Review: Tesla Vs Lovecraft (Steam)

Tesla vs Lovecraft is an intense top-down twin stick arena shooter from the creators of Crimsonland and Neon Chrome. Play as the enigmatic inventor Nikola Tesla harnessing the static energy to power up Tesla-Mech and give the lovecraftian nightmares a lesson in horror!

Pros:

  • Awesome looking graphics.
  • 381MB Download size.
  • Steam achievements.
  • Trading cards.
  • Full controller support.
  • Opening tutorial.
  • Top-down shooter gameplay.
  • Local co-op support.
  • Graphics- Resolution, Windowed, Post processing, Bloom, Gore, Particle detail, Body decay time, Number of enemies on screen counter slider and camera distance.
  • Controls- Can rebind keyboard/Mouse and controller.
  • Four profile slots.
  • World map level select.
  • Three planes of existence to explore- Normal, Aether, and Eldritch.
  • Daily missions.
  • Crystals- Earn from missions/dailies and use to buy permanent upgrades and buffs.
  • Survival mode with online leaderboards.
  • Monsterpedia-Library of enemies and the current tally of how many kills each.
  • Kill X amount of monsters of each type to earn stat/damage boosts against them.
  • Every game you start at level 1 and level up by killing enemies. At each level up you pick from a set of random perks.
  • Powerups appear in-game from abilities like nukes to new weapons.
  • Collect Mech parts to make your mech and use its awesome firepower.
  • Big boss battles and when fighting a boss you can get “The madness” the screen will go funny, You get weird random illusions or effects.
  • Very atmospheric.
  • Easy to get into.
  • Plays like a twin-stick shooter.
  • Unlock/find new weapons/abilities and perks to enable them to join the random power-up spawn pool.
  • 24 perks to unlock.
  • 11 abilities to unlock.
  • 10 weapons to unlock.
  • The screen can fill up quickly with enemies with each kind moving in their own way. The tiny ones will group together and swarm you whilst bigger ones will charge and so much more.
  • Clear minimal UI.
  • Can replay levels.
  • Fast loading.
  • Teleport is a move you have to aid movement.
  • So much fun to play.
  • Addictive.
  • Loads to unlock and earn to keep you busy.
  • On-screen icons for powerups and mech parts.
  • Cool Cthulhu spawns altars.
  • You generally need to kill x amount of enemies to clear the level but allowing an altar to stay up actually brings more enemies.
  • The destructible scenery from walls to fences.

Cons:

  • Can get very difficult especially on boss fights.
  • RNG affects progress a lot later on.
  • No online co-op.
  • Can feel repetitive.
  • Mech takes a lot of parts and doesn’t last that long.

The Numbers:
  • 9/10
    Graphics - 9/10
  • 9/10
    Sound - 9/10
  • 9/10
    Accessability - 9/10
  • 9/10
    Length - 9/10
  • 9/10
    Fun Factor - 9/10
9/10

Summary

Without a doubt, this is 10tons greatest work. Taking a lot of Crimson land mechanics, They have fine tuned it and added layers upon layers of content and polish to give us a must own top-down shooter. The theme is perfect for a shooter which surprised me, The locations you battle in are both fitting and gorgeous. I wish they would give us online co-op but aside from that this game makes me very happy indeed, It caused a lot of issues in the office due to its addictive nature. In short this is a must own shooter and it is 10tons finest work! Now please bring it to consoles!

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!