It’s probably for the best that this game is largely unheard of. It feels clumsy, looks rushed and unkempt and has the strangest dialogue I’ve ever experienced, barring ‘Two Worlds’. I’m not sure what I expected for £2 when I picked this up from Cex but I know I wasn’t expecting beautiful, though rather intrusive, music, surreal but fascinating boss monsters and the most obnoxious teenager in dungarees ever to grace my PlayStation. This game was released in 2001 for the PS2 and 2002 for the PC and Dreamcast by Ubisoft and is perhaps one of Ubisoft's better kept secrets.
I was really hopeful when the game booted up because the opening cutscene was genuinely lovely, it had this beautifully soft piano music, cinematic thunderstorms and panning over the lonely, dark looking orphanage. When it entered the orphanage itself the camera gracefully showcased the rusty showers, dripping taps, grotty water pipes and overall the horribly dirty and neglected bathroom that these children had to endure. It was all so eerie, so sad, so beautifully melancholy… then the camera focused on a boy at the sink, staring at his reflection and my word, he was hideous. Blocky, choppy, strange spoon shaped hands and though he looked like an 8 year old he spoke as though he’d not only hit puberty but it had hit him, repeatedly. Needless to say, I was not only disappointed but I was actually a little pained as what followed was the most headache inducing game I have ever played. And I’ve played ‘Two Worlds’.
Gameplay and plot
The general plotline of 'Evil Twin, Cyprien's Chronicles' is that you play Cyprien, a young boy living in an orphanage who’s feeling rather down and depressed because it’s his birthday and also the day his parents died. His friends throw a surprise party but Cyprien becomes furious at their constant attempts to make him feel better, goddamn them, and storms away from the party. In his bedroom he hops on the bed and starts talking to a talking teddy bear wearing a full length purple coat called Lenny who apparently, Cyprien gave life to. Cyprien rants and raves about his friends, banishing Lenny, condemning his world to oblivion then weighing up whether that would mean he was dead or not. Then he begins to laugh manically, during all of this drama the room darkens and we see shots of the boys at the party being dragged away by dark tendrils and Lenny disappearing behind Cyprien. By the time Cyprien’s come down from his gleeful high he realizes Lenny is gone and starts to panic before he himself fades away. When he awakens he’s in a drowned world with floating crates and muddy islands. What the hell have I gotten myself into this time, is all I could think, still trying to work out what exactly had just happened and why there had been a talking bear. Cyprien must now try and find his lost bear and friends who have become trapped in this world, along the way he will meet many strange creatures and learn the history of this bizarre place.
The game plays like a 3D platformer similar to what you’d get from 'Croc' or 'Vexx' and once you’ve gotten used to the temperamental camera controls it’s a fairly easy ride. You jump between ledges, rocks and platforms to navigate your way through the world and, though there is no real indication where you’re supposed to go, you will easily find your way. Initially the world looks quite repulsive because it’s all muddy platforms and garish green water that hurts you a little when you fall into it. That’s not to say the rest of the game looks stunning but as an opening level they sure did pick an ugly one. As you jump between platforms you will find some items along the way, usually in the form of tiny floating bear heads that, after you’ve collected 100 of them, will give you an extra life.
After the initial level you gain access to SuperCyp; Cyprien’s alter-ego who’s basically some kind of super hero with the ability to jump higher, shoot fire balls and glide a little. You activate SuperCyp by grabbing tiny floating SuperCyp heads which fill a meter up, once the meter is full you can transform into him and maintain that form by grabbing more of the heads. You can also pick up extra lives which are few and far between though you probably won’t need them as the game is painfully easy. Whilst SuperCyp uses his fire missiles to destroy enemies regular Cyprien has a slingshot which you can use by either zooming in for more accurate aiming or just mashing the fire button which is almost guaranteed to hit the enemy, provided you’re pointed towards him. The enemies are incredibly easy to kill and have terrible AI, quite often I was able to stand a few feet away and just continually fire at them with my slingshot without them even responding. If you’re looking for at least some form of challenge, you will be disappointed with the regular enemies.
I was generally disappointed with the entire game because there are some genuinely brilliant elements like the dark surrealism and the unique storyline that’s just ruined by shoddy craftsmanship. The lore too is quite curious and the world that Lenny came from, and the one you’re now trapped in, really has the potential to be something very interesting but it just all feels a bit rushed and underappreciated. The dark surrealism and the gothic fantasy entwine perfectly and if nothing else the game is atmospheric but from a mechanical standpoint it’s simply awful. I was constantly getting stuck in bits of floor and between objects and sometimes the collision detection is simply non-existent. All of these mechanical problems coupled with terrible lip synching, an awful camera and frustrating controls means you’ll be lucky to see this game through to the point where things start to get good.
