Evil Twin, the video game that beats you

[dark]

Anyone play this game? Does anyone enjoy it?

I've seen some pretty mixed opinions on it. Some say the controls aren't so responsive and the graphics are bad. Some say the controls are great and the graphics are creative. An IGN interview with the developer circa 2000 says that the game world is pushing the DC as much as it can with the huge numbers of textures.

From videos and screenshots - to me, it looks like a darker version of Rayman.

*Does anyone recommend (or not recommend) the game?
*Is it a long game? Or is it beatable in just a few hours?
*What would be a reasonable price to pick it up for, it seems kind of rare as I barely ever see it for sale.

[mazonemayu]

pros:
-solid 3d platformer
-big game
-tim burton-esque look, sound & atmos (this part makes up for ALL the cons)
-alter ego with super powers


cons:
-in some levels controls can be a bit unrespensive (specially jumping to platforms)
-has an unfinished (rushed) feel
-its a french game, which has a horrible english voice over (no laguage errors, just that the voices don't match the characters) if you understand french at all, play it as it was intended to


but...all these things combined make it a unique game that I highly recommend ;you just have to look past the controls, eventually you'll get used to em.
price...considered it was a PAL only title I guess anything goes (I always play my white label, just to keep my legit version sealed :p)

[dark]

if you understand french at all, play it as it was intended to

Does it have an alternate audio track? If I set my DC to French language in the bios, would that change the language of the game like it does in some titles?

[Omnibot2000]

pros:
-solid 3d platformer
-big game
-tim burton-esque look, sound & atmos (this part makes up for ALL the cons)
-alter ego with super powers


cons:
-in some levels controls can be a bit unrespensive (specially jumping to platforms)
-has an unfinished (rushed) feel
-its a french game, which has a horrible english voice over (no laguage errors, just that the voices don't match the characters)

Excellent description of the game. But my result is different, I can't recommend this game. I hate the unresponsive controls, they make the game unfair in my opinion.

[Neohound]

Evil Twin will always divide opinion. Some will praise it for it's amazing style whereas others will remind you of it's flaws.

Like mayu says, it was rushed. And boy does it play like it ! I've played it three times and on every play through I've encountered bugs - plenty of them. I've had the game freeze on me, seen characters floating in the air for no apparent reason, I've gone through walls, died for no reason lol.........it's not so funny when you've put ten hours into it though - it just wasn't finished when released and, essentially the game is broken.

But the graphics are awesome. Mayu said it was Tim Burtonesque and I agree his signature look is quite evident. The characters are all brilliantly realised and the environments are very creatively done with some beautiful effects. Also, the story, though somewhat silly, is quite engaging.

The game is split between 1st, 2nd and 3rd person views with the first person view for shooting, 2d sections being reseved for the platforming sections and the 3rd persion view for adventuring. Personally I found the platforming better than has been said, I didn't have any problems at all.

It's a pretty big game. I think it took me about 30+ hours to complete it the one time I managed it.

I've tried to be as honest as I can about the game and, even then, I don't know if I should recommend it or not. If you're a collector, then yes buy it - it's still one of the DC's biggest and most ambitious games. If you are a graphics junky or interested in Gothic looking games in general then I also think it's worth a look. Damn it, if you love to see artistic merit in a game then get it !! But if you want a perfect platforming game on DC then play Rayman 2 first. And maybe try Evil Twin before you buy.

[dark]

I was looking for someone to talk me into buying it and I think that did the trick Neohound

Artistic merit and appreciation of a game for the period it was developed in are actually significant factors that make me continue to enjoy my DC games. Plus I like the Evil Twin boxart and need another Pal game to keep my copies of Headhunter and Shenmue II company.

[Hunk_4TH]

From what I've played of it. It's not so bad despite the controls. Though they didn't seem to bother me as much as it seems to bother others

[DCUltrapro]

I actually really enjoy this game, did it release outside of PAL? It was a euro developed game I know for a fact but wasn't sure if it was released in other regions.

ITs a gorgeous game with lovely fantastical ideas and beautiful graphics and musical score. it is entirely playable and is one of my favourite platformers for the console. Mostly thats down to me loving the gloriously realised world of Undabed!! I love the gameplay mechanics and the overall feel of the game...

now for the few negative points of the game. I don't think they ruin the game I think they simply cause you to rethink certain stratergies before moving on.

For example:

The controls are a little sensitive sometimes. By that I mean that while jumping you can often over or under shoot, landing in the water or falling down holes. This is not a MASSIVE problem for me because I find it easier to always back up and take a running jump before going off ledges etc, and I always try to follow where my shadow is so I know where I will land. I also don't like the fact that enemies respawn quite quickly and without a pause/break so you find yourself either spamming certain attacks or avoiding them completely

There are some graphical issues that sometimes cause you to say "What the hey?" wish make it obvious that it was rushed out. IT was published by BigBen, a company who handled publishing the last Dreamcast games when the machine died in the UK.

One particular graphical fault I often encounter is that sometimes polygons won't completely cover the entire environment. Its not terribly noticeable but I found a hole in the graphics once which I managed to jump through and I ended up wandering around all the textures and had to re-load my game. Also near the alchemists tower in one direction that I looked there appeared to be a neon purple section of graphics which must have been a texture flaw.

other than those gripes the only other thing that grinds my gears with Evil Twin is the audio track, it is staggeringly beautiful during the game but the cutscenes and dialogue scenes suffer heavily from poor editing and often I seem to hear the ambient background noises much more than the voices, I mean the voices are quieter than the sounds around you sometimes.

I've actually funnily enough started a video set about this for my youtube channel, I made them yesterday while we were watching the Chelsea game. Let me know what you think from there, they should be up tonight.

anyway in summary, regarding Evil Twin, I think for what you get its actually a lovely little game, I got a really long way into it many moons ago and was really upset when I didn't complete it, I might try and complete it this time because it is such an imaginative, gorgeous and endearing game that its positives for me far out way its negatives. I find the combat easy to handle and the general movement is ok once you get used to it and learn how to compensate for the odd jumping. Although to be fair in one of the early dialogue scenes the guy on the swing does state that the gravity is different here! lol anyway I'd say its well worth the purchase as it is a lovely little title that just requires some patience

[dark]

Thanks for the description DCUltra. To answer a few questions you asked:
-it was not released outside of Europe. An NTSC beta version exists on a GDR, and there were plans to release it stateside, but they fell through in the last months of the DC's life.

Big Ben got the publishing rights from Sega to publish DC games and sell all existing DC stock in Europe (consoles and games). Re: the rushed feel - maybe Big Ben exerted pressure on the developer (In Utero?) to release before it was ready as the DC was going out the door. Or else, maybe Big Ben had a lower standard of quality control compared to Sega. In my opinion it was probably a combination of these factors as they paid a lot of money upfront to Sega to get the publishing and selling rights for Europe and they would have wanted to push a couple more games out the door as the DC was fading out, in order to make more money on their investment (which they did).

[DCUltrapro]

interesting, well I am glad that this game and Heavy Metal came out, its just a shame that they were all much less than they could've been, I mean Heavy Metal and Cannon Spike could've had bigger, more immersive story modes but ended up being straight arcade games with minimal multiplayer... but they were still nice games. Anyway look out for my Evil Twin videos coming soon, obviously don't watch them if you dont want anything spoiled. I do love the game but some parts of it can frustrate. I can thankfully look past those and enjoy it for what it was meant to be, a nice, unusual platformer with a lot of original ideas