It’s a spooky season-flavored hidden object game that features twins. How on earth was I ever going to pass up the opportunity to play Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here? Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here is actually the fourth installment in the Twin Mind series that features Eleanor and Randall Jones, detectives extraordinaire who use their respective abilities to solve crimes. Eleanor has paranormal powers while her brother channels his inner Sherlock Holmes. It’s a fun concept and given that Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here is the fourth title in the series, it’s a concept that’s got some pretty solid legs.
Plot Ahoy
A scientist, Howard Morrison, is found dead under mysterious circumstances and though the initial evidence implies that Morrison’s death is accidental, his colleague Rebecca is not so certain. Moreover, she worries that she might be the next victim. Fortunately, Rebecca happens to be friends with Randall Jones, so she reaches out to him to enlist his and his twin sister’s help in discovering just how the scientist died and to help her avoid meeting his fate.
Review Notes
Y’all. Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here is a true hidden object puzzle adventure, and I am very much here for it. The game opens with a phone call from Rebecca, laying out the scene, which includes the tidbit that Morrison is actually the third scientist who works at the “science center” (no, I don’t know what that is any more than you do) who has perished under allegedly accidental circumstances. This phone call launches your first mission, which is to examine the crime scene as Randall, and the game does not waste time throwing you into the puzzles. You go in and start clicking around the crime scene to find various objects and discover your first clues.
However, the hidden object puzzles aren’t the only puzzles offered; there are combinations to crack, pegs to move, and tires to inflate. Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here offers you enough variety to keep things interesting, but you never get too far away from the hidden object mechanic, so the title maintains a focus that is frankly refreshing. These puzzles tend to trigger just when you’ve gotten tired of scrolling around looking for items you can manipulate in the primary room image.
You do need to remember that Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here isn’t solely based on deductive reasoning. While the initial gameplay as Randall implies that you’re solving the mystery with Poirot’s little gray cells, the story goes sideways pretty early on in the gameplay and veers into 13 Ghosts territory in a very big way. That’s why you need Eleanor. Though their gifts are different, I wouldn’t say that the gameplay between the two characters is all that different. Rather, the appeal in switching between the twins is that you get to access different aspects of the story, depending on what skillset you’re using at the time.
In terms of story, there are admittedly not that many surprises. The title telegraphs the plot points you’ll need to discover pretty clearly, and the story beats are admittedly pretty predictable. Let’s be honest here, though. We aren’t playing Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here for the writing. Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here manages to channel the ghost stories we used to watch on daytime television that straddled the line between supernatural mystery and soap opera with a side of a well-designed puzzle game to make up for what the writing lacks in originality.
Visually, Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here relies on an almost psychedelic gradient to create its particular vibe, and the very magical-sounding aural elements only serve to reinforce that feeling. There’s not much in terms of music, and the voice acting is tolerable if not exactly sparkling. Fortunately, there’s not a lot of it in the game, but when it’s bad, y’all, it’s really bad.
The puzzles can be harder than you might imagine as a lot of them rely on you keeping tabs on your inventory and using the items you find in creative ways to unlock drawers and acquire the tools you’ll need when you trigger one of the minigame-style puzzles. When I say creative, I mean that. Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here offers some built-in suggestion dialogue boxes, and yes, they are helpful. However, they aren’t as helpful as you might hope they’d be.
Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here does sport some awkward animation. I’m thinking particularly about the Wyona character here. There’s something about her mouth movements that struck me as distracting. Again, you don’t run into much character animation, but let’s just say that it’s clear from what you do see that the animation didn’t receive the lion’s share of the budget.
TLDR
Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here is actually an entertaining title if you care for puzzle and hidden-object adventure games. While the concept seems a bit graphic, there’s nothing in Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here that feels overly violent or inappropriate. Parents should be aware of its story and themes before recommending it to a child, but there’s probably not a lot here that’s going to be objectionable.
Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here can be as long in duration as your puzzle-solving ability will make it, but there’s more than enough gameplay there to warrant its $14.99 price tag on the Nintendo store.
Stray Thoughts From Behind the Keyboard
- There’s literally a moment when Randall observes that the villain could never have guessed that his sister would just perform a ritual to find out where the hideout is. The actual line is worse than what I just reproduced there for you.
- I need a little bit more than “science center” as a place name. That said, there are a number of really great locations and images to explore in Twin Mind: Nobody’s Here.
- Why yes, the price is always too high.