What would you do if somebody told you that one day you would fight with you and it would be up to you to decide whether to lose yourself or not? Confused, aren't they? This is exactly what the game wants. Welcome to our review of Twin Mirror, the story-driven exploration game developed by Dontnod Entertainment, developer of Life is Strange!
With its Twin Mirror story and structure, it is both original and carries the effects of many traces we have played so far. Developed using Unreal Engine 4 game engine technology. I have reviewed the PlayStation 4 version of the game for you and I will convey my views about the game as much as I can.
I will enter the story from the end, without spoilers. Our character, Sam Higgs, is a reporter and journalist born and raised in the town of Basswood. Someone who wrote and drew in the Basswood Jungle, who spent his life in the small mining town. She leads a calm and peaceful life with her lover named Anna. With an article he published, the mine in the town goes into the investigation process and unfortunately it closes. When the mine closes, he becomes the hated person in the town. Meanwhile, when our character, who proposes to her beloved Anna, is rejected, all mishaps overlap. Sam decides to leave the city, leaving behind his best friend Nick and his little daughter, who considers himself an idol, and Sam disappears for two years. These take place before the part in which we are included in the game. Dontnod, which we know to be powerful with storytelling, strengthens the input in this way, allowing us to have an idea about Basswood. In addition, our main character, Sam Higgs, is a double person and an outcast individual. This is what makes the game branch and snag.
I think that the rest of the story should only be experienced by playing, and that every word I write will harm your gaming taste, and I dedicate the rest of the story to criticism. I need to state that; definitely the story is flowing. This story, which is built on the floor of the whole structure of the game, branches out from place to place and is shaped by your decisions. I must say that you can enjoy games like Alan Wake, Detroit: Become Human at every step while playing Twin Mirror. It never bores or overwhelms you and does not contain an episode where you get in the "Let me finish here and get rid of it now" mood.
Small town big problem
The narrative of this exquisite story is adorned with beautiful cinematics. The gestures and words of the characters are well written and drawn. Putting yourself in the shoes of Sam Higgs does not give you any extra difficulties to make your thoughts and decisions in this direction. In addition, the landscapes and music we see in the cinematic parts support these parts so that you can have an interactive movie experience. You solve various mysteries and puzzles by evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of having a double personality. When you collect enough clues in some sections, you go to a different section called "Mind Palace", go inside your head and combine the pieces.
In Mind Palace episodes, Twin Mirror becomes a completely different game. You can suddenly find yourself among the emotions you experience while playing any Sherlock Holmes game or watching a movie. In addition, your second personality, the second person, talks to you and helps you. Of course, you realize that they are causing you difficulties and trying to guide your decisions according to their own wishes. Here it all depends on your subjective opinion and the experience you have while coming to that part of the game. Twin Mirror, which makes you make difficult choices in some episodes and asks questions that make you think "Who you are" rather than the flow of the story, is really successful in this sense.
Graphics and section design have been very successful
The landscapes, visual design, and artistic side of the game are also pretty nice. I must say that I find the color palette of the game a bit pastel. It would not be a wrong interpretation if I say that he carries harmonious colors, far from very vivid colors and color contrasts, and that he kneads visuality with his philosophy. The landscapes he leaves you in in the cinematic parts and other episodes are just fine. It nurtures your art taste and imagination. Although it is really difficult to break away from the story, sometimes you want to stop and enjoy the beauty. It has 16 different scenes where you are dragged from one to the other. What you can see in a town shows you all of them in these 16 different episodes where the story takes you. The variety and number of episodes was too much to bore, too few to call.
The level designs and gameplay mechanics are also very satisfying. Each of the Mind Palace sections in Twin Mirror, where you suddenly dive into your mind, has different mechanics. Sometimes this can be an action episode where you escape from yourself and try to take control of your mind. Sometimes, there are sections of choice where you listen to what your reflections in a few mirrors tell you and continue on the path you find logical. These are the parts inside your head. There are also parts where he leaves you to different parts of the town of Basswood. Since it is a small town, there is no big map that you can visit in any part where he left you. Instead, there are carefully filled sections where you can learn something from all sides and introduce itself to you. Freedom on the map in this kind of game? Or is it that a more restricted map is quite rich? I leave the answer of your choice to you. I liked the richness of the department designs and the pleasure of learning something at every step.
Of course, there are minor roughnesses.
Let's talk about the loading screens, which are perhaps the only annoying point in the game. These loading screens, which I think have started to sink in our eyes with the new generation consoles, take a little long. I played the PlayStation 4 version of the game and did not use any SSD. The game, which proceeds with a completely artistic expression and design, keeps you on a black screen for about a minute and doing this often can damage your experience. I can say that I feel this easily while playing Twin Mirror. But he manages to somehow compensate for this with what he shows you in the rest. If loading screens are not an issue for you, you can skip this paragraph in your purchase preference.
In addition, there may be delays in loading tissues in places. In other words, for the objects displayed on your screen for the first time, lower quality textures are loaded first and then they are displayed in their original resolution. Meanwhile, there may be a blurring of the tissues. This is one of the problems that players may experience in many games developed with Unreal Engine 4.
I have to open a paragraph to praise the soundtrack of the game. The sound design of this game, which hosts dozens of great music that accompanies you in cinematic scenes and the rest of the game, is equally successful. Environmental sounds, intonation and emphasis in the characters' speech can affect your decisions with a small touch. I think it is very important that these are processed successfully in the game, especially for this type of games. In this sense, there is not much I can say for Twin Mirror.
Finally, let me also mention that the game offers you 8-10 hours of gameplay, depending on your speed of solving the puzzles. Of course, if you want to start the game again from each of the 16 episodes you played after you have finished, and if you want to see the results of different decisions and if you plan to finish the game at all ends, this period can be quite prolonged.
Long story short;
Twin Mirror is a game by Dontnod Entertainment, which previously told players "I can tell the story very well". For this reason, if you are looking for a game with a good story and a successful storytelling, I can recommend it to you.
I hope this article was useful for you. Stay with love and play, see you again in another review.
