Review: Twisted Tower
- Guilherme Ribeiro
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
Are you prepared for what the tower has in store for you?
THE GAME
Twisted Tower is a horror FPS developed by Atmos Games and published by 3D Realms. After his beloved Charlotte is kidnapped, our protagonist Vincent is invited to visit the Twisted Tower Resort to rescue her. There, he finds an abandoned, gloomy, and themed place, full of creatures trying to prevent him from rescuing his beloved from the clutches of Mr. Twister, the mastermind behind all this trouble. Armed with weapons, Vincent must then advance and find Charlotte, overcoming many dangers within this macabre tower.
MY IMPRESSIONS
Upon arriving at the abandoned resort, you immediately sense the tone of Twisted Tower. A ghostly place, but one where you feel something is watching you or lurking in the shadows. It's a very oppressive feeling that makes you careful with every step. This intensifies the more you play, as you'll realize that Twisted Tower uses many jumpscares to frighten the player. I, personally, don't have a problem with jumpscares when they're well done; the problem is that in Twisted Tower this resource is used exhaustively and often in not-so-interesting ways, placing enemies to appear as soon as you turn a corner, for example, leaving the player exposed to damage that, in my opinion, isn't very fair. The atmosphere is very well done, giving a macabre tone to each scenario and its respective theme within the resort. The soundtrack, however, didn't appeal to me as much because at times, since it plays on a loop, the high point of the soundtrack played several times when nothing was happening, confusing me into thinking something was about to happen.
The enemies, despite being simple, are quite challenging, as you'll often be caught off guard by them. They are very accurate, but if you apply the right type of damage, they won't react while being hit, making things a bit easier. Despite being a relatively short game, there's a wide range of weapons available to the player. Visually, they are all very creative, using the game's theme to give them a lot of personality, but they are still just basic shooting game weapons. All can be upgraded and can have a secondary fire, which gives new uses to the basic weapons. At times, you'll feel like you're running out of ammo, but as soon as the frenetic action begins, you'll realize you'll need to rotate between weapons many times.
The game is not in Brazilian Portuguese, making it difficult for the player to understand the story, which is the driving force of the adventure. And speaking of the story, initially it's quite intriguing, reading the letters found along the way, trying to understand what's happening. Despite all the mystery, you can sense what's coming next, and even with a shocking ending, it doesn't surprise as much as it could. As mentioned before, Twisted Tower has a relatively short duration, which is great, since it gets straight to the point without holding the player hostage for hours on end without anything new happening. Despite this, the game encourages you to play again after finishing the story the first time, unlocking an alternative path for the player to experience a new journey. I don't know if this is enough to excite someone after already seeing the game's ending, but it's a different and creative way to get people to play a little longer with a new experience. Twisted Tower offers something simple, but with purpose and a good atmosphere. Even though it stumbles in some aspects, it's an interesting game for those who like this type of theme.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Despite their simplicity, the achievements in Twisted Tower are quite challenging. Generally, you'll be able to complete a little over half of the achievements on your first playthrough of the game's story. Some require a bit more attention, such as accumulating 2000 tickets, upgrading all weapons to the maximum, and accessing all secret areas in a single save. The real work will be in the remaining achievements, which require the player to play the game several more times from beginning to end, such as finishing the game in under four hours or finishing the game without dying even once. Although it's a relatively short game, it can demand a bit more skill from the player to achieve these achievements in the fewest possible attempts. As I said initially, getting 100% of the achievements in Twisted Tower is simple, but not easy.
CONCLUSION
Despite being an interesting game, Twisted Tower lost its appeal as I progressed. The plot starts out interesting, but you soon realize there's something at the end that won't satisfy you. The constant jumpscares, as mentioned before, bothered me a lot, to the point that I had to change my playstyle just to avoid taking damage without being able to react, which made the experience very slow, since I had to be cautious at every turn. If that was the game's intention, it would be fine, but it doesn't have that kind of movement rhythm, so it feels like something in between. Aside from that, it's a good experience, even if it's nothing new, but it does the basics well, even if it falters in key gameplay aspects.
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