Like many a gamer, I have been waiting for any news on the long teased Bioshock 4 and Ken Levine’s Judas. Just something, anything that is akin to the brilliant and wonderful worlds of those three titles. And although there are titles coming, they seem a ways away, Welcome to Brightville, for example, looks amazing, and we can’t be far off Clockwork Revolution’s release (please!?).

Even with those in mind, there doesn’t seem to be many games that have captured the feel of Bioshock. Well, not from the games I’ve played, so if anyone’s got any recommendations fire them my way! With that being said, I recently came across Twisted Tower, a game by Thomas Brush of Atmos Games, developer of Neversong and Pinstripe. It immediately caught my eye with it’s clear inspiration from one of the best games ever!

Can it match the lofty heights of Colombia or the depths of Rapture?

Elevator Pitch

The story of Twisted Tower focuses on Vincent, a timid British fellow. Vincent’s life is a bit messy, a failing medical student whose father has up and vanished, while his mother, although still in the picture, is certainly a source of stress from her nursing home. Meanwhile, Vincent is carer to his sister, Dorothy who struggles with schizophrenia. The light in his life comes from his girlfriend, Charlotte, his next door neighbour turned new fiancée.

The story starts just after Vincent proposes to Charlotte, they’re at the drive-in movie theatre, watching one of Charlotte’s favourite films, The Twisted Tower. The next morning, Vincent awakes to find Charlotte missing and a ticket under his door for the ‘Twisted Tower’. Off Vincent goes, arriving at the Twisted Tower theme park, created by the Director of the film of the same name, Mr Twister.

It isn’t long till you discover that one-hit wonder, Mr Twister, has kidnapped Charlotte and hidden her within his sinister theme park. Your adventure to rescue Charlotte will take you across five levels of the Twisted Tower and uncover what the hell is going on.

Of course, you won’t be just heading to the top floor, many obstacles are in your way. From grotesque mascots to environmental hazards, the Twisted Tower is rife with things designed to kill you and stop you from rescuing Charlotte. You’ll need to gain access to the different levels of the Twisted Tower by locating access tickets that can be used in the main elevator to ascent the tower and track down Charlotte.

If I Can Remember Correctly

As you explore, you’ll be guided by your nephew, Piper, as well as Gordon, a heavy smoker who works for Mr. Twister. Both wear creepy clown masks and appear in occasionally odd and unsettling places.

You’ll learn plenty about Vincent and his wider family as you explore the Twisted Tower, finding letters to nursing homes, audio recordings of phone calls Vincent had, as well as hidden videos of inside Vincent’s apartment. It’s clear that there’s something sinister going on, and these items help build a picture of what is going on. I figured there was something amiss, and enjoyed theorising what is actually happening as I was playing.

Despite my own theories, I did not predict the actual ending to the story and very much enjoyed going back everything I’d learned in my mind to try pick up on any clues that might have given me the actual story. I really liked the story, it was well told throughout the game, and although the pick ups of letters and various media seemed ancillary, I think they are a core part of the Twisted Tower experience.

No spoilers here, but I think Twisted Tower does a great job of delivering a story is compelling, urgent and suitably twisty.

A True Hammerage

It isn’t long before you come face-to-face with hostility. Mascots with giant mouse and giraffe heads will be bearing down on you. You either defend yourself and take your newly found hammer and separate the mascots head from its torso, or get stabbed. Easy enough choice, Vincent.

Twisted Tower is a first-person shooter, and feels a great deal like the Bioshock titles in the way they handle and how they’re designed. You start off with your hammer, but it isn’t long until you unlock a range of ranged weapons. The weapons themselves are incredibly varied and well designed. They largely take inspiration from the setting of the Twisted Tower’s funfair / theme park. Whether it’s your pistol that misfires with a “Bang” flag when it’s out of ammo, to the light-machine gun inspired ‘Bubble Gun’ that works by firing gumballs as its bullets. I really appreciated the tying in of the theme with the weapons.

All the weapons feel great to use, and you’ll be forced to play around with them all. Ammo isn’t non-existent but it is scarce to just the right amount where it doesn’t feel like a walk in the park. In large combat sections, you’ll have to adapt and move, swapping out weapons and changing your approach to survive. Enemies hit fairly hard, and when there’s a mix of enemy types, whether you’re being shot at by a giraffe or being charged down by a tanky-mermaid character.

