- Twin Sector - PC

Well where to start off, the controls on this game (Twin Sector) are ok but it seems as if the game itself if sluggish to react to anything on time meaning you basicly have to go through the area once and then die then to know whats ahead, on top of that their is no way to defend yourself when any of the sensor bots come at you, you can try to push them away but basicly thats it as soon as they touch you your dead, this game feels alot like Portal from Valve almost an exact copy. This game is also slow to install, I had to wait 30mins and my computer isnt that old only like 1-2 years old. This game isnt bad on the graphics, sounds and effects but as far as I can tell about this game thats all it has going for it. Pros: Graphics Sounds Effects Cons: No way to defend yourself Sluggish game play Feels like a copy of Portal Slow installion

o OS: Windows XP Sp3, Windows Vista Sp2 o Processor: 2.4 ghz multicore recommended o Memory: 1.0 GB or more o Graphics: 256 MB, Shader model 2.0, ATI 9600, NVidia 6600 or better, recommended Shader model 3.0 o DirectX®: 9.0c o Hard Drive: 3.5 GB o Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible soundcard

This game came out not too long after the first Portal released. When Portal came out, I was actually excited to see if other developers would take that game's formula and adapt it to other game mechanics, and when I saw that this game was essentially "gravity gun Portal", I got excited. I didn't mind that it was trying to replicate the Portal formula, I embraced it. Unfortunately, that excitement was misplaced and this game squanders a good deal of its potential, despite occasional flashes of brilliance. The gameplay is simple, you have two gloves. One glove pushes things, one pulls things. You can use these to push and pull objects from a distance and can even even attract and repel yourself from surfaces if you charge your shots long enough. This is a great, simple set of mechanics that should lend itself to a compelling puzzle game. Unfortunately, using these skills is where the game first shows signs of its weakness. The controls aren't too bad for most regular situations, but they do feel "delayed" and the physics is a bit clunky. Okay, so not too bad so far, so what's bad about the game? What really frustrates me about this game is that while about half of the puzzles are reasonable, fun, and logical, the other half ask you to do things that are outside the scope of what the game's controls can do well. Like I said before, the controls are a bit laggy and the physics are awkward in spots. Unfortunately, about half of the puzzles require lightning-fast reflexes and spot-on use of physics. This resulted in several occasions where I knew exactly what I needed to do, but kept dying because of the game's poor controls and physics. What's even worse is that the game isn't the most generous with checkpoints, so you have to replay puzzles you already know the answers to just to retry the one you're stuck on. Another poor design choice is the inclusion of fall damage, something Portal didn't have. If you fall from a high enough point without using your glove to cushion your landing, you die instantly. This is annoying and adds nothing of value to the experience (Portal omitted fall damage for a reason), especially with how much you use the gloves to do high jumps. Again, some of the puzzles actually are very cool and well designed, but the bad ones stick out more than the good ones since you spend more time on them. The game also attempts to have a combat element and this could have been good, but instead of knocking over turrets like in Portal, you have throw things at them until they break. This takes forever and is extremely clunky and unsatisfying. The turret sections just slow things down and add unneeded frustration to the game. The graphics are average, but mostly passable. Portal repeated a lot of the same environments for the entirety of the game, but was pleasing to look at. This game has a bit more variety, but the textures are sort of low-resolution and the models are just passable. Still, there's a decent sense of atmosphere and I do like the lighting. The only part of it I would say truly looks bad is some of the CGI in the cutscenes. One guy looks like his pocket was literally drawn on with a black crayon. Also, some of the subtitles are a bit weird, for example, the word "crisis" is spelled "crysis", like the game. It's pretty clear this is a low-budget production, so I won't rag on the visuals too much and it does look decent most of the time, but it could've probably been a little better. The storyline isn't anything particularly special. Just like Portal, you play as a lady who gets woken up from crysleep in a massive facility by a friendly-yet-sketchy sounding AI voice. It's a pretty uninspired set-up, but amazingly the plotline actually gets really interesting near the end, and when the game finally ended, I actually did want to see what happens next. Twin Sector is a flawed game, but it does have some interesting puzzles to solve and might be worth checking out at a low price. When this came out, it was the first of the "Portal Clones", so it was easier to recommend to people who wanted something similar to Portal, but now we have much better games like Quantum Conundrum, Antichamber, and QUBE to fill that void, and I'd recommend those over this game. Still, if you have an itch for a first person physics puzzler and you've exhausted all the other options, you might want to look into Twin Sector.