#dontnot

+ 2 edits:

fixed hospital scene =D

Developed by DONTNOD

Published by Bandai Namco

Release Date 2020

Tested on Xbox Series X

MSRP 29,99 USD

Homecoming and mystery, the perfect mix for all-out no-holds-barred adventure…if it works though.

DONTNOD holds a special place in my heart (and mind) for I see Life is Strange 1 & 2 and Tell Me Why as the outstanding examples of narrative-driven stories, world- and character-building ability of DONTNOD surpasses every other title in this genre and Life is Strange comes up frequently whenever I am on hunt for my next story-rich choice-based game. And now, here is Twin Mirror, the ACTUAL next game from the creators of Life is Strange, my expectation and anticipation were pretty high due to the benchmark set by Life is Strange.

If you’re already familiar with LiS, Twin Mirror will feel just like it, it is narrative-driven game with semi open-world environment, the game dictates a linear and pre-determined path to the player pretty much, there are no side / optional quests, basically you stick to the main plotline leaving zero room for digression. Even though LiS and Tell Me Why are also linear, Twin Mirror, for some reason I cannot put into words, feels even more linear (linear-er, is that a word?), let me draw an example, when you, as Samuel, exit the pub and on the street, you are forced follow a strict path, you cannot divert from it, and you cannot exit the street you are in even though you can see that Basswood, the town you’re in, is much bigger than what you are allowed to see, in other words you have extremely limited and restricted freedom in terms of movement.

Let’s get to the game. You play as Samuel “Sam” Higgs, an investigative journalist who returns to Basswood, a small mining town in West Virginia that you left behind years and years ago after you have published an article presenting dangerous working conditions and non-existing measures in mines, to attend Nick's funeral, an old close friend. You will take the role of a detective, search for clues, analyse and come up with scenarios. As I have underlined, homecoming theme works if the developers achieve to create a believable and genuine nostalgia and past for the protagonist, otherwise the flashbacks and background feel cheap and…does not strike any sentiments in the player.

The game opens with Samuel driving to Basswood, takes a short break on the road, looking at the town on a hill, which looks like a trekking area, shortly reminiscing at the olden days from afar, then gets back in the car and drives to the town.

Before going into more details, I will shortly mention three-section menu in the game, which are:

Investigation, People and Stats.

Investigation is the screen that breaks down what take place and what is your next thing to do in a location, for instance, “You have talked with X and gathered information, now visit Y” etc etc, you get the idea. Most of the times I felt weak as the player thinking that “the game should not tell me what to do next immediately, I should at least spend some time to figure out my next move, this is so guided that I don’t need to come up with any ideas, it tells me what to do”.

People section showers us with short paragraphs consisting of background info about characters, basically this is where you read entries regarding people you come across, and these entries will expand over time as you go and make choices. There is a sub-section as well, called Memento, here we view items and objects that a character is attached to or hold extreme value for it, this can be a painted glass jar for Kathy from her daughter, a bar sign for Nick, or a licence plate for Dennis. For me, this section tries to humanise the people we are familiar with a bit more, making (or at least attempting to) them slightly bit more third dimensional.

Stats is where you can find statistics about what percentage of players made a specific choice.

Now I want to dive into mechanics and flow of the game, the game relies upon interactions with objects and items to move forward the narrative, such as a door, a character’s bicycle, a poster, an informative billboard, an arcade machine Samuel and Nick played on in the past, a drum kit in the pub and a newspaper announcing Nick’s death. All these objects are meaningfully located in the world, this is really not a “gotcha” mechanic, when you go into a pub, you catch a glimpse of newspaper around, Samuel picks it up, reads the obituary of Nick. This is a totally optional interaction that you as the player bump into while exploring the world, it is not forced to your face by nature and I prefer it this way. This mechanic allows the narrative to grow organically.

When you are in conversation with a character, the dialogue is in motion and it is choice-based. You decide how to continue or stop the dialogue and will be faced with drastic choices, such as running away or confronting the owner of the pub after you break in. During conversations, Samuel experiences inner dialogues which freezes time and transfers him into his Mind Palace, which is an over-the-clouds and radiant place where Samuel constructs or re-evaluates old and new events. 

The core element of any mystery game is, by definition, is the investigation process. Here, the investigations are not choice-based at all, meaning that trial-and-error method you attempt to come up with the right scenario with the clues you find in the vicinity. For example, for your first investigation you go back to the pub as soon as you find your shirt blooded in the morning, you connect and collect all the leads and you re-create what took place last night. 

Investigation process fells plain and tasteless for the most part, for instance we search for evidence and tips in the crime scene for a murder, the player basically looks around and checks highlighted objects one by one until you stumble upon the ‘correct’ one and the protagonist, Samuel, conveniently re-constructs the event for you automatically, in the end it doesn't feel as rewarding I hoped it to be. This is the key aspect in a game where you are solving mysteries and playing the detective, the element of intrigue in mystery games is what keeps the player going, making the player curiouser and curiouser, and how all it will unfold in a well-developed pace. The game does not allow us to pick a different road, there is only one outcome of every investigation, which renders choice-based dialogues useless and meaningless. What I would like to is that, the players would pick different paths in these investigations and let the game branch out to opposite directions. Clearly, straightforwardness and the lack of actual freedom in the main mechanic put me off and I stopped playing after two hours, at the end of which the foremost investigation took place yet again did not spark any joy or interest in me, sadly.