Reviews Twin Mirror »Vortex
The French studio Dontnod Entertainment has grown significantly in recent years and is working on a number of projects. The psychological thriller Twin Mirror began in 2016 and was originally scheduled to arrive on the market much earlier as another episodic adventure. However, the three-part series eventually became one compact game, which, however, cannot obscure the episodic concept, the aging technology and the fact that the delays were obviously caused by various problems. Nevertheless, I am inclined to believe that the Twin Mirror is still worth noting, although you have to reckon with the fact that you will be forced to make a few compromises on this journey. Like the main hero of the game.
Twin Mirror combines many influences, and if you feel that its sources of inspiration are close to you, he will probably be willing to forgive him. The authors do not deny their handwriting, so when you look at the game and its mechanisms, you will say: “Yeah, this is what Alan Wake or Twin Peaks would look like if the developers of Life is Strange got involved.” Fortunately, the novelty is not only about trying to imitate the aesthetics and atmosphere of the mentioned patterns, but she was able to find her own path and identity. The main character of the Twin Mirror is journalist Sam Higgs, who returns to his hometown of Basswood after years. No happy reunion awaits him after years. He would never have liked to return here and hurt his old wounds if his best friend had not died, whose funeral would cause Sam to visit his homeland.
Basswood has an incredibly slightly dark atmosphere of an American small town, from where it is difficult to leave and even harder to return.
As you can probably imagine, the protagonist soon regrets his decision. The next day he wakes up in his room, has foreign blood on his shirt and remembers almost nothing. In addition, Sam suspects that his friend’s death was not an accident, as described by the police. And the locals are not very sympathetic to him. But the investigative reporter has already winded up the trail and with your help he has to unravel the local web of lies and intrigue and come to terms with the whole mystery. I can’t tell you more about the story, but I’ll tell you that it’s definitely one of the main drivers of the game, along with the script, dialogues and atmosphere. If you feel that you are attracted to such mysterious plots, you might like the Twin Mirror. Although I must say that at the same time the authors did not avoid a number of clichés, the conclusion itself got a little out of hand and the final may not culminate according to your ideas. A slower start can also be a problem for some. Since you finish the game in about 6 hours, it seems to me that sacrificing the whole first hour of some foreplay is a bit too much.
It is also necessary to accept the fact that Twin Mirror is a very funny game. Again, it is more of an interactive film than an adventure in the original sense, so most problems are solved more through dialogue than action. Forget inventory, collect items, combine them, or solve real puzzles. Most of the adventure passages take place here in the so-called memory palace, where Sam sorts out memories, assembles all sorts of clues, clues and evidence, and finally develops various theories. This may sound generous, but in reality it is a kind of mirror backdrop of a real location, where we compose various hypothetical moments into one continuous chain with the protagonist. Unfortunately, unlike Sherlock Holmes from Frogwares, for example, Sam can’t make a mistake. It is not possible for you to make a mistake, evaluate the situation wrong and come to the wrong conclusion. In addition, the investigation phases are very simple to banal, and a number of direct and indirect clues will guide you to the right solution. It is also not possible to omit a clue. Before opening a memory palace, you must always find and collect all the evidence, otherwise you will not move.
In the true sense of the word, you can’t even influence the plot too much. Although, as in other games from Dontnod, this is about elections and their consequences, and some moral dilemmas await you in the conversations, you are painfully aware that the story will unfold very similarly and you really affect people’s interpersonal relationships and attitudes. Usually, however, it is a matter of achieving the same goal, the only difference is the means or how you affect the environment. Similarly, with decisions you form your own personality, but at the end of the game I got the impression that it was also a bit decided in advance and I had to behave in some key situations, as the authors suggested. Your duality and bifurcation of the main character is also underlined by his alter ego, which enters the story from the very beginning, but with regard to spoilers, I can’t tell you more about his role and origin. However, it’s not a bad idea at all that Sam’s inner voice or the other self, if you will, has been given a personified identity that is increasingly aggressive in the real world.
Throughout the game, I couldn’t shake the impression that it had less playability and interactivity than I would have liked. But it was replaced by interesting characters. Basswood has an incredibly slightly dark atmosphere of an American small town, from where it is difficult to leave and even harder to return. Twin Mirror also excels in the film concept. The developers have great control over working with the camera, skillfully build tension and write meaningful dialogues. Dubbing or music are also worth attention. At the same time, the scenery itself has an interesting aesthetic and the fact that the Twin Mirror has a bit of archaic graphics as a portable child does not harm them too much. Dontnod wanted to deviate from more comic book stylization, but so far he does not seem to have had such success with realism and lacks experience. The graphics are bothered not only by jumping textures, coarser models or lack of details, but also bad faces and the traditionally bad lip sync.
On the other hand, especially in the second half of the game, some really amazing scenes await you, especially in the memory palace. As the authors begin to experiment more and unleash their imagination, their ingenuity becomes fully apparent. Nevertheless, the graphics are not what should determine the quality of the Twin Mirror, so I would complain about two other things on the technical-formal side. The title has a very poor detection of active objects, which is combined with the need to always find all things, or procecute all people very clumsy. Even if you see that the subject is active, sometimes you feel like you are playing the first video game in your life, trying in vain to aim at the right point so that you are prompted to press a button. The second more serious reservation is more logical. Even if Sam finds himself, so to speak, in enemy territory, where he is not welcome and no one wants to talk to him or others threaten him, no one minds that you mess with their lumps, which they call home, and rummage through their belongings.
Despite this, I did not regret the time I spent with the Twin Mirror. The protagonist’s fragile psyche is a kind of reflection of the division of the developers themselves and their game. Great ideas and moments often alternate with bad ones, but the whole does not lack charisma and a deeper message. And because the competition in this field is not very big, I’m glad that Dontnod has brought the problematic project to a successful end. They didn’t make as much of a hole in the world as they had hoped, but stayed above mediocrity.
