KitGuru Games: Twisted Tower Review

Twisted Tower arrives as a small‑scale indie shooter with a striking art direction and a £10 price tag, offering a five‑hour campaign and a New Game+ mode that opens previously restricted rooms for a second run. It’s an ambitious project for a two‑person team, and while there are flashes of creativity, the overall experience struggles to come together.

The premise is one of the game’s strongest elements. You explore a failed theme park built around the films of a washed‑up director whose career collapsed after a string of flops. Each zone reflects one of his productions, and as you progress, you uncover how each project went wrong.

Despite marketing comparisons to BioShock, Twisted Tower doesn’t feel much like BioShock to me. Outside of some character designs that vaguely resemble BioShock Infinite’s 1950s style, and a horror atmosphere similar to the original BioShock, the game lacks the mechanical depth that defined Irrational's classics. This is a pretty straightforward shooter with light traversal gadgets, not a plasmid‑driven action game.

Combat is serviceable, with a decent variety of enemy types introduced level by level, from exploding telephones on wheels, mascot creatures, clowns, mermaids and more. Some weapons lean into the toy‑themed aesthetic, like the rapid‑fire marble shooter, though others (pistol, shotgun, Tommy Gun) look and behave like standard firearms. Gadgets such as high‑jump boots, a jet‑pack burst and a grappling hook add some traversal flair, and each is introduced at an appropriate moment.

Level design starts strong, with shifting platforms, upside‑down rooms and playful environmental tricks. Later areas, however, become more conventional and lose some of that early inventiveness. NG+ encourages a second playthrough to access locked rooms and finish weapon upgrades, but the core campaign didn't justify a return trip for me.

Tonally, Twisted Tower sits between horror and comedy, but the humour often misses the mark. Dialogue is sprinkled with jokes that feel awkward or forced, and major encounters frequently end with cheesy one‑liners from the protagonist. The final boss, a 70‑year‑old filmmaker floating in a giant balloon, includes some particularly cringeworthy dialogue that undercuts the moment entirely. The game’s writing is aiming for quirky, but it rarely lands. However, considering this is a game about a failed film maker, perhaps the awkwardness of the humour was intentional.

Visually, Twisted Tower is far more successful. The art direction is bold and distinctive, with each themed zone offering a clear identity. Enemy designs are imaginative, and the overall presentation shows genuine creativity despite limited resources. It is just a shame that the later levels lose the charm of the earlier parts of the game.

Given the small team and low price, it’s hard to be too critical. Twisted Tower has ideas, style and good moments, but uneven level design, weak humour and a lack of mechanical depth hold it back from being the breakout indie shooter it could have been.

KitGuru says: Twisted Tower has a strong visual identity and some clever concepts, but the inconsistent tone and shallow gameplay make it difficult to recommend beyond curiosity value. At £10, it may appeal to players looking for an easy game to platinum, but it falls short of the BioShock comparisons seen elsewhere.

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