Sam Higgs, a straight-talking to a fault 30-something guy is on his way back to his hometown, Basswood, after two years of ignoring those who were closest to him. Nick, his old best friend, is dead - car accident. Sam wouldn't go back to Basswood if Nick was alive, he believes he couldn't after all that he left behind. But something, or perhaps someone has convinced him to return one last time to pay his respects.
Your first interaction playing the protagonist is as he steps out of his vehicle onto the beginning of a hiking trail. Leaves cover the ground, sunlight trickles and trips through branches, and birds sing in the distance. I decide that the air would smell like vegetation that's transitioning to rot, not unpleasant just natural, while Sam strolls to an outlook above Basswood consumed in thought. It's a small town which built itself around a dangerous yet successful mine. A mine which has since become a wound - a dry, empty, ugly scar of the ground and an immovable reminder of golden years past.
The first scene explains some concepts you quickly get used to. Some objects have interactions, often Higgs just mulling a passive thought over, most of the time with some bittersweet tone. Reaching a tarnished telescope lets you go to your 'mind palace' for the first time and although the cringe term makes me want to curl up and die, the execution is pretty good.
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Sam's mind palace is made up of shattered glass and memories. Memories key to contextualising the story, but sometimes feel a little obvious. The game likes to hit you with a "Sam is sad because of all of this" type of a narrative rather than you figuring it out. Subtlety isn't a strong suit throughout the demo of Twin Mirror, but the rewards of trailing the obvious are enough that you put up with the occasional mundane musing.
This mind palace becomes a theme pretty quickly. Sam retreats from the world and focuses on using his mind to think over complex emotions or evidence and within the first couple hours of the game, it doesn't get old. New uses and new challenges appear within the structure, and although it's called a palace, I can't help but wonder if it's worth also calling it Sam's prison after certain sequences.
Although this is a Dontnod game, it almost feels like you're playing an episode of Mindhunter in the style of Control. Abstract imagery and surprisingly beautiful cinematography, combined with detective work you're genuinely curious about is plain fun. I've often found detective work in games to either make impossible jumps of logic like Grim Fandango or be too simple for the effort it takes to solve the case like in L.A Noire. Twin Mirror slides somewhere in the middle with enough hints for you to feel like you have a hypothesis, but not enough to make anything feel obvious and boring.
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I gasped, I really, truly gasped. Like sharp intact of breath, hand comically slapped over my mouth like a melodramatic actor gasped at one point during the preview. I also hid behind my hands while a terrible dread sunk talons into the back of my mind - dragging me kicking and screaming to look hard at the corners I didn't want to inspect. All the best detective work should feel like that, shouldn't it?
I cannot speak for the rest of the game, but there is something about the way Sam doesn't deal with his mental state correctly that resonates. Warning signs, bad habits, indulgences in a darkness that feels strangely real. Even if I have to bare pressing 'space' to retreat into a 'mind palace', the continuation of life as normal while you know there is something really, quite wrong with your brain is one of the more realistic interpretations of mental health in games I think I know of. It's this terrible predicament that seems to be holding Sam together - like a messy room. Horribly kept, probably unsafe, not at all good for you - but at least you know where that Phillips head screwdriver is when you need it. Misery becomes a necessity.
The biggest downside I can pin point is the writing and language. Although there are some great spoken lines, there are also some I screwed my face up at. Minor spoiler but Sam recalls proposing to another character before getting turned down. His response to her hesitation is "You look like I just ran over your grandma" which is, like, odd - who says that? Similarly when he's painted as quite cold and non-tactile, Sam saying the line "Time to adult" also feels profoundly out of place. Every so often dialogue takes a turn and my brain thinks "Hold up dude, did you actually just say that?" before shaking it off and carrying on.
Dontnod games have a history with this though. After replaying the first episode of Life is Strange recently, I remembered that the game wants you to know "hello fellow kids, hella is a cool word we promise we're actual teenagers". It's comforting to know the writing team still like to miss the mark just a touch every so often. It's like a little comfort blanket of conversational absurdity.
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Dontnod, in my opinion, has been struggling to capture the magic that Life is Strange breathed when it came alive. That game where it really felt like you knew the town, where you talked to the people and they talked back hasn't, as far as I know, touched its games since. If this PC preview is anything to go by, Twin Mirror could be a little bit of that magic again. I'm there, I'm in Basswood. I'm just as confused as Sam, I am just as frustrated with him as his ex is, and I'm struggling to juggle small-town politeness with malignity and murder. But I don't think I'd rather be anywhere else.
Twin Mirror will be available on the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in late 2020.
Featured Image Credit: Dontnod