Test : Twin Mirror – Sur des rails

• Rather long loading times
• An uninspiring and generic plot
• Too short a lifespan
• Characters who lack life
• Very little interactive in the end

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Data Mining

Believe it or not, while writing that first sentence, I had to go look up the hero’s name in my notes. And yet it is a fairly versatile name, since it is called Sam Higgs. This good Sam is forced to return to the small town of Basswood two years after leaving her to bury her best friend Nick, a man loved and respected by all who would have taken an untoward exit.

Besides the tragedy of losing a friend, Sam is hardly welcome in town anymore since he had published an article two years earlier that led to the closure of the mining activity in Basswood, at the same time putting the entire local economy at half mast.

The very first part puts us directly in the bath since during a stop on the road, Sam will dive into his thoughts and we will quickly learn that he is not alone in his head. Sam is always accompanied by “His”, Another himself that one could qualify as an imaginary friend and who does not deprive himself to question the choices and decisions of his host. And that was an interesting idea.

“Him” appears to us at first as harmful, but very quickly, we feel that he only has at heart that Sam finally makes the right choices and rectifies his sad life. Because these two years away from Basswood completely cut him off not only from his best friend, from his goddaughter (and daughter of the latter) and even of his former love Anna. In addition to the embarrassing reunion situations, the hostility of some inhabitants and the somewhat overflowing affection of others. The stage is set, and it promises some twists.

The trigger will come from Joan (“Bug”) ”, the daughter of Nick, who is convinced that her father was killed, and asks his godfather to investigate to shed light on the whole affair. And on top of that, following the wake, Sam will wake up with no memory of the night, with blood on his shirt.

Un bel imbroglio drama against a social background that will make us lift all the filth of the city in the space of a few hours.

And this is where the shoe pinches.

DONTNOD has accustomed us to his episodic tales, which take the time to stop to listen to the sound of the wind or a tune of music, like so many breaks in a plot sometimes flirting with the supernatural, but always very intimate.

You might as well tell you right away: Twin Mirror doesn’t have time for all this, because it will only take you 4 to 5 hours to complete the deal. So yes, we have access to different outcomes following our choices during the game, but nothing that really justifies relaunching the story – unless you missed the “Happy Ending”.

The main concern of Twin Mirror, is that he lets himself be followed without much surprise. We navigate from one element to another, we launch memory sequences, we sometimes collect clues, we solve some puzzles and at certain times, we go to the “Mental palace”From Sam to take stock of the events.

We will have questions throughout the game, but they will all always be answered at best.. The circumstances of Nick’s death? Predictable. The identity of the antagonist? A worn-out cliché. The reason for the existence of “Him”? Sketched in a few moments at the end of the game.

However, the game has its own little moments, as some decorations, or interesting, labyrinthine or nightmarish sequences within the Mental Palace which crumbles over the course of the game, a crucial choice at the end of the game which will directly impact your way of approaching the final confrontation and strong themes such as job loss, disability, bottoming out, bereavement or flight from responsibilities … that does a lot of things in just a few hours.

Twin Mirror would have benefited from unfolding its universe more slowly, in a few episodes (three maybe?) and to make us know more about Basswoord and its inhabitants. Here every revelation falls flat, even in that of the identity of the killer, since we had only a few moments to get to know him.