Teslagrad is a 2D Puzzle-Platformer with a heavy steampunk influence from developer Rain Games published on Xbox by Snow Cannon Games, previously released on Steam the game has made its way to Xbox One on March 9th 2016, here we are with the review.

 

Right off the bat you feel the sense of mystery, you start off as a young boy, who's name you don’t know, in fact there is no text or dialogue, just visual animation and short cut scene where the actions of the characters give you some sense of what's going on. Every scene is beautifully set, from the game drawn characters, to the animated background with a 2.5D effect. If you played games like Limbo, or Braid then you will definitely appreciate the art of Teslagrad. Although the quality of art is similar the gameplay is vastly different from other 2D platformers.

 

Well maybe I should back track on the statement just a bit, you will come across various elements to the game that we have all seen in platformers before. Which of course are puzzles, and plenty of them, also various environmental actions that can be completed to access other parts of the castle. Where the game differs itself is with the magnetic power of your nameless hero in blue. You will also have electro powers as well to help you on your journey, using these powers you can solve puzzles that would otherwise be impossible, but the puzzles them selves are not too creative, most involve getting a object from point A to point B or memorizing visual cues then acting them out.

 

Since I'm a puzzler fan I didn’t mind the not so spectacular design, because the way the executive these actions is pretty fun and the powers make up for lack of originality.

One thing that did bug me in some cases was the fact that what I was supposed to do was quite obvious but trying to perform these actions were sometimes rather difficult, a few puzzles have such a tight path, and when you combine them with the clunky controls it proved rather frustrating. This wasn’t a problem I had throughout my play-through but a few times I found my self in this predicament.

 

Boss fights on the other hand are quite simple if your played a lot of platformers, they play to the same mechanics as most other platformer games, they will have 2-4 stages in which you use patterns to avoid attacks and counter in between the bosses attacks then after a few hit hits you go in for the kill hit per say. Overall pretty easy if you ask me.

 

Graphics wise everything is actually well done, the backgrounds have a somewhat 3D animation to them, living backgrounds you could call them, the characters are all hand drawn which is a nice touch to the game. The lighting effects are executed well. Every aspect of the environment is beautiful done, with good attention to detail, even on otherwise unnoticeable items such as a chair or case.

 

As far as audio is concerned the music fits with the setting, different sections have different tracks, sound effects are as they should be, nothing astounding but not bad either.

 

As for the story I can't get too much into it as then I would be spoiling the game, after all if you are reading the review chance is you haven't played it yet. I can say though that the mystery is what will bring you back to playing the game. You keep feeling  eager to learn more, you want to see you mystery hero succeed. Even more there are capsules hidden in each section that help you learn more about what exactly is going on. I must warn there are 36 of these, if you are not into collecting then you may be a bit annoyed getting them all.

Achievements wise the game is rather easy to complete minus one achievement for collecting all 36 scrolls, of the 40 achievements, 36 are story related and the rest are for the scrolls and 3 somewhat missable achievements for side actions in the game, but with some research and chapter select you can get any achievement you missed. You will be looking at a 6-8 hour completion if you use the proper guides available on Steam or YouTube.

 

Bottom line is for $14.99 you get a good game with unique storytelling we have not seen in a game in resent years. The beautiful graphics and attention to detail combined with a mystery story and fun puzzles along the way prove for a good bargain. This is a game that deserves attention on the otherwise flooded ID@Xbox market. Easy achievements with good gameplay earn this game a thumbs up for me, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone that appreciates good 2D platformers.

 

Final Score - 7/10

 

Written by John aka YoDz

 

Twitter @akaYoDz  Gamertag: YoDz

 

A code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review

 

You can purchase Teslagrad on the Xbox Store Here

 

Release Date - Wednesday‎, ‎March‎ ‎9‎, ‎2016

Price - $14.99

Download Size - 910.27 MB

 

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