Twin Mirror

Twin Mirror's concise narrative and innovative detective gameplay is heartfelt and earnest, though the small-scale, personal story is left open-ended.

Like the game itself, my opinion of Twin Mirror is split. The story is enticing and imaginative, the characters are interesting and varied, the magic realism is even slightly more down to earth for a more mature vibe. But it is a game that tugs slightly too hard at the darkness - at the edginess - for its own good.

A dramatic, emotive and affecting interactive drama that shows Dontnod are still the masters of branching narrative and serious-minded storytelling.

Twin Mirror is in many ways the natural evolution of the Dontnod narrative adventure. It combines the reconstruction aspect from their debut, Remember Me, with the cinematic and narrative focus of Life is Strange. It is a very polished game, but it left me wanting more in a few areas and I didn't feel like I was having a true impact on the story's outcome. It will definitely appeal to genre fans but it never quite develops its own clear identity. Ironically enough, it feels like a hazy reflection of what it could have been.

The building tension and well-written characters make this small town mystery captivating, but it bites off more than it can chew in its rushed depiction of a man struggling with his mental health

Twin Mirror is a psychological thriller from DONTNOD Entertainment, the makers of Life is Strange and Tell Me Why. This is an atmospheric adventure that does a fantastic job at setting up the initial mystery and intrigue although it sadly loses much of that energy towards the end.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Twin Mirror is the rare game where I love the world, premise, and characters, but can’t actually professionally recommend it. The foundation was laid, but a good story needs more than just the building blocks. In hindsight, following Life is Strange‘s episodic model might’ve worked wonders here, as it would’ve bought Dontnod extra development time along the way. All throughout Twin Mirror, people complain that Higgs abandoned Basswood and won’t spend any time there. As it turns out, we need to spend more time in Basswood too.

I really wanted to enjoy my time with Twin Mirror. However, besides its beautiful presentation, the game lacks any of the substance that made all their previous adventure games great. Sam Higgs just isn’t an interesting enough character to get behind when most of his dialogue choices are whether he should be a dick or not. Dontnod and their games mean something to the people that love them, be it because of their characters or the themes they inhabit. Where Life is Strange and Tell Me Why soar, Twin Mirror simply flutters in the wind. It’s not a bad game, it just feels like so much wasted pote...

A psychological mystery that fails to go any deeper than the surface.

Twin Mirror is a frustratingly uneven adventure; it feels slow-paced yet ends too quickly, it features a wide cast of characters but doesn’t give them enough depth, and it presents you with crimes to investigate without letting you play much of a role in solving them. The back and forth between Sam and his double provides the odd enjoyably tense moment, and the mind palace sections at least provide a change of pace, but the overarching narrative doesn’t so much as gradually ramp up to a startling climax as skid and thud into a clearly signposted deadend. Outside of the eccentric influence of P...

Without a key mechanic to keep gameplay fresh, or even a story that's both fleshed out and well-structured, Twin Mirror fails to find any kind of hook beyond the fleeting intrigue in how it all ends. Even then, brief a run-time the game actually requires of its players, the conclusion is a far-cry from the studio's better works. Clearly there's a theme, maybe even a message, tucked beneath the downtrodden attire the game sports, but with such a rushed progression and lackluster attempt to develop both characters and setting alike, Twin Mirror's overall story is likely to fall by the wayside. D...

While Twin Mirror is Dontnod’s worst game so far, it’s still a somewhat enjoyable experience, especially for fans of their work. It’s a game that feels like it needs a redo, because while it presents interesting concepts, it doesn’t flesh out any of them.