The combat felt a good level of challenging, I died a few times in combat, but it never felt unfair or too hard. Conversely, it never felt too easy, on the “Just Right” difficulty.

Tickets, Please

You don’t have anything in your left hand, so there’s no Plasmids to play with, but the weapons pack a punch and you can upgrade them as you explore with tickets. You’ll find the carnival style prize tickets as you explore, and you’ll need to smash crates, pop balloons and anything else breakable to gather enough tickets to unlock said upgrades. The exploration doesn’t feel tedious and it’s super satisfying to uncover more of those glorious tickets or the carnival food that restores your health.

You’re encouraged to explore and locate secret areas in each area of the game. There aren’t loads, but they often have a bumper collection of those tickets you need to upgrade your weapons or unlock their alternative fire. You can replenish your ammo here too, but I never found myself doing that; opting for switching to different weapons rather than spending my tickets on ammo you can loot off enemies or through exploration.

Getting Raptured

The look and feel of Twisted Tower is excellent. If you just walked in on me playing it, you could easily think this to be a section in one of the first two Bioshock games. The art deco style, neon signs and moody lighting all create brilliant atmosphere and environment to explore. And there’s plenty of variety too. Whether you’re exploring the hotel rooms, the water park, the forest grounds, the casino, or the space station. There’s character and unique design in every level.

Each area adds new elements too, at the end of each level, you’ll unlock new toys that grant you new abilities to help with your exploration. Whether it’s the bouncy shoes that give your more height on trampolines, the fairy wings that allow you to dash, or the jetpack that grants you a double jump, they all add variety and new ways to explore, keeping the exploration fresh and interesting.

Sounds Good to Me

The sound design and voice work in the Twisted Tower is excellent. The music is sinister, and keeps the carnival / theme park theme, whilst the sound effects are super satisfying. Picking up the prize tickets unlock a lovely dopamine hit with a lovely “cha-ching” whilst the maiming of the enemies is crunchy, bloody and squelchy.

The voice work is super too, whether it’s the timid Vincent, the helpless Charlotte, or the super sinister Mr. Twister, they all do a fantastic job. This extends to the collectible letter, audio and videos too, as they are all narrated / vocalised. It’s something that always stood out to me in Bioshock too, when you find the audio logs, they added so much to Rapture and Colombia, and it is not different for the Twisted Tower.

The enemies themselves are eerie and unsettling, all having their own distinct vocals or sound effect. Whether you’re being chomped on by possessed telephones, getting stabbled by a Mickey Mouse’s psychotic doppleganger, or set on fire by flamethrowing seahorses, you’ll come to learn what you’re up against when in combat.

Can I Have Another Go, Please?

Having bemoaned my experience with Echoes of Aincrad for being excessively long without adding anything of value, Twisted Tower is almost perfect in its length. It never outstays its welcome and you’ll have a great time over the games’ 5-7 hours. But you’re not done on completion. Restricted areas, marked by black and yellow tape will become available to you in “Adventure Plus” mode, where you also get earlier access to all the weapons much sooner.

There are also achievements for a speed run, not dying, and finding all collectibles in one playthrough (not all at once) so there’s plenty to keep you playing. I know I want to get the 100%, and it’s a pleasure to get to play again.

Closed for Maintenance

I didn’t experience many issues at with Twisted Tower. The only thing I really found a bit finicky was using the ‘Tasty Treats’ to restore my health. They’re mapped to up on the D-Pad (Xbox controller) by default and I found it faffy in the midst of combat to keep moving and restore my health. So, I switched it to left bumper and moved the weapon select wheel to up on the D-Pad which worked much better for me. And that’s largely personal preference which was easily resolved.

The only other thing was a lack of ‘boss’ type enemies. Where there were certainly great combat moments, they were made up of the different types of enemies you encounter through the game. Towards the end some of these evolved, combining abilities. The tanky-mermaid enemy combining with the teleporting fire breathing seahorse, for example.

I say this because I really enjoyed the final boss at the end of the game, it was a fun boss fight and I would have liked to see more of those.

Ride or Die?

From the title screen, I knew I was going to like Twisted Tower. Drawing on a clear love of Bioshock, it tells its own twisted story in a fun and creepy way. Satisfying, brutal combat will take you on a compelling, and gory, adventure to save the damsel in distress through a well-crafted carnival of madness.

Twisted Tower was reviewed on PC. Gamer Social Club would like to thank 3D Realms and Atmos Games for the review code.

Twisted Tower releases on PC on 18 August 2026.