some moments to go here will be optional, but when it comes to figuring out how the clues you find go together, this will be essential. It is also where your other consciousness resides and so there will be emotional struggles in this realm as well.
If you are in the Mind Palace and aren’t working on putting clues together, you are in for a unique moment of gameplay that differs from the rest of the game. Whether it is a challenge section that represents one overcoming an emotional burden or a strange maze-like setup that takes you through the moments of feeling lost as you look for clarity, these sections of the game are nothing short of interesting.
Visuals
While there isn’t a level of realism to the graphics provided in this title, there is enough reality placed within the scenes to give a resemblance to a proper CGI-style movie. For a game based on finding clues and making decisions, the art style chosen is a proper fit.
Sounds
All of the voice acting was pretty well done. Tie that in with a good mixture of sound effects to put each scenery together and I would say that they put care into the parts that really matter for this genre.
Replayability
When it comes to choice-based games, there is always replayability for those curious enough to see what happens when they make different choices along the way. I personally replayed the last chapter over again to see if my first instinct on what to do was better than the second-guessing options I went with; which they were.
What Could Be Better
If you are going to make this game all about investigating clues and putting scenes together to reach a conclusion, allow more room for the player to fail to put together all of the evidence. Too many areas wouldn’t allow me to progress without finding every little clue before coming to a decision. Just let me make a mistake unless there is no way to progress the story without figuring something specific out.
Conclusion
Twin Mirror is a pretty intriguing choice-based game with a good story. For those who enjoy the investigative-type games that have the story progress based on the choices you make along the way, I would highly recommend this title. There are multiple endings you can reach, even with the different choices you can make along the way, making it so that all the choices matter rather than just the last few handfuls.
