Teslagrad Review (PC)

Teslagrad is a fun little 2D puzzle platformer from Rain Games that follows the adventures of a small boy trying to discover the long-lost secrets of the Tesla Tower with the use of his newly-found electromagnetic powers.

The indie two-dimensional side-scrolling puzzle platformer genre has been a bit overplayed as of late, with developers throwing games of varying quality left and right and eventually reaching a point where the market is a bit saturated.

The glory days of old arcade classics are also gone, and nowadays such a game has to do something more than simply exist in order to warrant playing and not get lost in the ocean of small titles.

As such, making a good enough platformer to pique the interest of the crowds is not as easy a task as it may seem at first glance, and many new developers get lost in the murky depths of anonymity. Let's see how Teslagrad fares.

Story and gameplay

The developers at Rain Games have opted to present the storyline of Teslagrad in a non-traditional manner. The usual way to do exposition is through a cinematic introduction followed by cutscenes or narrated voice-overs at key moments in the action.

Instead, they rely on a purely visual representation of the backstory, reminiscent of traditional toy theater performances. There is no text, no narration, just symbolic representations of past events that the player has to piece together in order to comprehend what's going on.

Players are thrown into a steampunk-inspired old-time Europe in the role of a young boy who finds himself on the run from the despotic monarch's agents, not knowing what is going on. Along the way, the secrets unfold and he learns that he is at the core of an ancient conspiracy involving the despotic king that has brought the nation into tyranny.

The gameplay focuses mainly on action platforming, with many physics-based puzzles thrown into the mix. The main theme of the game is magnetism, and Teslagrad's makers have been exceedingly creative crafting this game around it.

Most of the things you can interact with (and some of those you can't) are usually polarized to either blue or red, similar to how cartoon magnets are depicted. You have to take advantage of the interactions between them in order to successfully navigate the levels.

The main character will quickly find three artifacts to help him in his quest, the first of which is an electric glove that can help him change the polarity of the stuff he punches.

The second are some nifty blitz boots that allow him to blink over short distances or through obstacles, and the last is a magnetic cloak that allows the wearer to get charged with the desired magnetic polarity.

The three items are introduced gradually, and although you do get them pretty fast, you get to play around and get used to them enough that using them quickly becomes second nature.

Another nice thing is that, after finding each one of them, if you backtrack your steps, you will usually find some way to use the newly-acquired item in a way that allows you to reach an area that was inaccessible before.

The gameplay is very solid, at least in the beginning, and you can feel the way the game unfolds around you, with its mechanics slowly being revealed and gradually putting you to the test.

Teslagrad's developers have really tried to keep things interesting, and it feels like each new room was designed with a different way to navigate it in mind, which is really enthralling, because you don't get bored going through the levels.

The main gameplay mechanics feel very rewarding, the jumping around and blinking from place to place, using your magnetic cloak to travel through magnetic fields or to hang on to polarized girders, are all very dynamic and immensely fun.

The magnetism mechanics are very natural and don't start to feel recycled very soon either; rather, they become second nature and you'll just know what to do in order to get further in most cases, mesmerized by the developers' creativity.

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Another thing that will have players mesmerized is the difficulty of Teslagrad. The developers are certainly old-school platforming fans, as the game feels pretty unforgiving most of the time.

Many of the zones have to be traversed through a precise sequence of frantic actions that allow for little error, and it will unfortunately become increasingly frustrating to play when you die over and over because of platforming legacy.

This is where the game loses the most – its very good pacing comes to a stumble when you get stuck because of dexterity-related issues. At first it seems like a bit of a challenge is a good thing, but sometimes you have a clear solution in your head but are just unable to achieve it due to the precise timing required.

This unforgiving attitude is the game's biggest enemy, as boredom starts to install not while playing the game, but while having to go through the same electric arc time and time again until you get the blink right only to land on the one under it, or while having to go once again through the whole boss fight because you botched the last jump.

Another thing dragging Teslagrad down is the way the character jumps. It feels as if he has to struggle against inertia, and it's sometimes difficult – if not impossible – to perform certain actions that you feel should be available in a platformer.

The platforming days of yore also shine through in the scroll collecting department, and while some of the scrolls you have to obtain in order to get bits of the storyline are in areas that make sense, others feel like they are just randomly hidden and close to impossible to find without resorting to a game guide.

Sound and visuals

The sound production is pretty good, the sound effects suit what's happening on the screen, and it never gets noisy, as the game screen rarely gets crowded.

The background music is very nice and appropriate. It has a natural feel of belonging in the game's pictured setting, and it complements the action rather nicely, slowing down when things are relaxed and picking up pace when you start moving faster.

The soundtrack mixes the orchestral compositions with the industrial ongoings of the Tesla Tower quite nicely, feeling very evocative of the somber events taking place outside of the Tower, keeping a certain sense of urgency throughout the journey.

The visuals are also pretty strong for a 2D game, the hand-painted environments present quite a bit of variation, and some of the scenery is absolutely beautiful.

The artists have managed, for the most part, to achieve the sense of electricity and industrialism slowly permeating the environments, and the glowing effects from fireflies and polarized objects look really nice, especially when contrasting with the darker surroundings.

That being said, some of the animations do seem to be a bit lackluster and the strong visual cues of the magnetic fields tend to become bothersome in areas where they are prevalent, especially in places where you will respawn a lot.

Conclusion