After being impressed with the first little bit of Twin Mirror I have to say I was pretty underwhelmed by the end. It just increasingly felt rushed and also seemed to pull a bait and switch with it’s own mechanics. For most of the game You are allowed to use the mind palace to recreate what actually happened by testing out various possibilities until you find the correct combo of events. If you fail you just go to trial and error before you figure it out either through hints or luck. Not the greatest mechanic in the world and certainly could have been more fleshed out but still decent. Later in the game though you are not allowed to test run events, you have to take one shot at it and either get it right or not which leads to different outcomes. One one hand I can respect upping the stakes to create tension but at the same time the game spends time giving you expectations on how the central mechanic is going to operate only to change course at the end. I say the game felt rushed because the game seems to put together the pieces at a breakneck pace while failing to flesh out what led up to it or what comes after the game ends. I rarely say a game was too short but this game certainly felt that way. To top it off my favourite part of the game was exploring the town of Basswood but that section is limited to a very small section of the town and a single scene. My favourite character was Joan and that story angle also felt like it lacked a lot of meat on the bone leaving me wanting her to have a bigger role and a more defined ending for her. The game loved to introduce back story and characters and then give them too little depth and little to do. Overall though I can't say that the game was "bad". It was subpar and could have been better but no part was terrible. The graphics were decent to above average with the faces and vistas being the standout. There was a shot of Basswood from a lookout at night that was beautiful and the town itself was a very comfy area. The voice acting was well done as was the music. Other Don't Nod games could get by with a single game mechanic driving the game because they had stories that were much more fleshed out and deeper characters, Twin Mirror lacks those so the game play felt more hollow and shallow without something else to add to it. I also felt that none of the endings really felt like the ending I wanted or enjoyed. I also felt like the game didn't give me much in the way of choices where I could say that "these are the reasons I ended up with that ending". I felt like I got stuck with it with little in the way of choices I could have made to avoid it. I will give some credit to the lock puzzle as it had some good logic to it.

I played the game on Linux using Proton. Twin Mirror had a v-sync toggle, four AA settings, and four other graphics settings. The game had a couple technical issues. When I would first load a save the FPS would cap out at 60 FPS so I had to go into the settings, turn v-sync off, turn v-sync back on, and then it was fixed until the next time I exited and relaunched the game. There was also a scene that had a bit of flickering for a few seconds as well as some glitch with Sam's hair in the mirror early on for a short moment. I also didn't like how the cut scenes ran at 60 FPS where the main game ran at my monitor's refresh rate as it was a tad jarring at times. Overall the game ran very well with the frame rate never dipping under 116 while maxed out at 2560P. The game has an auto save system. I didn't have any crashes.

Game Engine: Unreal 4
Graphics API: DXVK
Disk Space Used: 26.8 GB

Game Settings: 2560x1440, Ultra, v-sync on, AA on Ultra
GPU Usage: 70-100 %
VRAM Usage: 3555-5120 MB
CPU Usage: 12-20 %
System RAM Usage: 5.2-6.7 GB
Frame Rate: 116-165 FPS

I thought that Life is Strange was fantastic, then I played Tell Me Why and thought it was decent but nowhere near as good as LIS, and now I have played Twin Mirror and am reduced to calling it subpar. Hopefully Don't Nod can improve going forward as they have shown they have a lot of talent in the past but are headed in the wrong direction in my experience. I finished my first play through of Twin Mirror in six hours and eighteen minutes. I paid $8.80 CAD for it. I find it hard to recommend it even at that price let alone it's standard price of $38.99 CAD plus tax. It just left me wanting and didn't explore the areas I did enjoy enough.


