Evil Twin: Cypriens Chronicles Review

Ubi Soft is a company best known for their platform games, with Rayman being one of their biggest franchises. New to the scene is Evil Twin a new style of platformer, not designed for the kids but for the adults. Will Evil Twin change the demographics of the platform genre, which is typically aimed at the younger gamers? We certainly hope so. <br /> <br /> Evil Twin is a 3D platform adventure that contains a dark nightmarish story as you take the role of young Cyprien in his quest to rescue his friends from a horrible fate. <br /> <br /> The story takes place in the dreams of an orphan boy (yet are they only dreams?) - Dreams that have become deeply twisted & corrupted. On his birthday, Cyprien, flees the party, which his orphan friends organized for him. Sad and angry, he finds himself "sucked" against his own will into a dreamlike and twisted World, in which Cyprien quickly realises that his friends and his very world have become prisoners to a dark and very sinister influence. <br /> <br /> The game is noticeably inspired by the likes of Tim Burton, Lewis Carroll and Charles Dickens. The story unfolds into a sinister and evil adventure set in some of the strangest environments seen in a game, with spectacular graphics that help create the eerie image throughout the game. <br /> <br /> There are a total of 8 worlds, with over 76 levels to explore, in terms of graphics they cannot be beaten. During your adventure you will meet up with a large number of NPC’s (NON-PLAYER-CHARACTERS), who will help or hinder your quest. If you remember the film ‘Labyrinth’ then you might get a good understanding of what to expect in terms of the environments and the characters. Unfortunately David Bowie will not be turning up. The gameplay is traditional action-adventure fare, brimmed to the top with puzzles and combat. The creators cite Mario 64 and Zelda alongside Tim Burton as major influences and this comes out in the gameplay. <br /> <br /> In Utero’s graphic engine (Phoenix 3D from 4X Technolgies) allows for levels bursting with detail, varied textures that aren’t reused from one world to the next, and a clever particle system that produces some of the best explosions and magical effects that I’ve ever seen. I can’t quite put my finger on why it looks so good, maybe it’s the dark burton-esque style used throughout, the hyper detailed textures (of which there’s 576 Mb of uncompressed data worth), the rock steady frame rate, the special effects such as the spectacular lighting when you change to Cyprien’s alter ego Super Cyprien… suffice to say Evil Twin will impress anybody.