Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams Rise of the Owlverlord Reviewed

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams Rise of the Owlverlord Reviewed

By Nathaniel Liles

Owlverlord. Like overlord, but an Owl. That is simply scrumtrillescent. I love it truly. You guys may have read my review of the original Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams here on Cliqist a while ago, and if you did, you know that I’m fond of the game. It’s a pretty challenging callback to older platformers like Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario World, but it brings a lot of new things to the table such as the ability to “twist” the world around you. (In my last review, I mistakenly called the dynamic “switching between sisters”, but it’s actually one sister that twists the world around her, which explains her change in appearance, and the environmental and music paradigm shifts.)

Rise of the Owlverlord presents itself as a separate game, but for all intents and purposes, it’s a simple DLC, and difficulty-wise, it picks up right where the first game left off, giving you more instead of wasting time bringing you up to speed. A tutorial is available, so it’s entirely fine as a stand-alone title, but you need to be ready for what’s coming. It would be like jumping to the last level of a game without really getting a feel for it, and in a game this hard, you don’t want to do that. The fact remains, though, that you do not need the original game to play this.

Since the game presents itself as a separate game, having its own spot in your Steam library and everything, I expected more than a DLC upon opening this up, but this game really is just a level pack. It’s only seven levels, and none of them are very long or difficult. In true Giana Sisters tradition, though, the one boss you fight at the end of RotO is the hardest of them all, so if you just want a little more of the first game, here you go. That truly is all that this is, but that’s fine.

Everything about the first game still applies here. The visuals are lively as all hell, the difficulty will give you what you pay for, and the music is kickin’, so when you beat the first game, the transition is painless. My one gripe about this is that it really doesn’t bring anything new to the table. There are only one or two new enemies, and they’re nothing special. They’re snails, for crying out loud. There also aren’t any new gameplay mechanics, and the levels don’t feel drastically different from the ones in the last game, but again, it’s just a DLC, and it’s not a big deal.

All in all, this is just more of the good stuff. You liked the first one, you’ll like this one, and since RotO is only $4.99 compared to the first game’s $14.99, it’s well worth the price of admission to see the story come to a slightly more satisfying conclusion. All that considered, it’s very fun, and it seems to try harder to be fun and focus less on being a hardcore, tough-as-nails platformer. They changed the “easy” setting to “normal” and “normal” to “hard” so you feel better about yourself for playing the easier mode, and I know that you’ll like this if you liked the first one. Final verdict: buy the first one, buy this one if you like it. It’s a level pack.

 [facebook][tweet][Google][pinterest][follow id=”Cliqist” size=”large” count=”true” ] [author image=”http://cliqist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/nathaniel.jpg” ] Nathaniel Liles is a freelance writer, writing major, and indie musician based in Southern Indiana. While procrastinating or avoiding real-world responsibility, Nathaniel enjoys playing rhythm games, action RPGs, and very colorful games with many bright, flashing lights. You can listen to Nathaniel sing songs or download his music for free at http://nathanielliles.bandcamp.com/.  [/author]