Teslagrad

Drew has pledged to slowly but slowly churn his way through his sizeable stack of Nintendo Switch games for his ‘Beat the Backlog’ feature. Check out his main article to see what games he’s completed already!

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Another one of my past festive purchases, Teslagrad from Rain Games, looked destined to be something I enjoyed from the moment I laid eyes on it. A Metroidvania armed with some interesting mechanics, a sweet little art style and a steampunk theme? This is very well equipped to grab my attention! I absolutely love Metroidvania games -especially those that aren’t marathon in length-  so I was actually a little surprised to see Teslagrad still gathering dust, unplayed, over three years after I bought it. Thankfully, I recently had a week off from my day job to sit around in my underwear and play video games with few other responsibilities, so I thought it was high time I gave it a go!

From a gameplay perspective, there’s little not to like about Teslagrad, which successfully mixes the traditional with the unique. The game takes place inside the walls of a huge castle that stands at the centre of the titular city, and you’ll get around using good old fashioned run and jump platforming mechanics, avoiding hazards and enemies as you go. Making matters more interesting are the electro-magical elements of the castle, which our main character can interact with using a collection of ancient artefacts, allowing him to overcome the secrets of the castle. The puzzle design is great in Teslagrad – it uses simple to understand elements in conjunction with one another to create unique problems that take just the right amount of brain power and skill to complete. 

The game has you changing polarity to open doorways, learning how to build up momentum to fling yourself (and items) around, and teleport-dashing your way through walls to make your way around the castle, avoiding molten iron, sneaking past shadow beasties and dealing with mechanical guardians as you go. The magnetism mechanics, while very good fun, can be a little unreliable though, especially when it comes to things like speed and momentum. There were times when I had to try at a specific puzzle over and over again – despite knowing exactly what to do, I couldn’t get the desired result from the game, and this led to a fair few frustrating moments.

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Teslagrad At a Glance

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Dotted throughout the game are some notable boss encounters, which are something of a mixed bag. The big baddies definitely made for a nice change of pace from leaping over electrical zappers and figuring out how to overcome an obstacle, but they did little to be especially memorable and didn’t really stand out in the way of their design. Additionally, I feel like the bosses often relied on some of the more finicky elements of the mechanics, causing you to repeat them more times than you’d like, annoyance growing every time.

While I fully expected to enjoy the platforming and puzzle mechanics just from watching the trailer, what caught me by surprise was how impressively Teslagrad tells its story. In the intro, we see a man in curious garb secret a child away to a lonely house; the man quickly leaves and many years seem to pass. Before we know it, a group of hostile soldiers arrive at the house, and fearfully, the mother shoos the now-grown child out of the backdoor and onto the rain soaked city streets in a panic. As the soldiers chase you through alleyways and across rooftops, you’re bombarded with imagery of a war-torn country; posters warning of oppressive civil restrictions, obvious propaganda, and statues gloating at past defeats. Teslagrad is clearly a tale of oppression and revolution and I loved how quickly the game impresses this upon you. Upon reaching the castle, where the majority of the game takes place, the environmental storytelling is kicked into high gear, with painted murals, stained glass windows and even elaborate puppeteered stage plays telling the tale of your character’s ancestry and the betrayal your people have fought to overcome.

The tale is even deeper for more completionist players, as you’ll find cards scattered throughout the game that expand on various parts of the lore and give you a greater insight into the history of the world. The cards come in sets of three and are collected in a non-linear fashion, meaning that you can sometimes be left in suspense for ages as you wait to find out more details about a particular topic. I was entirely enthralled by the history of the two warring tribes and loved the almost comic book stylisation of the cards – to me they were absolutely addicting, and there was no way I was finishing the game without finding them all. Using the history of the world as the optional sidequest is a complete masterstroke in my opinion, and I was glad to scour every nook and cranny of the castle over my 8-hour play through to understand the tale in full.

Visually, I liked what Rain Games did with Teslagrad, but then I always am a sucker for hand-drawn artwork. The style has a certain soft edged look that has since become synonymous with the mobile RPG market, but I think it looks nice enough and certainly offers a solid, consistent look to the game. As I mentioned above, the historical elements of the game are portrayed particularly well, with wall paintings and murals hitting the exact spot between mysterious and understandable, and the optional cards telling their stories incredibly clearly. The environments are a little mixed, with some coming across as a little filler-y, while others stand out as being quite unique and characterful. Perhaps my only genuine criticism of the visuals is that some of the animations are a little lacking, with the number of frames used being noticeably low from time to time. 

The music in Teslagrad is impressive and really turned up my enjoyment of the game. With a mix of traditional platform-sounding jingles to much more sinister and atmospheric dirges, this is a soundtrack that waxes and wanes with the gameplay. Perhaps the most unexpected song in the OST happens to be my favourite; it’s a bouncy, playful string and xylophone affair that scores your exploration of a huge biodome filled with trees and lush greenery. 

Bear and Cat have nailed the sense of innocent, wide-eyed wonder that should accompany such a place, and it’s just such a jolly little tune that I can’t help but love it. The musical score works in an impressive tandem with the on screen depictions throughout the entire game, and there’s no better example than climbing Teslagrad Tower. I got goosebumps hearing the angelic hymn rise in concert with the climb – reaching a beautiful crest exactly as I reached the pinnacle to look out over the land below. The attention to detail in this scene is impeccable.

Perhaps the most telling thing about my playthrough of Teslagrad is that I immediately bought the sequel upon completing it. As a man who’s made a pledge to enjoy the games I’ve already paid for before buying more, the fact that I was convinced to add Teslagrad II to my backlog should speak to how much I enjoyed what Rain Games put together here. 

Teslagrad spins an interesting tale off the back of an interesting gameplay mechanic, coalescing into a game that’s fun to play from start to finish. Flinging yourself around using electromagnetism makes for some excellent platforming and puzzle solving, and the tale of dystopian revolution is magnificently told, at least for those who seek out the necessary pieces. Perhaps only lacking in a little bit of reliability in the mechanics and a bigger visual budget, Teslagrad does a great job flying the flag for alternative Metroidvanias and deserves an incredible amount of praise.

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