GAME
OF THE
DAY
Teslagrad
A hand-drawn magnetic puzzle
If a picture is worth a thousand words, you sometimes wonder why games need dialogue. Teslagrad is a stunning reminder of what can be achieved through visual storytelling alone, and as an added bonus it happens to be a very fine puzzle game.
Its introduction is reminiscent of a classic silent movie. On a rain-lashed evening beneath stormy skies, a young boy leaves his house with burly guards following hot on his heels. A thrilling chase across rooftops and window ledges ensues, before the boy finds refuge in an old castle, the drawbridge rising up to keep out his pursuers.
Within the crumbling confines of this Tesla Tower, you’ll find an array of advanced electromagnetic technology, harnessed through a gauntlet the boy soon discovers.
It works on an easily-understandable ‘opposites attract’ system: blue objects are drawn to red and vice versa, while repelling anything of the same colour.
Teslagrad builds some fiendish challenges around this simple idea. Touching scuttling spider bots gives the boy an aura which he can use to float through energy waves, while blocks become lifts and static floors turn into moving platforms. You’ll need all your wits to avoid the deadly electrical fields and defeat the imposing bosses.
With its carefully crafted animation and hand-painted backgrounds, Teslagrad is as pretty as a picture, too. This riveting adventure doesn’t need to open its mouth to let itself be heard.