Teslagrad

I got Teslagrad during a sale due to a recommendation and the fact that it was a puzzle platformer – this is one of my favourite genres. Actually I’m not sure if favourite is the right word when I end up screaming at the TV in blood-curdling frustration, but they do provide a challenge that comes in small doses. Also, they only tend to have the one difficulty level and require single playthroughs for achievements. Teslagrad fits this bill perfectly.

Teslagrad sees you take a little boy into a castle after running away from evil looking Russian dudes. You have to use electrical/magnetic powers to navigate through various puzzle rooms until you find your ancestry and travel… somewhere to fight some king or something. It’s all a bit weird from a story perspective.

When you aren’t using powers to navigate through the castle, you will also come across unique and challenging boss fights. These were a change of pace from the rest of the game and usually had one solution for victory and follows the nostalgic pattern of score 3 hits and win. The boss battle pattern changes and gets harder after every hit too.

There isn’t really much more to say about the game other than I found the layout and map of the castle ridiculously confusing. You can backtrack everywhere but there is no option to move the map around (apparently there is but this wasn’t apparent or didn’t work in my game) to see all of it from where you are which makes planning any routes an episode in frustration and luck. Essentially, you need a bloody good memory and I can’t imagine playing this game, taking a long break, and then coming back to it without having to start again due to the fact I would have no idea what to do after I stopped playing.

The game is set as a 2D format where you have to climb up, drop down and move forward through the various rooms of the environment. Musically, it doesn’t do anything to detract from the game – not often I have no complaints in this area. In fact, that’s two reviews in a row.

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 40 Achievements

It is almost possible to make it through the entire game without getting any of the achievements bar one. The only one you cannot avoid is for beating the King. This achievement, and part of the game, is one of the most frustrating fights I’ve done for a long time.

He has many cheap attacks and sometimes you can do what feels like the same thing, only to be killed one time but not the other. Once you get used to his attacks though, it’s quite easy to get to the end of the fight but then it feels like blind luck whether you get an opportunity to inflict that third hit or not.

The other 39 achievements are collectible related. There are 36 scrolls which need to be found to unlock the true ending. There is another secret achievement for finding a picture of a cat too. In order to get all of these, I used a handy video guide. This also helped in solving some of the harder puzzles in the game – some of which felt ridiculously luck based.

The hardest one of the scrolls to get involved having to go up a magnet lift thing while avoiding electrical fences that will kill you on one touch. You have to get up there in one go and really fast as you are racing against the scroll which you will be able to see on the left side of the screen. Even if you do get to the top in time, you will need to time a dash jump to perfection to get the scroll. This took me two attempts so you can imagine my frustration after navigating the death maze to miss the scroll and have to start again.

Downloadable Content – N/A

Teslagrad was a fun 6 hours of gameplay. The story didn’t grab me but the gameplay was exactly what I was looking for. Achievements wise, it’s very doable but slightly frustrating and challenging in places. It’s certainly doable though. There won’t be much replay value after you have gone everywhere and done everything though.