[v7.3] (TWOG) Twisted World: Original 8/10
[v1.5] (TWRE) Twisted World: Remake 6/10
This review is going to focus mainly on the remake and the development behind it, but before that I would like to briefly discuss the original version and what it did
1. [TWOG, An Introduction]
TWOG is genuinely one of the most unique and most charismatic games of its genre. Never have I seen such amazing build up to story/scenes, striking and expressive characters, and a setting that I've never witnessed being explored well before. Seeing the learning curve that Snats goes through as you progress throughout the game was quite fascinating to see and is very much a fact that deserves it own respect given that he did it on his own (look at MC's dick in the beginning of the game compared towards halfway, it horrendous). Even though towards the end of its run there is a noticible decline in quality/story progress (Remember this and the sentence before), it still managed to hit off on a good note.
2. [TWRE, A New Genesis]
Now let us discuss TWRE, it's short comings, it's development, and potential. Snats first announced the remake at the end of the 7.2 update for TWOG, a decision he began to partake sometime in the 2022 winter. I was beyond worried for the game and its fans. I was concerned that Snats was potentially going to pull what ICSTOR and Beggar Of Net have done to their games and fans and swindle them for years on end for their money. Yet, I held for hope. Seeing the progress that he has accomplished previously gave confidence in my belief that he was making this decision out of genuine passion for the game and not in hopes of a care-free money printer. Not only that, as Snats released sneak peaks at the new characters and their designs, plot elements, and locations I became quite excited. Yes, there were some decisions that I still don't really agree with but nonetheless I saw great potential and a year and a half later, the first version of TWRE was released with an introduction and the first half of the prologue. As I progressed through the introduction into the prologue, there was something that just felt off. Visually, the game looked great, the characters were stunning, and I was bopping with the music a bit, no lie, but there was something that was just irking me. It wasn't until I got to the scene where you have sex with the blue demon where I realized what was wrong, it reminded me of the end TWOG. You might be wondering "what's wrong with that, didn't you like TWOG? Hell you gave it a 8/10!" in which I say, I very much do! But despite my enjoyment for TWOG, the last couple versions of the game were awful compared to the mid-versions of the game. The progression and build up for the scenes became exaggerated, the movement of characters within the scenes were stagnate, scenes ended in error/crashes, audio was out of sync/playing when it shouldn't be, the writing became "straight-forward", and scenes were being reused. Though it was not as bad as it was in the final version of TWOG, there was still elements of it left over in TWRE. It felt like someone who wasn't well experienced in making games made it which is also what threw me off. Why did it feel like Snat forgot how to make his game, especially with how much he has done and accomplished before the TWOG finale? Why did it become like this?
3. [Marozzo, A Cloak And Dagger]
Snat hasn't been entirely honest about his development and production of TW, both in OG and RE, or at least has not been clear about it. As you may recall, Snats started the development of TW not long after learning the basics of coding and Koikatsu, as well as with many other programs. Though his initial start up and introduction of the game was phenomenal for his level, he had too much ambition and workload to efficiently take the game head on and had made the decision to pick up/hire help from someone who was more experienced and exceeded the development of the game. This decision is what made Snats and TWOG become a quick favorite among the community and the "era" that became from it is what most people think about when they refer to "the good ol' times" of the game's cycle with sizable seasonal updates that never disappointed. Unfortunately, sometime during 2022, the developer attempted to either hijack/scam Snats and his game but failed and was ultimately dropped. This is what lead to the sudden drop of quality in the later versions of the game that I mentioned before. With Snats now taking on the full load of the game, though now much larger and cumbersome than the initial prologue, he struggled with balancing the game's development and keeping up with his seasonal updates and is what I believe is the reason as to why the creativity of the late game became dull and as to why there were more bugs that would have never been there in the first place. This, plus many other factors both known and unknown, is what ultimately made him turn TWOG into TWRE for he could no longer keep up with his own game.
4. [Snats, A Redeemer]
Snats has now been developing TWRE for nearly two years, but in that time what has he accomplished? For the majority of 2023, he spent on various programs designing and developing his characters, their designs, and the scenes/setting for TWRE. It isn't until around the beginning of 2024 where he started to narrow in his skills in coding and not long after this is when the first half of the prologue was released. As mentioned before, the gameplay of TWRE staggered but it certainly wasn't as bad is it was in late TWOG. It was, however, evident as to how much time he had invested into coding itself but the same cannot be said for the second half of the prologue (or rather the 3rd quarter?) that was recently released. Compared to version 1.0, version 1.5 is astronomically better in writing, scene build up/development, character designs, and above all the scenes themselves were actually enjoyable to see and were fluid. The quality that was there during the peak of TWOG has mostly returned but I still have my gripes and questions that I would like to be settled in the near future. Firstly, I do not like the sectioning of the prologue, especially with this second half of the prologue was itself halved. I understand the, claimed, reasoning behind it was that the sandbox section has been having difficulties with bugs and crashes. Though I am willing to believe this due to one of the prominent bugs with late TWOG was during the sandbox sections itself, I still don't completely appreciate with being given such a big cliff hanger at such a prominent turning point in the story unless the bugs themselves were truly game breaking. Secondly, I believe Snats should be more honest and open with both communities/fans of the discord and f95 forums about his development progress of the game and be blunt and straight forward as to when FULL updates would come out, rather than saying "I'm rushing to have it come out already" and it being half an update. I hope that the upcoming V1.6 update, the one that will finally include the sandbox section, doesn't take more than a month and a half for there will be an expectation of content that I simply don't believe would be there. Thankfully, for both the community and Snats, the majority of the upcoming updates has already been written with Snats stating that the first few "chapters" are essentially the entirety of TWOG condensed into said chapters, with scenes and characters appearing much sooner in the story.
In my eyes, I don't believe and am not convinced that Snats is being a scammer and ripping off his fans nor that he has overall ill intentions with the game and it's community. I do think that Snats isn't honest with us with the development and truly do hold fact that he needs to get his act straight together. I'm hopeful with the next couple of updates and look forward to how the game progresses as a whole, I truly have faith in Snats abilities and believe that he has mostly redeemed himself for his absents over the last two years and the lack luster 1.0 release with the recent 1.5. I really did have a good time playing this recent update, even if it was cut in half.