Twisted Tower

A single-player horror action-adventure that's easier to describe as "BioShock's shooting turned up, but every enemy is a smiling theme-park mascot that wants to hug you." You're dropped into an abandoned 1950s resort, and you've got to fight your way to the top of the tower to save the person you love. Out Aug 18, 2026 on Steam — that's today — published by 3D Realms, built by Atmos Games (the studio behind Pinstripe).

What is Twisted Tower?

Twisted Tower is a first-person action-horror shooter set inside a cursed 1950s amusement resort. The pitch from the developers is basically BioShock crossed with Disney World: a beautiful, nostalgic park on the surface, and something deeply wrong underneath. You've got to climb the tower, and every floor of the resort is a different themed level — the hotel, the waterpark, the clown casino, the carnival forest, and a space station.

The enemies are "corrupted fairy-tale mascots" — the kind of friendly park characters that should hand you balloons, but instead they're trying to kill you. The gunplay is deliberately punchy and bloody. It's the same sad-happy, dark-cartoon tone as Pinstripe, the earlier game by the same lead developer, Thomas Brush — but in full 3D and with a lot more gun.

It launched today, Aug 18, 2026, published by 3D Realms. Reviews that went up this morning have been leaning positive, with the "BioShock meets Disney World" hook landing well. There was a demo earlier in 2026 that built a real following, and the r/pcgaming and r/Bioshock crowds have been talking about it since.

How it plays

• First-person shooter: punchy, bloody gunplay against corrupted mascots, not a stealth-horror crawl.
• Five themed levels: hotel, waterpark, clown casino, carnival forest, and space station — each a different vibe inside the same cursed park.
• Silly but deadly arsenal: a whack-a-mole mallet, rubber-band pistol, dart-shooting Tommy Gun, a "fartin' shotgun," a bubblegum-spitting chain-gun, a sniper slingshot, and more.
• Traversal toys: you pick up little toys that let you jump, dash, and grapple your way up the tower.
• Multiple paths per run: the game advertises different routes through each playthrough, so it's not a straight corridor.
• Story-led: a mysterious, emotional narrative about racing to the top to win back the love of your life.

One thing worth knowing before you buy: it's built around comfort options. The store page lists adjustable difficulty, playable-without-timed-input, subtitle options, camera comfort, and contrast controls — good news if you want the horror atmosphere without the usual accessibility walls. It's single-player only, with full controller support.

Base beginner guide

Getting started. There's no class or character builder to fuss over — the loop is straightforward: push forward, shoot the mascots, hunt for toys and upgrades, solve whatever puzzle is blocking the path up. Early on, don't hoard your weird weapons. The resort throws a lot at you, and the mallet/machine-gun hybrids all handle differently, so swap around until one clicks. The intended difficulty is a comfortable default, but you can dial it down in settings if the clown casino gets to you.

The traversal toys matter more than they look. Jumping, dashing, and grappling aren't just for reaching secret corners — they're how you actually climb the tower. Treat your first playthrough as a "learn the park" run rather than trying to see everything. The game hands you different paths per playthrough specifically so a blind first run doesn't feel punishing.

Save the person fast. The emotional through-line is what carries a lot of the game, so it's worth paying attention to the story bits between fights. It's short enough to finish in a couple of solid sessions — this is a tight, focused experience, not a 50-hour epic.

Watch the official Launch Trailer and gameplay clips on the Steam store page rather than reposting fan mirrors — the store's version is the source of truth.