With Twin Mirror, Dontnod has put time travel, telekinesis, and mind-reading on the back burner, moving away from the supernatural themes of previous games and switching to a grounded psychological drama. Mystery and intrigue stories are Dontnod's forte, but the studio's first independently produced game unfortunately falls a bit short. It starts out as a great detective mystery, but the big problem is that it doesn't really delve into the difficult subject matter.

Twin Mirror follows former investigative reporter Sam Higgs as he returns to his hometown of Basswood, West Virginia After being missing for two years, his visit is far from a cause for celebration. He is there to attend the funeral of his best friend and fellow reporter, Nick Waldron, when he learns of his death. As Sam begins to explore his childhood home, he finds himself caught up in a major conspiracy involving his friend's death and the mining town community, and decides to follow the case to the end. The town is not Sam's biggest fan. Before he made bail, he wrote an article exposing the lack of safety measures at the local mine, which led to the mine closing, many people losing their jobs, and a lot of anger.

From the opening hour of Twin Mirror, it is clear that Dontnod has perfected the technique of laying the groundwork for the mystery. Before attending the wake, Nick's daughter and Sam's goddaughter confides to Nick that she feels something strange about her father's death. Shortly thereafter, you are introduced to the townsfolk of Basswood, and as you begin chatting with the locals, with the idea of conspiracy already on your mind, your investigative hat is firmly on. The stage is set, you have met all the players, and you are soon scratching your head as to who is involved and why.

For the first hour or two, I was genuinely excited to solve the mystery of this small town. I too love Basswood's aesthetic, and this mining town has an unglamorous, West Virginia-like charm that makes it fun to explore everywhere. The seedy dive bars, mountain lookouts, and cheap hotel rooms are filled with information about the residents of Basswood and the tough times they have experienced. It paints a perfect portrait of a struggling town where community matters.

The detective work unfolds much like the exploration in Dontnod's previous games. You are dropped into a new area and must walk around, examining objects and finding clues. While this mechanic works particularly well when getting to know a town by examining posters or looking at pictures hanging on bar walls, it is less than reasonable when gathering evidence for an investigation. Because the evidence must always be found in a certain order, it means circling the same site several times until you find it at the right time.

Once enough evidence has been gathered, Sam enters a mind palace (i.e., he closes his eyes and thinks hard). The mind palace is where Sam tests his analytical mind and is able to reconstruct several possible sequences of events using the evidence he has gathered. Sam must examine the various timelines he has visualized, determine which are true, and choose the one that accurately reconstructs the turn of events. This could be anything from how a bar fight developed over the course of 10 minutes to why a car inexplicably veered off the road. Versions of this mechanic have been used in many detective games, but "Twin Mirror's" attempt to build a scene from shattered glass stands out.

Even though the evidence-gathering was flaky, I went into the rest of the game excited to uncover the secrets of the sleepy town of Basswood. Unfortunately, the investigation never really got going. There are no crescendo or eureka moments that unravel the case; the investigation just fizzles out. There are many story clues flying around, but none of them have a landing point. For example, Sam is never confronted with his guilt for destroying the town's primary means of livelihood. No matter how many times he is confronted by angry townspeople who are suffering because of his decision, he never faces it head on. Was he right to disclose the truth at the expense of people losing their jobs? It's a difficult question, but the game avoids it.

The fact that these themes are dealt with only superficially is what makes "Twin Mirrors" so unique. There are moments in Sam's mind palace where he shows guilt or compassion for someone he has hurt, but they take the form of trivial mini-games, such as running through an empty door marked "breathe" or trying to find his twin in a crowd.

Speaking of the mystery man, Sam's twin accompanies him throughout the game, but he exists only in Sam's head and appears to provide a different perspective on the situation. He differs from Sam in that he is more sociable, keeps physical Sam out of trouble, and helps with tricky conversations. He appears at key moments where the player's decisions affect the rest of the game. However, after trying different paths, I didn't notice much difference.

Many of the concerns I expressed during the Twin Mirror preview were related to the representation of this character. Fortunately, the doubles do not belong in a Jekyll and Hyde-like situation, but Dontnod intentionally goes off on a tangent when referring to what exactly Sam's doubles are. During the game, Sam vacillates between trying to be his authentic self and acting in a "socially acceptable" way. His other half tries to stop Sam from acting the way he wants to and speaks out against him when his bluntness reflects badly on people.

It is not only Sam's bluntness that conflicts with his dual personality, but he also has problems reading people, occasionally putting the truth before the feelings of his characters and struggling with the unseen social etiquette of conversation. Coupled with his analytical mind, "Twin Mirror" seems to suggest that Sam is on the autism spectrum, and while Dontnod's portrayal of Sam avoids the condescending and grossly misinformed representations of him found in much of the media, the representation Dontnod is not committed to this idea and only alludes to these topics instead of exploring them with insight and understanding.

Twin Mirror has some interesting ideas, but the game does not spend time delving into its challenging themes. There is a foundation for a story about relating to others and the struggle of being authentic rather than being accepted, but it is ultimately empty.

"Twin Mirror" feels like a series of scenes stitched together by a thin narrative thread, a game that ultimately tells nothing. For a studio famously vocal about improving representation in games, "Twin Mirror" is a Dontnod misstep.