Teslagrad

Very fine game

This review also includes the Remastered version. I have played both individually, both NG and NG+, so I can confirm that writing the same review for both games is totally valid since they are the same game.

The game is awesome. I met it at AGDQ 2016 but for reasons I couldn't play it until now, and the game is as good as I remembered. Lots of smart and carefully crafted puzzles. The movement is so great and fun that lowkey makes me want to speedrun it. The story of the game is great (and I've played Teslagrad 2 so I know it gets deep later) but the best thing about it is how it's delivered, a perfec example of "Show don't tell". The art is amazing, and you can say that the remastered version is better at that, but this game's art is already great, and that comes from someone who isn't a big fan of the steam punk and old Europe style, but damn, the artists here know what they're doing. There are 36 scroll to collect, only 15 are needed to finish the game but you need the 36 for the best ending. Collecting all scroll isn't hard tbh, the hard part is to find them all. Some scrolls are really well hidden, and while it can be frustrating to find them, once you find them you realize that the location is actually smart and fair, they aren't random at all (like the Strawberries in Celeste) and it adds to the fun. The map is a tower and there is a simple way to go all the way up and down, which you'll need if you missed a scroll before the ending. I think the lenght of the game is good enough. I can finish the game in 2-3hs tops now that I know where everything is, but my first playthrough took me aprox 14-15hs in three days.

If I had to say bad or at least not excellent things of the game, the first two boss fights are kinda meh, I would say those are the lowest points of the game. The map is a big tower and at the beginning you explore the tower's entire base, but as you play the game and go up you realize that there are massive blank spaces never visites, so I felt it a little dissapointing. Also with the map, there are some rooms that makes you feel like there must be something else to do there, but just there isn't (I'm looking at you gigantic electric golden bull!). Funny enough, I could say the same "bad things" for Teslagrad 2.

Overall, I absolutely loved this game from beginning to end. It's now on my top 5 favorite games ever. 10/10 would recommend. Go give a hug to your dad.

Metroidvania with a neat artstyle, setting, & ideas. It revolves around using magnetic abilities to move things & propel yourself.

The reason for the negative review is there are a few issues that get worse as the game goes on, eventually leading to some unfunness. Unfunnity. No fun allowed.

The game has almost no enemies, and is mostly focused around solving puzzles per room. You can die to traps, & you respawn at the start of the room. However, you die in 1 hit; electrical fences/floors, lava, etc.

The 1 hit system is fine for smaller room puzzles, but as the game goes on, the puzzles get more difficult, longer, with more steps, & you still have only 1 hit to do them in or else reset to the start.

Bosses are the same; they will have multiple phases with quick new attacks that kill you instantly, so it becomes a trial and error of seeing everything first, then learning how to do it all perfectly.

Additionally, I mentioned you propel yourself & other things with magnetic forces. Naturally, this leads to weighty controls to allow for momentum, as opposed to tight controls. This would be fine, except the game begins to expect tight platforming & movement, which do not work well with weighty movement. And again, this is compounded by puzzles that start to have multiple phases that you must remember to act on perfectly each time.

The pinnacle of this is a collectible you must race up the tower, simultaneously dodging electric lines, but if you move too much to the side, you fall out of the upward magnetic force. But moving your character makes them naturally move that way even when you stop, so there's a lot of adjustments needed, but not a lot of room, especially with the large trap hitboxes. Plus, the camera has your character at the top, so you have little time to react. And at the very end, you must time grabbing the item as it flies by. Just look up Scroll #30 and save yourself the frustration of playing the game.

In short, the game becomes an exercise is frustration unnecessarily. There should've been a bit more gracious room for you to move if it focuses on weighty movement. Puzzles could be split up, or there could be traps that don't instantly kill you.

Conceptually nice, but controls felt a bit weird. The boss fights were really frustrating and felt unpolished.

I love it

I love a lot of aspects about this game. Its music is nice, the art work is great, and many of the puzzles are really well put together. The tools and mechanics feel fun and interesting.

I want to love this game, as there is a lot to love about it. However, you far too often you end up with a puzzle that requires you to wait around for a very long time, then sudden you have to do a series of very fast and tight movements, or you will have to do the whole puzzle over again. That would be fine, if your character didn't have ridiculous loves of acceleration and deceleration at times when it doesn't make sense. Often times when you think you are safe, you are not, and your feet are coated in a thick layer of high grade american butter, resulting in you slipping off of things that you really should not have.

Another sour point for me are the boss battles. They are very creative, but their very nature of being a puzzle based boss battle, and one hit you die, you end you replaying the first parts of the boss battle over and over and over and over. I will admit that I am not the best plat former, or puzzle solver, but whole crap does it get old doing the same thing so many times just to get 1 more chance to trying something new in the puzzle, only for it to no work and its back to the slog.

There is probably an interesting story in there, I found a lot of collectibles that showed a lot of things, and there are these theaters that you come across that show you story stuff, but after spending so much time having to redo so much game content just to move a little bit forward, I stopped caring. And I no longer have any drive to finish the game.

This game will scratch an itch for a specific type of gamer and will get a lot of enjoyment out of it, but care to much about my free time keep bashing my head against arbitrary brick walls.

Teslagrad had been in my library for quite sometime. Finally I gave it a chance and I can honestly say that it exceeded my expectations. The gameplay is not perfect but decent. Collecting those 36 scrolls was sometimes challenging but also fun. The art style, music, especially the music in the end were a blessing. I spent nine hours in total and it left a very positive impression on me. Such a sweet experience.

Pretty magnetic gameplay if you ask me

The perpetual unity and segregation of positive and negative electrons will make this game attractive to platform gamers of all ages. The trailer really pulled me in but what sticks with you the most is the compelling story, drawing you closer to a an electrically charged finale. Polar opposites to games I usually play but I really enjoyed it.

It also has magnets and stuff.

Teslagrad is a puzzle platformer with light metroid elements.

To start, note that I hate puzzle games, but love metroid games. This one definitely focuses on the former more than anything.

Traversing the world and solving puzzles is all based around magnetism and physics.

If it was just magnets, it would be playable, but since you have to jump just the right way at just the right angle and speed, it quickly becomes a disaster. Most of the time, the magnets won't do anything because you're moving too fast or too slow. It literally makes the game unplayable. Solving puzzles can be satisfying but a lot of the time it's not, because I was like, "phew, I guess I just happened to jump the right way this time."

I quit the game, getting stuck on a part that requires changing polarization in midair, and if you aren't at the right speed and angle, you die. And I'm not about to start breaking down complex scientific equations to figure it out, cuz I don't like the game...or math and science for that matter.

I fought two bosses. Both were terrible. The second boss especially is very boring, and because you die in one hit, it's a trial and error based fight, which just adds to the tedium.

I got this for like $1.50. Thank goodness, cuz that's about all it's worth. Actually, no it's not. It'd have to be playable and have its mechanics ACTUALLY WORK!

The best part is the first 3 minutes where you're just running from some people, climbing buildings for whatever reason.

The only good thing I can say is the graphics are beautiful.

Great little game, 5-10hrs to beat, the puzzles aren't hard, It knows when it's outstaying its welcome. The controller support is a little wonky, but it's nothing you can't forgive. The game is so charming that it's hard to put down. If you're a fan of platform games, definitely give this one a go.

Great puzzle platformer! Amazing graphics!