Tesla Force is a rogue-lite top-down shooter game developed and published by 10tons. It is widely considered to be a spiritual successor to Tesla vs Lovecraft, a previously published 10tons’ game with a similar premise and gameplay. In this most recent installment, four historical heroes (Nikola Tesla, H.P. Lovecraft, Marie Curie, and Mary Shelly) team up to fight hordes of terrifying, tentacle-like creatures from another dimension to send them back to the cosmic hell that they spawned from.
You first get control of Tesla and Marie Curie, who both have different stats and special abilities. Tesla can temporarily pilot a powerful and handy mech that can quickly cut down large groups of enemies, while Marie Curie can wield two weapons that can be helpful when fighting against elite enemies and bosses. Once you collect enough resources, you’ll be able to unlock H.P. Lovecraft and Mary Shelly, who also come with their own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to annihilating monsters.
The gameplay of Tesla Force is separated into three main chapters, which consist of stages with brief missions attached to each one. These missions are limited and consist mostly of repairing towers, closing Aether rifts, and analyzing data. During these missions, you take on endless spawns of different monsters while using unique weaponry, temporary power-ups/perks, health boosts, and crystals that are scattered around the map to defend yourself until the objective is complete. After a successful mission, you will be awarded weapon, perk, and ability upgrades that make things easier along the way. When you complete enough missions, you’ll face the final boss of the chapter, which can be challenging if you haven’t picked up enough of these upgrades.
Another thing to be aware of is that death results in restarting the entire chapter. You’ll be sent back to your home base where you can use the resources you collected out in the field to buy permanent upgrades and weapons. You can also switch your character from here as well if Tesla or Marie Curie isn’t doing you any favors. This will help when strategizing a second attempt as you continue improving your characters until their ready to take on the bosses. While restarting a chapter can be annoying, it’s comforting to know that the stages themselves are short and simple most of the time.
The gameplay is addicting at first as using the various weaponry and abilities at your disposal is extremely satisfying. The electric Tesla-style weaponry along with being able to feel like an unstoppable force of nature in the mech kept me going for those first few hours. Unfortunately, that invigorating feeling quickly lost its luster after a while when the missions became too monotonous. Once you’ve done one type of mission, prepare to do it again over and over. It’s hard to get invested in the gameplay when a key element of it becomes very tiresome. While having the option for co-op and four different characters is a smart choice to keep things interesting, it doesn’t help fix the dullness in Tesla Force’s gameplay. This is considered a game where you shouldn’t play for long periods of time and only in short sessions. It’s that reason why having this game on Switch is preferable since you can quickly jump in and enjoy it for a while at any time.
Tesla Force on Switch runs smoothly and the colorful effects stood out, making blasting an enemy satisfying for two reasons. The area maps themselves were a bit repetitive at times but gave a lot of room strategize combat as you’re teleporting around hordes of monsters to survive. While the art-style had its charm, there were moments when the enemies seemed like they were blending into the visually bland environments.
While the gameplay itself isn’t very innovative and can be fatiguing at times, Telsa Force still provides a very enjoyable experience while also utilizing a fascinating concept. For those of you who are fans of top-down twin-stick shooters, it’s worth downloading on your Switch just to try it out.
8/10
Check Out the Tesla Force Trailer:
For more information, please visit: http://www.teslaforcegame.com/
Nintendo Switch Review
I've loved playing video games ever since I first played Battletoads on the NES when I was a kid. Since then, I've played a wide variety of games on different systems, including Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and have mostly gravitated towards open-world RPGs and action-adventure games with amazing storylines and character arcs. I'm passionate when comes to writing and interested in working as a narrative designer.
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