Thomas Brush’s Twisted Tower takes inspiration from 2K Games’ Bioshock franchise and mashed with Disney World. Mr. Twister invites World War II veteran Tiny Martin for a chance to win a big fortune. When he arrives at the amusement park’s island, he soon learns every mascot worker is out to murder him. To make matters worse, the true prize is his former lover, Charlotte Wright. While we wait for Twisted Tower’s full release for lore, gamers have Steam access to the demo. Let’s see how the game is in its current state.

Presentation

Character Design

Twisted Tower has stunning and disturbing visuals that would raise adults’ paranoia. Two game artists have been confirmed to work on the game. 2-D artist Felipe Caravelli was revealed in the 2023 announcement trailer. Then, on Feb. 7th, 2025, 3-D artist Bryan Morrison-Elliot was praised by lead developer and director Thomas Brush on his X (then Twitter) account for Charlotte’s reimagining. The characters seen in the demo look fantastically, either beautiful or creepy.

The game’s enemies, The Twisty Toons, were modeled after Disney mascot costumes from the 1920 to 1940s. The scariest-looking are the Huggy Bears with their bugged eyes and unsettling grin. For the human characters, the main 3 show little changes since their announcement trailer debut.

Charlotte is dressed as a 1930s flapper girl. Her appearance is seen on park posters, and her eyeliner always drips. Mr. Twister in-game is now a top-hat silhouette that appears on television screens with a swirly eyeball. While players don’t see much of Tiny in the demo, his announcement design and current promotional art have shown what changed. Tiny’s body shows a more toned physique. Despite Patricia the Maid commenting, “not much of a looker,” it’s a shame he lost his glasses and leaner build.

Environment and Graphics

As an amusement park, Twisted Tower took inspiration from Pinnochio’s Pleasure Paradise. It’s located on a remote island where families can go for non-stop fun. There are dangerous advertisements for weapons and encouraged underage drinking. Climbing up to the tower’s entrance is an homage to Bioshock Infinite’s intro, where Booker Dewitt entered Columbia from the lighthouse. 

From the beach to the park’s Lobby venues, the vintage Gothic architecture gives the game a sense of dread and insanity. For photosensitive players, Twisted Tower currently has no secondary visual mode despite various flashing lights in certain fight sections.

The graphics could use some adjustments for low-processor PCs and laptops. Twisted Tower’s Steam store page stated that it can be run on Windows 7 with a 64-bit processor. The preferred graphics card at the lowest settings is a GeForce 9800GT with 2.4GHz dual processing. Here are our recommended settings for future players who plan to play the demo on a low processor:

Display

• Resolution: 1280 x 800
• V Sync: Off
• FPS: 60 frames

Graphics

• Overall Graphics: Medium or High
• Texture Quality: High is recommended to avoid blurry text.
• Anti-Aliasing: Off or 1x
• Shadow Quality: Low or Medium

Gameplay Could Use Tweaking

Gun and Hammer Combat

Twisted Tower’s demo gives players a nice test run of the game’s difficulty and gameplay. The Twisty Toons will always be lurking in areas where you expect them to. The sound design expects players to listen when enemies are behind doors or walking. The most terrifying enemy is Mr. Quacker, who surprises players with his shotgun. Thankfully, Tiny gains weapons to defend himself with.

The demo offers the Twisted Mallet, Miss Fire, and Tickling Tommy. Bashing heads with the mallet brought back memories of Bioshock’s Pipe Wrench. The guns, on the other hand, could benefit from having a steady aim button. You can only free-aim your crosshair with the mouse (right joystick on the controller). This design is intentional for the middle mouse button (left trigger on a controller) reserved for the Harpoon. You can grapple blue targets and hit enemies with range melee.

You can make Tiny’s weapons stronger by spending Tickets at the Real Boy Station. Tickets are this game’s currency, and like Bioshock, they can be found anywhere. The same goes for finding healing items and ammo. Any object that reacts to your reticle can be open for goodies, which also includes enemy looting. Speaking of healing, its visual effect needs to be fixed as it flashes light on the players’ screens.

Level Layout

Encountering certain rooms may lead to swarm battles in locked rooms, flipping the room, or finding under-construction areas. Tiny’s goal for each tower level is to find keys and discover new pathways that will lead him closer to Charlotte. The Elevator allows him to travel to different floors as long as he finds Elevator Keys. It’s very Legend of Zelda inspired but in an amusement park dungeon crawler. However, Twisted Tower’s level design could use some more thought on enemy programming.

In the final Lobby fight, there’s a way to exploit the Twisty Toons’ enemy AI. On my second attempt, I grappled the target at the VIP Lounge to gain higher ground from the swarm. I led many of them to the entrance’s stairs and fountains, making them run in circles. They had trouble recognizing my vanishing point. Because I stayed in the VIP lounge, my distance was caught between “vanishing” and “detected”. The Twisty Toons knew I was nearby but were unsure where to shoot.

Twisted Tower Demo’s Verdict

Thomas Brush has shown significant progress since early gameplay previews of Twisted Tower. While the demo carries a new visual aspect, the gameplay and PC compatibility leave enough desire for needed improvement. The game captures the spirit of Bioshock while mixing new elements from other games to become an adventure dungeon crawler. Give Twisted Tower a try before the full release date is announced.