Graphics and audio
I’m not one to usually talk much about the audio of a game but the voice acting of this game is really quite horrendous. I don’t know why but every time Cyprien talks to another character it sounds as though they’re in some terrible comedy sketch because everything is just so forced and sarcastic. Cyprien is voiced by an adult and, considering he looks about ten years old, this is extremely off putting and a little disturbing. What’s even stranger is he keeps swearing and then at one point accused a guard of being racist, so I was left with little clue as to how old he actually was. Cyprien is generally very obnoxious which would be manageable if it was well acted but all it really does is give me a headache. There’s also a lot of dialogue too and I kept finding myself laughing at what they were saying, in a bad way. That said, the music of the game is very nice. It’s creepily reminiscent of a haunted fairground and, considering there’s a lot of child themes like buttons and toys in the game, this is likely intentional. The music is very overbearing during dialogue however as it does not stop but seems to get louder, making it very difficult to hear what’s being said. If the subtitles hadn’t been on I’m not sure I’d have been able to grasp anything that was being said to me due to the insistently loud and invasive background music.
The graphics are fairly bi-polar as sometimes you get some rather interesting areas that are detailed, quirky and exploring. Most of these nicer areas come a lot later on in the game and what you’re given in the early stages of the game are fairly hideous. Usually though it’s the interiors that are the nicest places to be as there is no shortage of decoration and objects to pad everything out. The exteriors are a huge let down however and a lot of the game is unfortunately spent running around outside. Generally the exteriors are bland, empty, badly designed and just plain boring really. Almost everything is smeared brown, greys or orange so if it wasn’t bad enough that there’s nothing to look at in the first place, what you’re left looking at is ugly and uninteresting. The game is split into different islands and, at one point, a boat so there’s a fair bit of diversity with where you get to explore. It’s only when the game really gets into the swing of it that you’re treated to the interesting surrealist environments, bosses and creatures that the game actually does well.
The characters are extremely blocky and choppy and to be fair this is on the PlayStation 2 so a lot of that is to be expected and for what they are, the characters could be worse. Mostly I’m just confused as to why the hands are shaped like warped spoons with no fingers and why the characters all have huge anime eyes. The characters are all very well designed however and there are some particularly memorable and disturbing looking boss monsters that are perfectly suited to the bizarre, dreamlike fantasy world that they inhabit.
Overall
I found this game very hard to grasp at the beginning because everything feels under-explained and there are some incredibly strange and bizarre moments. The whole thing feels as though it had an amazing premise and someone who really cared about it that was then ruined by half-assed mechanics, awful voice acting and some terrible level design. The strong points are the graphics and character design, as well as the music even if it was a bit loud, and I was quite intrigued at some of the characters I met along the way. I found Cyprien to be an extremely irritating protagonist and would never want to play him again, his ability to turn into SuperCyp felt pointless and more like an attempt to make the game more action orientated when truly it wasn’t necessary. The controls are diabolical, aiming with the slingshot is frustrating and awkward and the camera’s unpredictable nature made me want to throw the controller away and go play something else. By sticking around for several hours I found myself enjoying the places I was visiting and the things I was seeing but it took a lot of persistence to stomach the terrible game far enough into the storyline for things to start happening . You’ll get around about ten hours to fifteen hours of play out of this game so at least it’s not too short and there’s plenty of build-up, if only they’d tried a bit harder and fleshed it out more. Frankly, I think this game would have been better suited as an RPG.
Score: 5/10
Note: If you're thinking of playing this game then feel free to check out the cheats for it, here.
Gameplay and plot
The general plotline of 'Evil Twin, Cyprien's Chronicles' is that you play Cyprien, a young boy living in an orphanage who’s feeling rather down and depressed because it’s his birthday and also the day his parents died. His friends throw a surprise party but Cyprien becomes furious at their constant attempts to make him feel better, goddamn them, and storms away from the party. In his bedroom he hops on the bed and starts talking to a talking teddy bear wearing a full length purple coat called Lenny who apparently, Cyprien gave life to. Cyprien rants and raves about his friends, banishing Lenny, condemning his world to oblivion then weighing up whether that would mean he was dead or not. Then he begins to laugh manically, during all of this drama the room darkens and we see shots of the boys at the party being dragged away by dark tendrils and Lenny disappearing behind Cyprien. By the time Cyprien’s come down from his gleeful high he realizes Lenny is gone and starts to panic before he himself fades away. When he awakens he’s in a drowned world with floating crates and muddy islands. What the hell have I gotten myself into this time, is all I could think, still trying to work out what exactly had just happened and why there had been a talking bear. Cyprien must now try and find his lost bear and friends who have become trapped in this world, along the way he will meet many strange creatures and learn the history of this bizarre place.
The game plays like a 3D platformer similar to what you’d get from 'Croc' or 'Vexx' and once you’ve gotten used to the temperamental camera controls it’s a fairly easy ride. You jump between ledges, rocks and platforms to navigate your way through the world and, though there is no real indication where you’re supposed to go, you will easily find your way. Initially the world looks quite repulsive because it’s all muddy platforms and garish green water that hurts you a little when you fall into it. That’s not to say the rest of the game looks stunning but as an opening level they sure did pick an ugly one. As you jump between platforms you will find some items along the way, usually in the form of tiny floating bear heads that, after you’ve collected 100 of them, will give you an extra life.