My Score: 6/10

My System:

Intel i5-12600K | 32GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | Asus RX 7800 XT 16GB | Western Digital Black SN850X 2TB | MSI Pro Z690-A DDR4 | Devuan 8 (Freia) | Dasharo 1.1.4 | Mate 1.28.2 | Kernel 6.17.9+deb14-amd64 | Mesa 25.2.6-1 | Open RC 0.63 | MSI G2730QPF 2560*1440 @ 165Hz | Proton 9.0-4

After being impressed with the first little bit of Twin Mirror I have to say I was pretty underwhelmed by the end. It just increasingly felt rushed and also seemed to pull a bait and switch with it’s own mechanics. For most of the game You are allowed to use the mind palace to recreate what actually happened by testing out various possibilities until you find the correct combo of events. If you fail you just go to trial and error before you figure it out either through hints or luck. Not the greatest mechanic in the world and certainly could have been more fleshed out but still decent. Later in the game though you are not allowed to test run events, you have to take one shot at it and either get it right or not which leads to different outcomes. One one hand I can respect upping the stakes to create tension but at the same time the game spends time giving you expectations on how the central mechanic is going to operate only to change course at the end. I say the game felt rushed because the game seems to put together the pieces at a breakneck pace while failing to flesh out what led up to it or what comes after the game ends. I rarely say a game was too short but this game certainly felt that way. To top it off my favourite part of the game was exploring the town of Basswood but that section is limited to a very small section of the town and a single scene. My favourite character was Joan and that story angle also felt like it lacked a lot of meat on the bone leaving me wanting her to have a bigger role and a more defined ending for her. The game loved to introduce back story and characters and then give them too little depth and little to do. Overall though I can't say that the game was "bad". It was subpar and could have been better but no part was terrible. The graphics were decent to above average with the faces and vistas being the standout. There was a shot of Basswood from a lookout at night that was beautiful and the town itself was a very comfy area. The voice acting was well done as was the music. Other Don't Nod games could get by with a single game mechanic driving the game because they had stories that were much more fleshed out and deeper characters, Twin Mirror lacks those so the game play felt more hollow and shallow without something else to add to it. I also felt that none of the endings really felt like the ending I wanted or enjoyed. I also felt like the game didn't give me much in the way of choices where I could say that "these are the reasons I ended up with that ending". I felt like I got stuck with it with little in the way of choices I could have made to avoid it. I will give some credit to the lock puzzle as it had some good logic to it. I played the game on Linux using Proton. Twin Mirror had a v-sync toggle, four AA settings, and four other graphics settings. The game had a couple technical issues. When I would first load a save the FPS would cap out at 60 FPS so I had to go into the settings, turn v-sync off, turn v-sync back on, and then it was fixed until the next time I exited and relaunched the game. There was also a scene that had a bit of flickering for a few seconds as well as some glitch with Sam's hair in the mirror early on for a short moment. I also didn't like how the cut scenes ran at 60 FPS where the main game ran at my monitor's refresh rate as it was a tad jarring at times. Overall the game ran very well with the frame rate never dipping under 116 while maxed out at 2560P. The game has an auto save system. I didn't have any crashes. Game Engine: Unreal 4 Graphics API: DXVK Disk Space Used: 26.8 GB Game Settings: 2560x1440, Ultra, v-sync on, AA on Ultra GPU Usage: 70-100 % VRAM Usage: 3555-5120 MB CPU Usage: 12-20 % System RAM Usage: 5.2-6.7 GB Frame Rate: 116-165 FPS I thought that Life is Strange was fantastic, then I played Tell Me Why and thought it was decent but nowhere near as good as LIS, and now I have played Twin Mirror and am reduced to calling it subpar. Hopefully Don't Nod can improve going forward as they have shown they have a lot of talent in the past but are headed in the wrong direction in my experience. I finished my first play through of Twin Mirror in six hours and eighteen minutes. I paid $8.80 CAD for it. I find it hard to recommend it even at that price let alone it's standard price of $38.99 CAD plus tax. It just left me wanting and didn't explore the areas I did enjoy enough. My Score: 6/10 My System: Intel i5-12600K | 32GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | Asus RX 7800 XT 16GB | Western Digital Black SN850X 2TB | MSI Pro Z690-A DDR4 | Devuan 8 (Freia) | Dasharo 1.1.4 | Mate 1.28.2 | Kernel 6.17.9+deb14-amd64 | Mesa 25.2.6-1 | Open RC 0.63 | MSI G2730QPF 2560*1440 @ 165Hz | Proton 9.0-4