I’ve spent some time with Twin Mirror, Dontnod Entertainment’s upcoming adventure game in which you play as a fella called Sam. Sam, an ex journalist, has returned to the sleepy town of Basswood to attend his friend’s funeral, and he latches onto the possibility that his mate may have been murdered. The game centres around uncovering the truth. If you’ve played the likes of Life Is Strange, it’s a similar narrative-heavy, click-a-bit, watch-lots-of-cutscenes experience.
From the outset it is made clear that Sam struggles with his mental health – he takes some pills to keep himself in check on the way to the wake, which is a sure fire visual shorthand for said struggles. This is a topic that has not always been handled well in games (like how every game adapting a Lovecraft property has to have some kind of sanity metric). But because of Life Is Strange, Dontnod have a reputation for approaching difficult topics with some nuance. I thought that maybe they’d be able to whip together a thrilling story that tackled mental health with tact. But nah. My hopes were dashed pretty quickly.