After the initial level you gain access to SuperCyp; Cyprien’s alter-ego who’s basically some kind of super hero with the ability to jump higher, shoot fire balls and glide a little. You activate SuperCyp by grabbing tiny floating SuperCyp heads which fill a meter up, once the meter is full you can transform into him and maintain that form by grabbing more of the heads. You can also pick up extra lives which are few and far between though you probably won’t need them as the game is painfully easy. Whilst SuperCyp uses his fire missiles to destroy enemies regular Cyprien has a slingshot which you can use by either zooming in for more accurate aiming or just mashing the fire button which is almost guaranteed to hit the enemy, provided you’re pointed towards him. The enemies are incredibly easy to kill and have terrible AI, quite often I was able to stand a few feet away and just continually fire at them with my slingshot without them even responding. If you’re looking for at least some form of challenge, you will be disappointed with the regular enemies.
I was generally disappointed with the entire game because there are some genuinely brilliant elements like the dark surrealism and the unique storyline that’s just ruined by shoddy craftsmanship. The lore too is quite curious and the world that Lenny came from, and the one you’re now trapped in, really has the potential to be something very interesting but it just all feels a bit rushed and underappreciated. The dark surrealism and the gothic fantasy entwine perfectly and if nothing else the game is atmospheric but from a mechanical standpoint it’s simply awful. I was constantly getting stuck in bits of floor and between objects and sometimes the collision detection is simply non-existent. All of these mechanical problems coupled with terrible lip synching, an awful camera and frustrating controls means you’ll be lucky to see this game through to the point where things start to get good.
Graphics and audio
I’m not one to usually talk much about the audio of a game but the voice acting of this game is really quite horrendous. I don’t know why but every time Cyprien talks to another character it sounds as though they’re in some terrible comedy sketch because everything is just so forced and sarcastic. Cyprien is voiced by an adult and, considering he looks about ten years old, this is extremely off putting and a little disturbing. What’s even stranger is he keeps swearing and then at one point accused a guard of being racist, so I was left with little clue as to how old he actually was. Cyprien is generally very obnoxious which would be manageable if it was well acted but all it really does is give me a headache. There’s also a lot of dialogue too and I kept finding myself laughing at what they were saying, in a bad way. That said, the music of the game is very nice. It’s creepily reminiscent of a haunted fairground and, considering there’s a lot of child themes like buttons and toys in the game, this is likely intentional. The music is very overbearing during dialogue however as it does not stop but seems to get louder, making it very difficult to hear what’s being said. If the subtitles hadn’t been on I’m not sure I’d have been able to grasp anything that was being said to me due to the insistently loud and invasive background music.
The graphics are fairly bi-polar as sometimes you get some rather interesting areas that are detailed, quirky and exploring. Most of these nicer areas come a lot later on in the game and what you’re given in the early stages of the game are fairly hideous. Usually though it’s the interiors that are the nicest places to be as there is no shortage of decoration and objects to pad everything out. The exteriors are a huge let down however and a lot of the game is unfortunately spent running around outside. Generally the exteriors are bland, empty, badly designed and just plain boring really. Almost everything is smeared brown, greys or orange so if it wasn’t bad enough that there’s nothing to look at in the first place, what you’re left looking at is ugly and uninteresting. The game is split into different islands and, at one point, a boat so there’s a fair bit of diversity with where you get to explore. It’s only when the game really gets into the swing of it that you’re treated to the interesting surrealist environments, bosses and creatures that the game actually does well.
The characters are extremely blocky and choppy and to be fair this is on the PlayStation 2 so a lot of that is to be expected and for what they are, the characters could be worse. Mostly I’m just confused as to why the hands are shaped like warped spoons with no fingers and why the characters all have huge anime eyes. The characters are all very well designed however and there are some particularly memorable and disturbing looking boss monsters that are perfectly suited to the bizarre, dreamlike fantasy world that they inhabit.
Overall
I found this game very hard to grasp at the beginning because everything feels under-explained and there are some incredibly strange and bizarre moments. The whole thing feels as though it had an amazing premise and someone who really cared about it that was then ruined by half-assed mechanics, awful voice acting and some terrible level design. The strong points are the graphics and character design, as well as the music even if it was a bit loud, and I was quite intrigued at some of the characters I met along the way. I found Cyprien to be an extremely irritating protagonist and would never want to play him again, his ability to turn into SuperCyp felt pointless and more like an attempt to make the game more action orientated when truly it wasn’t necessary. The controls are diabolical, aiming with the slingshot is frustrating and awkward and the camera’s unpredictable nature made me want to throw the controller away and go play something else. By sticking around for several hours I found myself enjoying the places I was visiting and the things I was seeing but it took a lot of persistence to stomach the terrible game far enough into the storyline for things to start happening . You’ll get around about ten hours to fifteen hours of play out of this game so at least it’s not too short and there’s plenty of build-up, if only they’d tried a bit harder and fleshed it out more. Frankly, I think this game would have been better suited as an RPG.
Score: 5/10
Note: If you're thinking of playing this game then feel free to check out the cheats for it, here.
