There are tons of bad games that come out every single year that make Twin Sector look like a masterpiece by comparison, but the difference is that a lot of those games aren't meant for retail space. Whether they are student projects or just a way for the developer to gain more experience in the medium, they were never really meant to be shared with the world; only to a few people. So as an outsider to what I can only assume is a rushed independent project, I now have to judge this game against a standard that includes other games like Portal. (SPOILER: Twin Sector isn't even a fraction of the quality of Portal.)
So when I first booted up Twin Sector, I was kind of impressed with the five second splash page for the publisher: Headup Games. It looked cool, it had a nice style. The Main Menu appears and I start a new game. I wasn't ready for what I saw. It looked like high-end 3D special effects for a movie from the mid 1990's. The "people" consist of nearly one singular polygonal form with their clothes literally painted onto their skin. The animations are embarrassingly stiff and awkward. It was like watching a cinematic cut-scene from Diablo 1 circa 1997.
But even that isn't nearly as bad as the fact that the voice acting and dialogue are simply atrocious. If you are old enough to remember the voice talent of the original Resident Evil, then you have a pretty good idea of the quality level here. Bland, dull, boring and broken. Even the subtitles were not given the proper attention, varying wildly from lazy copy writing, to broken translated English. It was almost amusing at times to hear what one character was saying and to read the subtitles, following along as the two seldom match up.
Even if the voice acting wasn't that bad, the lack of any music or soundtrack makes the entire experience worse. You don't know how much you miss soft background music until it is gone and you are left listening to the repetitious sound of footsteps on steel, or the inexplicably loud hum of an abandoned military base. I normally don't put too much emphasis on a game's visual style, but after this, I realize it is important to present your game properly. Presentation is everything, and the presentation of Twin Sector is outdated and abysmal, which is oddly fitting.