Double Mirror Review
need to know
What is it? A psychological mystery set in a small West Virginia town.
expect to pay £28 / $37
Developer don’t nod
Publisher don’t nod
audit date i5-2500K, 8GB RAM, GTX 670
multiplayer game? No
Associate dont-nod.com/en/projects
release date Come out now
With Twin Mirror, Dontnod leaves time travel, telepathy, and mind reading behind, shedding the supernatural themes of previous games and turning it into a psychodrama with roots. A story of mystery and intrigue is fine in Dontnod’s wheelhouse, but unfortunately, the studio’s first self-published game is a bit lackluster. It starts off as a great detective mystery, but its reluctance to delve into difficult topics is a big problem.
Twin Mirror follows former investigative journalist Sam Higgs back to his hometown of Bathwood, West Virginia. After two years as MIA, Sam’s visit is far from a celebration. He was told his best friend and fellow journalist Nick Waldron had died, so he stopped by at the funeral to pay his respects. As Sam begins to explore his childhood home, he becomes involved in a larger conspiracy involving the death of his friend and the community of the mining town, and decides to pursue the case to the end. This town isn’t Sam’s biggest fan. Before he was released on bail, he wrote an article exposing a lack of safety measures at the local mine, which closed down, causing many job losses and anger.
(Image credit: Dontnod)
Judging by the opening hours of Twin Mirror, it’s clear that Dontnod has perfected the art of laying the groundwork for the mystery.Before you attend the wake, Nick’s daughter and Sam’s goddaughter confide in him that she thinks she has something to say about her father’s death LeaveYou are introduced to the residents of Basswood shortly after, and as you start chatting with the locals, the idea that a conspiracy has spread in your brain and your investigative hat is firmly covered. It’s a great setup, the stage is set and you’ve met all the players, so it immediately gets you thinking about who can participate and why.
For the first hour or two, I was really excited to unravel the mysteries of this town. I also love the beauty of the basswood, and this mining town has an underwhelming West Virginia charm that makes exploring everywhere fun. Its dingy dive bars, mountain viewing decks and cheap hotel rooms are filled with information about basswood residents and the hard times they’ve been through. It paints a perfect portrait of a struggling town where community matters.
(Image credit: Dontnod)
Detective work is similar to exploration in Dontnod’s previous games. You enter a new area and need to walk around inspecting objects and looking for clues. This mechanism works especially well when you’re getting to know the town, examining posters, and looking at photos hanging on bar walls, but it’s far from simplified when it comes to gathering evidence for your investigation. You always have to find the evidence in a specific order, which means you’ll be testing multiple laps of the same scene until you spot things at the right time.
After collecting enough evidence, Sam will enter his mind palace (including closing his eyes and thinking real hard), these sequences are one of the highlights of the game. The Mind Palace is where Sam can test his analytical brain and can use the evidence gathered to reconstruct several possible sequences of events. Examine the different timelines that Sam has envisioned, and you need to determine which one is real and choose one that accurately reflects how events unfolded. This can be anything, like a bar fight during a 10-minute brawl, or a car inexplicably veering off the road. Versions of this mechanic have been used in a lot of detective games before, but Twin Mirror’s version, where you build the scene out of broken glass, stands out.
(Image credit: Dontnod)
scratching his head
Despite the shaky evidence gathering, I jumped into the rest of the game excitedly to uncover the secrets of the sleepy town of Basswood. Unfortunately, the investigation never actually got off the ground – it barely took place. There is no crescendo or epiphany as you solve a case – the investigation just fails. There are a lot of story threads flying around, but none of them land. For example, Sam never really expresses his crime of destroying the town’s main livelihood. Even after his repeated encounters with angry citizens suffering from his decision, he never really got involved head-on. Is it right to tell the truth at the expense of people losing their jobs? The game sidesteps a tricky question.
Never explore these topics beyond the surface, which pretty much sums up Twin Mirror. In Sam’s Palace of Mind, he sometimes shows guilt and empathy for his wounded characters, but they come in the form of tedious mini-games like running through empty doorways, saying “breath” to them, or trying to Find your twin. A lot of people.
(Image credit: Dontnod)
Speaking of our Mystery Man, Sam’s twin accompanies him throughout the game, but he only exists in Sam’s mind, providing another perspective on a situation. He differs from Sam in that he is more socially aware, trying to keep his physical opponent out of trouble and helping him navigate tricky conversations. He was there at the crunch time, and the player’s decisions were meant to affect the rest of the game. However, after trying different paths, I didn’t notice much difference.
Many of the fears I expressed in the Twin Mirror preview had to do with the character’s performance. Thankfully, while doubles weren’t part of Jekyll and Hyde’s situation, Donnold was deliberately shy when it came to what exactly Sam’s doubles were. Throughout the game, Sam is torn between trying to be who he is and acting in a “socially acceptable way.” His other half tries to keep Sam from doing things the way he likes, and when his bluntness annoys people, he disapproves.
(Image credit: Dontnod)
Not only Sam’s bluntness is at odds with his stand-in. He also has problems reading people, sometimes putting the truth over the characters’ feelings, and battling with invisible social graces. Combined with his analytical mind, this makes Twin Mirror seem to suggest that Sam is on the autism spectrum, and his struggles with asserting his true identity and social integration permeate the game. While Dontnod’s portrayal of Sam eschews the condescending and grossly misleading tropes found in many media, certain story decisions make Sam feel like the ghost of the representation. Dontnod doesn’t commit to the idea, just hint at these topics rather than exploring them with insight and understanding.
There are some interesting ideas in Twin Mirror, but the game doesn’t spend any time digging into its challenging themes. The story of how we get along with others and the conflict between being authentic and being accepted has a foundation, but in the end it’s all hollow.
Twin Mirror feels like a string of scenes stitched together in thin narrative threads, ultimately a game that says nothing and lacks any commitment to the themes it coyly suggests. For a studio known for improving gaming performance with loud, clear sound, Twin Mirror was a misstep for Dontnod.
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