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Tesla and his team of historic figures against hordes of monsters | First Impressions - Tesla Force

608 View2023-04-10

Tesla Force is set in a world where Nikola Tesla's inventions have started glitching and are opening portals around the world, spawning beings from another dimension that mostly resembles lovecraftian horror beings. It’s up to Nikola Tesla himself and his ragtag group of historical figures to stop this madness once and for all.

Players can play as one of the four characters – Tesla, Lovecraft, Curie, and Shelley; and embark on a rogue-lite progression campaign with the characters using various electropunk-based weapons, abilities, and technologies to battle and kill monsters.

The gameplay in Tesla Force is fast-paced and challenging, requiring quick reflexes, precise aiming, and strategic thinking, resulting in a frantic fun experience where surviving is the ultimate goal. Players move around the screen using the left stick and aim their weapon with the right stick, either as a touch input or on a supported physical controller.

Each time the player starts a new run, they begin at the first level with a basic loadout depending on their current permanent unlocks. As they progress through the run, they can collect new weapons and perks that modify their character, earn experience points, and unlock new abilities. Players can also pilot Mechas for a limited time upon spawning, and upon risking to collect all parts scattered around the map, will provide some massive boosts to damage and survivability.

However, if the player dies, they lose all of their campaign progress and must start over from the beginning except for what they unlock permanently using energy and crystals. This system encourages players to experiment with different loadouts and strategies, making each playthrough feel unique, while still being able to slowly get powerful over time.

My experience with Tesla Force has been a mix of both casual arcade gameplay and a challenging rogue-lite ordeal. Its individual missions are fun to play and can sometimes be mindless, but will ultimately still need some player finesse to survive. While its rogue-lite progression is forgiving enough to restarting players while still providing a hardcore element by resetting the campaign upon death.

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