Having performed Teslagrad Remastered just a few weeks in the past, we had a singular likelihood to sit down and picture what we’d do with the sequel, moments earlier than we truly bought to play it. We imagined a deeper story and longer runtime. We fancied that builders Rain Video games would create a extra intricate Metroidvania-like world, with much more collectibles nestled into every nook. And we anticipated artwork as refined and pleasant as the primary recreation.
Mistaken, incorrect, incorrect, incorrect and proper. It reveals what we find out about recreation growth. However inside these subverted expectations is a optimistic: isn’t it nice when a sequel comes alongside and speeds off in a path you least count on? We ended up stunned, a bit of delighted, and – on multiple event – a bit of wistful that it didn’t take up a number of of these gauntlets.
Teslagrad 2 doesn’t notably decide up the baton from the place Teslagrad left it. We’re in a brand new world – Wyrmheim, very fashionably riffing on Scandinavian delusion – with a brand new character, Lumina. She’s escaping viking oppressors, which brings her into contact with a lot the identical powers as Teslagrad’s boy. Quickly, she is attracting and repelling blocks, partitions and ceilings utilizing fundamental powers of electromagnetism.
We thought Teslagrad 2 would double-down on story, just like the Inside and Limbo-like opening moments of the primary recreation. However as an alternative it reverses away from them. Teslagrad 2 isn’t notably curious about what its world means or what Lumina’s place is inside it: the closest we get to story is beamed by means of TV screens and murals. We’ll maintain our palms up and admit being a bit of disenchanted that the physics-based gameplay took a entrance seat once more. It’s such a vibrant, attention-grabbing world that it looks as if negligence to disregard it.
What we get as an alternative is platform-puzzling primarily based round these electromagnetism skills. They begin out easy and acutely harking back to the primary recreation, however then shoots off in a very new and impressive path. Sonic the Hedgehog eat your coronary heart out, as Lumina quickly positive factors a dash potential that dovetails neatly with the attraction mechanics. She scoots up partitions and waterfalls, leaping over chasms to draw to partitions on the opposite aspect. Abruptly, we had been taking part in OlliOlliWorld or Sonic Mania fairly than Teslagrad 2.
This may both be an excellent factor or one thing of a disappointment, primarily based in your expectations. We’ll admit to skewing in direction of the latter, merely due to what it does to the Metroidvania construction. Abruptly, we had been careening by means of the world at nice pace, and there was an abiding sense that we had been lacking issues. What was in that door we handed, and will now we have picked up that collectible? However returning to these areas, we discovered that we hadn’t missed a lot. Collectibles, like playing cards and secret upgrades, don’t have a lot bearing on Teslagrad 2, which creates an ungainly dichotomy of skipping ranges with out truly skipping all that a lot.
It had the impact of creating Teslagrad 2’s world much less dense, intricate and value exploring. The designers had been clearly racing to maintain up, too, so out went the labyrinthine stage design of the primary recreation (admittedly dropping the backtracking too, which we didn’t miss in any respect), and in got here one thing extra linear. You’re a juggernaut heading to the tip of the sport, and little or no stops you, outdoors of some bosses and puzzle sticking-points. Once more, it’s horses for programs, however we felt like Teslagrad 2 was a extra throwaway recreation for it.
Teslagrad 2 is just not a Tolstoyan epic. It’s over in a number of hours (5 in case you’re us, and also you get caught on the moose boss or fail to determine that sure skills had explicit, helpful unwanted side effects). That’s not an issue in and of itself: a recreation that enthralls for a day is simply as worthwhile to us as a Brobdingnagian RPG like Starfield. However as we stood on the recreation’s finish and appeared again, we felt emptier than we did first time spherical. We weren’t as compelled to replay; we didn’t really feel like we had been pushed to the sides of our puzzling potential; and the collectibles, the glittering baubles that tempted us final time spherical, simply weren’t as glittery.
We ponder whether we got here to Teslagrad 2 in fully the incorrect mindset. As an alternative of taking part in this ten years after the primary recreation, as so many gamers will, we performed it a few weeks later. That not solely results in a bit of fatigue, however means we had been consistently evaluating the 2. Plus we did that silly train of imagining what our model of Teslagrad 2 could be. Abruptly, we had one thing that Teslagrad 2 didn’t dare to match.
As a result of there’s some fantastic craft right here. It might probably’t be talked about sufficient how ridiculously fairly Teslagrad 2 is. You’ll be able to wander into an architrave or cavernous passage with the daylight beaming by means of and cease to surprise. It’s able to taking the breath away in that regard. Whereas we’re not sure if the Norse people music matches the entire gameplay eventualities, it’s additionally lilting and highly effective in equal measure.
Plus there’s a few of puzzle gaming’s best minds at Rain Video games. When issues get difficult, they get very very difficult, and it will possibly bake the noodle making an attempt to determine what the sport needs from you. Equally, it by no means goes to date into issue which you could’t ultimately comprehend the mixture of skills that get you previous the spiky vines or stalagmites. We’d have taken a touch system for these moments the place we felt irretrievably caught, however we all the time discovered a method out of our predicament.
We’ve no illusions about which of the 2 Teslagrads we want. The primary recreation, just lately remastered, is simply that little bit extra thought of, intelligent and rewarding. Teslagrad 2 ups the cool issue by handing you a breakneck slide, letting you glide about like Sonic, however the end result lacks the primary recreation’s finesse. However we’re nonetheless within the presence of some improbable artists and puzzle designers, so that you might be reassured that it’s value clearing a number of hours of your afternoon to reap the rewards of ten years of sequel growth.
