Our Judgment
Sensei remembers when 3D Realms made legends. This one is merely a good time at the carnival, and Sensei has learned not to confuse a good time with greatness.
There are certain names in gaming that mean something to an old bastard like me, and 3D Realms is one of them. I grew up playing their games when shooters had personality, weapons were allowed to be ridiculous, and nobody needed to explain to me that shooting something in the face was probably not an appropriate workplace activity. Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood those games had attitude, and they were made with the kind of unapologetic personality that is becoming harder to find. So when I saw Twisted Tower coming from 3D Realms, I was interested before I even knew much about it.
After playing it, I can say that I genuinely enjoyed parts of the experience, particularly the visual style and the overall atmosphere. The abandoned 1950s theme park is a fantastic setting, and the developers did a good job creating a world that feels colorful, strange, creepy, and occasionally downright disturbing. The different environments give the tower plenty of visual variety, and there is a real sense that somebody cared about making this place memorable rather than throwing together another collection of gray corridors. The bizarre weapons and grotesque enemies fit that world nicely as well, and when the game is simply letting you run around shooting weird things with ridiculous guns, it can be a damn good time. That part of Twisted Tower is easy to appreciate, and even the more positive critics tend to agree that its atmosphere and combat are among its strongest qualities.
The problem is that once you start looking underneath that presentation, there simply isn't as much game here as I wanted. Twisted Tower wears its BioShock influence so openly that it becomes difficult not to compare the two, and unfortunately the comparison does it no favors. BioShock had atmosphere, but it also had deeper world-building, stronger storytelling, more interesting systems, and a world that felt like it had something to say. Twisted Tower has the look and some of the flavor, but it doesn't reach that same level of substance. The story starts with an interesting premise, but it becomes increasingly messy, and the puzzles and progression don't offer enough depth to make the journey particularly memorable. Other reviews have landed on exactly these problems, with criticisms ranging from overly simple puzzles and thin storytelling to calling the game derivative and underdeveloped.
The shooting itself is perfectly competent, but again, I kept wanting more. There are some wonderfully stupid weapons here, and that is meant as a compliment, because old-school shooters should absolutely have weapons that make you stop and think, “What lunatic came up with this?” The problem is that the enemies don't always provide enough variety or challenge to make that arsenal feel as important as it could. There are good encounters, but there are also stretches where you're simply moving forward, shooting whatever happens to be standing in front of you, and waiting for the next interesting room. Even the game's relatively short runtime becomes a double-edged sword: I would rather have a focused six-hour shooter than a bloated fifty-hour one, but when the credits roll, I was left thinking that the developers had built an interesting world and then stopped before they really figured out what to do with it. Reviews have generally praised the compact experience while noting its linearity, limited enemy variety, and lack of replay motivation.
That is what makes the final verdict difficult for me. I didn't dislike Twisted Tower; in fact, I had a pretty good time with it, and I have a soft spot for the fact that somebody is still making strange, old-school shooters with an actual visual identity. The problem is that liking a game is not the same thing as recommending it, and I don't think Twisted Tower quite earns a blanket recommendation. If you are a fan of BioShock-inspired shooters, weird horror settings, short FPS campaigns, and ridiculous weapons, there is enough here to justify the price of admission. If you're expecting the next great 3D Realms shooter or something capable of standing beside the classics that made that name legendary, you're going to walk away disappointed.
And that is where this old Sensei has to separate nostalgia from judgment. I wanted to love Twisted Tower more than I did, partly because I still have a tremendous amount of affection for what 3D Realms represented to me as a gamer. The game looks good, has personality, and clearly comes from people who love this style of shooter, but love for the classics doesn't mean I am going to hand out free points to the new kid. Twisted Tower is a decent, stylish shooter that has some genuinely fun moments, but it doesn't have the depth, originality, or mechanical punch necessary to become something I'd confidently tell everyone to go play. I respect the attempt, I enjoyed the ride, and I hope these developers get another shot at making something bigger and better because there is talent here. This just isn't the game that proves it yet.
Twisted Tower looks fantastic, has a memorable setting, some wonderfully ridiculous weapons, and enough old-school FPS spirit to make an old Sensei smile.
But beneath the creepy carnival and colorful presentation is a relatively thin shooter that leans heavily on BioShock, offers limited enemy variety and depth, and finishes before its best ideas have really had a chance to develop.
I enjoyed it.
I just wouldn't tell everyone to buy it.