The game has a very strong first half. It opens really well with a great sense of atmosphere and tone that really carries the entire game through, especially in the second half and the third act specifically.
The second half of the game is a lot weaker in execution. If you don't enjoy the first 30 minutes of the game, you'll pretty much hate the entire thing because that's what it is over and over again. This feeling compounds as the game goes on and in the third act a lot more so than most.
Things that were bad/weak.
Story really suffers in this game. It feels like systems were built then the story was tacked on. The development struggles that were conveyed by the dev are really felt in the second half of the game. Basically, you can tell that there were budget cuts and that things kind of fell apart near the end there. This is unfortunate because there is a really great foundation here, and clearly Brush was committed enough to his vision to see it through despite the issues. Honestly, all the more credit to him for doing so.
Combat at times felt really good and at other times felt really bad. Really, this comes down a handful of things. Level design, enemy design, spawn points, and hit registration.
Levels felt like they weren't really theme park spaces nor were they shooter arenas, they were just kind of strange environments that were put together for the sake of giving the game space to place things like keys and TV sets (where the villain talked to the player through).
This level design issue combined with the fact that some enemies are just really not great design choices made combat -at times- feel really bad. Enemies that really dragged combat down were the spiders and telephones. They were difficult to spot in the game world and in the spiders case would temporarily affect the players ability to see which made navigating the levels even more tedious than it needed to be.
Spawn points were an issue at times because enemies often spawned behind the player or above them, making it difficult (more so I imagine on harder difficulties) to clear a space and feel confident to move on. There were times where I'd clear a space then an entirely new wave of enemies would spawn behind me. I think this happened because levels weren't designed to facilitate large groups of enemies, and so to compensate the devs made them spawn in during combat. This isn't a massive issue, but it did make for a few frustrating encounters.
Hit registration. This one for me personally was probably the biggest issue I had with combat. When the player is hit by an enemy the screen temporarily stutters to indicate that the player was hit. This split second of stopping the gameplay made for some actual headache inducing moments. It not only hurt the pacing of combat, but it also affected my aim too because I'd be trying to aim, the screen would stop, then I'd continue to move my mouse not compensating for the stop in the gameplay causing me to overcorrect on my aiming. It was a real hassle to get used to and ultimately was the biggest issue in large firefights.
Lastly the movement in the game felt strange. You can sprint, slide, double jump, and boost, but none of these things really interact that well with one another and feel kind of sluggish. I'm not sure what causes that feeling, but I couldn't shake it no matter how much I experimented with the movement. My issues with movement lie mostly with the boosting as you can't boost to the sides, only forward and backwards, and you can't boost unless you've previously jumped. For example, if you fall off a ledge or walk off a ledge without jumping you cannot boost. This got me killed a few times during some of the platforming sections and was just a bit awkward to get used to.
Okay! All that is what I thought didn't really work or felt strange/bad about the game. Here is what I really liked and thought worked well!
Sound design is awesome for the enemies. Killing them and getting headshots felt really satisfying. Punchy combat is great and this game achieves that in spades. It's honestly very fun to get headshots (especially when you use the bubble gun pistol where headshots get you tickets).
The games atmosphere is really its strongest component. The environments, the sounds, the music, the colors, the art style, it all comes together to make a really unique and most importantly cohesive vision for the game world. It's clear that Brush knew what he wanted to see from the game and what he wanted the game to feel like, or taste like, and that comes through in all those departments without fail.
Puzzles were a nice touch. I'm not huge on puzzles, so I'm glad that they weren't too mechanically cumbersome or involved. I know for some folks simple puzzles are a bad thing so this one is a bit subjective. I'm glad they were there, and I'm glad they weren't too ridiculous also.
Weapon design was really cool. I liked how every gun and tool felt like a theme park toy that was modded out to be lethal. They all felt good to shoot, had really fun and clean reload animations, and they all sounded pretty cool too. The sound for weapons wasn't as punchy as I'd prefer, but I think for the toy aesthetic and premise behind them the more "clacky", plastic-y sound worked really well.
Voice acting was also a great touch. A lot of indie games don't have voice acting because it's expensive so it was really cool to see this one with a lot of it. Vincent's one liners were a fun touch too. The actress that voiced Charlette did a great job also.
Finding secret areas was a fun addition. I did find most of them in my play through, so I imagine if you ignored searching for them your overall playtime would be closer to 3.5-4 hrs vs. my 5.1 hrs. I like having hidden things to search for like that. I do wish though that there were more actual easter eggs. There is a backrooms easter egg but that's the only one that I noticed, so it would've been cool to see more in there. That aside though, hidden areas are a cool thing to add to the game.
Overall thoughts.
I really liked it, but the first half is significantly stronger than the second half. In the end it was a lot of fun and well worth the price tag. If you're looking for a good time you could do a helluva lot worse than Twisted Tower. Congrats to Brush and the team for shipping this game, I know it was a tough one to get out the door but you all did an admirable job and should be proud of what you made.
