Teslagrad (Nintendo Switch) Indie One Shot
This review, let's go back to a steampunk-twisted, old version of Europe. Taking place in a city that shares it's name with the game, you take on the role of a young orphaned boy who finds himself unknowingly and unwillingly thrust into an age old conflict. Teslagrad's King has ruled with an iron fist for many years, after battling and eliminating a sect of technomancer wizards. Their Tesla Tower lies unforgotten and deserted in the city, where our young orphan finds himself while running from authorities. Inside, he discovers the tech that the old wizards used, along with the truth about what really happened.
What unfolds is an incredibly beautiful story, portrayed simply as you play through the game. There are no text conversations, no voice acting, everything just is on the screen before you. You also won't experience any combat, at least not in a direct form. Teslagrad is, through and through, a platforming puzzler, and it's a lot of fun.
The key element of the game is the use of electro-magnetic powers, brought forth by the weapons you find inside the Tesla Tower. With it, you control a blue and red energy, let's call them positive and negative respectively. Additionally, you gain access to the ability to teleport short distances. It is with these two mechanics that the grand majority of Teslagrad is played.
While you play you'll come across numerous boxes and platforms that can be manipulated with the energy, along with others that are permanently set as one color or the other.To get through the various areas, you'll need to either draw these blocks towards each other with opposing colors, or pushing them apart by matching them. This can help to open doorways, create your own staircase, or even a springboard to reach a higher area.
You'll find energy forces, constantly pushing in a singular direction. These, combined with the fixed platforms will make use of you being the object that needs to move instead of manipulating a box. Some areas will have a small spider-bot (or a constant flow of them) and touching one of these will activate the energy in you, shooting you in the direction the force is moving.
The teleportation, combined with traditional platforming elements, make up the remainder of the games challenge. Your character can perform a ledge grab, so you don't need to be picture perfect with your landing and teleporting, but it can still be quite the test.
My favorite thing about this game is the inclusion of boss fights without direct combat. While you do punch to make use of the energy tech, it's not a damage dealing punch. Still, there are boss fights in Teslagrad which you can win by essentially manipulating the environment to work for you. Take, for instance, the first boss of the game (pictured above). It's mouth stands agape while it swings a tractor beam back and forth across the level. To deal damage, you'll need to activate the energy in one of the many boxes traveling by, for it to be sucked up, dealing damage.
Teslagrad is easily one of my favorite titles I've played thus far on the Switch. I absolutely love the approach they took for telling the story, and how even despite they're being no direct combat with your enemies, everything still comes off feeling like a fight. Believe me when I say this game is a lot of fun, it's beautifully written, and the setting is so much fun to explore (I'll admit I'm a sucker for steampunk). This is definitely a game you'll enjoy every moment of while you're playing. Hell, I wasn't paying attention one day when I fired it up, and I accidentally restarted my file. Wasn't upset at all.
Also, stay tuned because at some point over the next couple of weeks I will be covering Rain Games's follow up title, World to the West which expands on the universe created here in this game.
While you play you'll come across numerous boxes and platforms that can be manipulated with the energy, along with others that are permanently set as one color or the other.To get through the various areas, you'll need to either draw these blocks towards each other with opposing colors, or pushing them apart by matching them. This can help to open doorways, create your own staircase, or even a springboard to reach a higher area.
You'll find energy forces, constantly pushing in a singular direction. These, combined with the fixed platforms will make use of you being the object that needs to move instead of manipulating a box. Some areas will have a small spider-bot (or a constant flow of them) and touching one of these will activate the energy in you, shooting you in the direction the force is moving.
The teleportation, combined with traditional platforming elements, make up the remainder of the games challenge. Your character can perform a ledge grab, so you don't need to be picture perfect with your landing and teleporting, but it can still be quite the test.
My favorite thing about this game is the inclusion of boss fights without direct combat. While you do punch to make use of the energy tech, it's not a damage dealing punch. Still, there are boss fights in Teslagrad which you can win by essentially manipulating the environment to work for you. Take, for instance, the first boss of the game (pictured above). It's mouth stands agape while it swings a tractor beam back and forth across the level. To deal damage, you'll need to activate the energy in one of the many boxes traveling by, for it to be sucked up, dealing damage.
Teslagrad is easily one of my favorite titles I've played thus far on the Switch. I absolutely love the approach they took for telling the story, and how even despite they're being no direct combat with your enemies, everything still comes off feeling like a fight. Believe me when I say this game is a lot of fun, it's beautifully written, and the setting is so much fun to explore (I'll admit I'm a sucker for steampunk). This is definitely a game you'll enjoy every moment of while you're playing. Hell, I wasn't paying attention one day when I fired it up, and I accidentally restarted my file. Wasn't upset at all.
Also, stay tuned because at some point over the next couple of weeks I will be covering Rain Games's follow up title, World to the West which expands on the universe created here in this game.
Rating : 9.5/10
Developed and Published by : Rain Games
Also Available On : PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One, Wii U, PC/Mac
