You start each stage at level 1, and earn experience by killing enemies earn enough, and you level up. Unlike the other items, there’s always one mech piece on the ground-pick it up, and get spawns immediately somewhere else-go much of the game revolves around tracking down those pieces, trying not to get overwhelmed along the way, and then culling the herd when you finally get to jump into your mech.Įach stage also has a discrete levelling system, through which you gradually get stronger as the battle goes on. When you collect six of them, you get to use said suit for a short time, making you invincible and far deadlier than regular old Tesla on foot. The most important items you’ll find, though, are pieces of Tesla’s mech suit.
If you’re lucky, you’ll find a health pack. Sometimes, you’ll find limited-use special moves, like a shockwave or a souped up frisbee that bounces off walls. Often these are different weapons, from a simple revolver to a shotgun that fires a spread of electrical parties. Once the last wave is taken down, it’s straight onto the next level to do it all again.Įnemies come thick and fast, and the only way to survive is to make good use of power-ups that regularly spawn across the map. The goal of each level is simply to kill all the monsters and not die-a horde mode, essentially.
You play as Tesla, fending off wave after wave of monsters with your electrically-charged weapons and gadgets. Instead, it’s a run of the mill but well put together twin-stick shooter in Lovecraftian dressing. There’s a complex, exciting story just waiting to be told with this contradictory ideologies and historical legends, so Tesla vs Lovecraft’s lack of anything of he sort feels like a huge missed opportunity. On the other hand, you’ve got a body of literature that’s fascinated with the insignificance of humankind on a cosmic scale and the folly of ambitious scientific endeavour. In the one hand, you’ve got a brilliant inventor who made huge contributions to the world but who’s been legendised as a sort of mad scientist with a penchant for creating deadly experimental weapons. This is especially disappointing here, considering how well Tesla and Lovecraft should go together. Considering how much philosophical depth there is to Lovecraft’s work (racism aside), it’s always a shame when a Lovecraft-inspired game begins and ends with “wow, isn’t this monster bizarre-looking”.
Instead, those influences are kept as superficial as possible: cool weapons and weird monsters. Bringing together the legends of Tesla and Lovecraft could have opened the door to a deep, thought-provoking story, or at least a dramatically entertaining one. That’s my biggest frustration with the game. The reasons for their feud aren’t clear a brief opening cutscene shows Lovecraft burning down Tesla’s lab just before a big demonstration, but that’s about the extent of the game’s narrative. It was probably inevitable that at some point in time, somebody would bring the two together.Įnter Tesla vs Lovecraft, a twin stick shooter that sees Tesla facing off against hordes of eldritch monsters across the streets of Arkham. Tesla’s electrical inventions and proposals for weaponised electricity have inspired many a character and video game weapon over the years, while almost any work of horror carries some degree of influence from Lovecraft’s indescribable cosmic horrors. Lovecraft have both had their share pop cultural appearances over the years.
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