Imagine waking up in a cheap motel, going to the bathroom and discovering you left your shirt there. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Well, it’s a bit different for Sam, since he found his shirt covered in blood. With no memories of what happened last night, he enters his mind palace to search for clues. Twin Mirror isn’t your typical game, this new episodic title combines clever puzzles with an interesting plot.
Welcome home Sam
During my hands-on time with the game, I played the first episode of what is yet to come. You’ll control Sam, a 33-year old man who never learned how to be an adult. He moved away from his hometown, leaving behind everybody he knew and loved because of a breakup. It’s clear to say that Sam isn’t the strongest man out there. The funeral of one of his close friends forced him to return back home, a homecoming Sam rather didn’t have. To make things even worse, he wakes up in his motel with his shirt covered in blood and no trace of his memories. This forms the plot of what seems to be a realistic game at first sight.
Don’t be mistaken, however, the world of Twin Mirror is far more complex than just that. The biggest problem is Sam himself. Rather early in the demo, we met ‘The double’, Sam’s alter ego. Unlike Sam, this mysterious double dresses nicely but doesn’t always intend to do good. It’s clear that this is all happening in Sam’s head but since he truly believes this double personality exists, you’ll bump into him a lot as player. Having a chat with your alter ego wasn’t the main feature of this demo, of course, it was trying to figure out what happened the night before.
Enter your mind palace
Instead of asking for help, Sam tries to retrace his steps by entering his mind palace. Sam’s intelligence is above average and at a young age, he created his own mind palace (a smart way to keep your memories and information ordered in your head) to store everything he ever witnessed. If you’ve seen the British Sherlock Holmes series, you might already have a good idea of what a mind palace is. If you haven’t, imagine it as a rather trippy world where you can access your memories. During the demo, I tried to reconstruct the events of last night.
I could easily do so by starting with the beginning: entering the hotel room. Sam recreated this room in his mind palace (including some flying rocks and bright blue air) so you can interact with everything in it as a player. Although the goal is clear, it’s not easy to solve the puzzle. The game expects you to think outside the box and investigate every single possibility. If you missed something, you won’t be able to solve the puzzle. Lucky enough, the game does give you some clear visual clues on what to do.
Early conclusion:
Twin Mirror is an interesting game for sure thanks to Sam. He struggles with his sanity and this results in interesting gameplay mechanics such as meeting his double and solving problems in his own mind palace. It’s not like any other game currently on the market and when the developers play their cards right, this might actually be a hidden gem. I’m a bit worried about how the story will evolve later in the game but I think it’s off to a great start after playing the start of the first episode.
