Twisted Tower

Fun bioshock-lite, and seriously impressive considering it was made by just a few individuals. With that said, normal mode (and hard mode) were way easier than expected, and the storyline was a bit wonky, especially the ending.

Twisted Tower (8/10) If you are a fan of Bioshock and juicy gameplay, then this is the game for you. Right off the bat, the atmosphere is absolutely amazing. You are immediately immersed in the world. The juicy interactions with things you can break feel great. Tie this together with the enemy mascots, a variety of weapons (including alt fires), grenades, arenas, puzzles, this entire experience feels like a backrooms Tim Burton dream in a good way. The levels are beautifully put together. Again, atmosphere is on point. The only thing that I would mention is moments where it feels too linear. You get to points where you'd expect more doors to be open, but its only one or two that strictly guides you along. This game would benefit with making more rooms, secrets and exploration. I love exploration, but unfortunately it falls short in some aspects, especially the not so hidden secret areas. Gunplay is pretty straight forward. Though some alt fires I never used, only upgraded damage and reload speed was more worth it. They are still fun to shoot and its satisfying to kill enemies nonetheless. Arenas do add to the challenge of using the multiple selection of weapons, having to switch to deal with stronger enemies, etc. Story felt a bit weird to me. It still wrapped up nicely, with a decent ending, though I just wish there was more to find in terms of narrative when its comes to environmental storytelling. You find notes and audio logs in places, that again, feel like they are placed linearly and not in an exploration manner. They give context to the story, in a way that feels like you are following an outline rather than making a discovery. Perhaps if the game made a point to explore and find these things without having them in obvious places, it would feel better. It did feel like the game held your hand a lot in some senses. For the developer, here's what I can personally share that would make the game feel a bit better: Add more to the levels. They are to restrictive. This game would benefit from rewarding the player for exploring. Example, the hotel section, there are barely any hotel rooms you can explore and loot (off the top of my head, there is like 3 or 4 from the entire level). Use more environmental story telling, not in the sense of giant posters, but subtle things like a hidden closet with a tv screen, chair and a control panel with big buttons and levers. I also wish there were more characters to aid or just be there for goofiness sakes. There's technically two people out of the entire game you can interact with. Do more with the puzzles. Ones that actually require you to think a little, or traverse a room differently - or just puzzle rooms in general to get a box of tickets as a reward (secret areas). Again, it would be so much better if you could do a Portal moment, where you go behind the scenes of the tower for just a short bit - those are the types of things this game needs. There's a lot more you could of done in terms of theme park stuff. Rocket trash cans, cotton candy in the food stalls with the glass that you can break to get the treat, sand sections in the mermaid palace with sandcastles you can break, even a small aquarium room, adding food stands, or more themed carnival games that work similar to the slot machines in each area, a room in the casino that is an abandoned giant poker table with giant dice as cover from enemies, etc. I can go on, but this review is getting long enough lol. Overall. I loved it and there is still time to polish things up and add some additional content. I would still recommended this game, because despite its small list of shortcomings, you still have a blast regardless.