Tesla vs Lovecraft

[Paingod]

Do you remember the great time-waster Crimsonland? Top-down twin-stick shooter, surviving hundreds of aliens rushing at you from all angles. The dreaded spider stage? Hoping against hope for a good Perk when you gained a level so you could live a little longer and beat your best time in Survival? The same team has redone the formula, only with a vintage twist.

Enter Tesla vs. Lovecraft - currently at GOG.com for $15, or Steam for $15. You take on the mantle of Tesla, fighting off the ravening hordes of Cthulhu with your superior science and skills with electricity.

It's 80% Crimsonland with a updated (cartoony) visuals. There's less "gore", more map variety (with pits, structures, and destructible environmental objects), and the same great blend of twin-stick shooting fun that has kept Crimsonland installed on my PC for years. There are still a lot of weapons to pick up, varying types of short term power-ups, and Perks to unlock as you move through the campaign. They've added a Meta layer where you spend crystals you acquire during missions to unlock permanent bonuses, and an extra neat mode where you collect 6 parts of a Mech and get to ride around in a vehicle of destruction for a short time.

I haven't bumped into any spiders that split and replicate when I hit them, but that's okay. There's still a lot of chaos and carnage to be found in the limited selection of enemies (I think there are 8 types).

It's not a long game - after a couple hours of play I'm already about to hit the last stage of Normal... but I've unlocked Survival and there are two modes of play beyond Normal that ramp up the difficulty. What it is, if not long, is fun - as long as you enjoy a little mindless bloodshed and lots of shooting. I expect to keep it installed on my computer for years to come and play this instead of Crimsonland when that particular itch comes back.

[IceBear]

It's not on sale for $6 at GoG when I log in

[Paingod]

My bad. The sale must have ended this morning. It was $6 when I made my post... I double-checked!

*Edit: Updated first post.

[IceBear]

I'm wondering if you got lucky and it was a mistake. There's DLC there for $6, so maybe they mistakenly listed the full game as the DLC?

[Paingod]

I'm wondering if you got lucky and it was a mistake. There's DLC there for $6, so maybe they mistakenly listed the full game as the DLC?

No, there was a sale. I went back and picked up the DLC as well for something like 10% off after the first couple hours.

I'm sure it'll find it's way to another sale sometime soon.

[IceBear]

Ah...ok.

[Paingod]

You even had me doubting my sanity, so I checked my purchase history ... $6 for the base game, $4.50 for the DLC.

[IceBear]

Yeah, I had just assumed it was just released today because this was the first I was hearing of it, but I see it was released on Jan 26th so it must have been on sale and it literally just ended. Oh well, bad timing on my part

[Paingod]

I've spent a lot more time with this and have moved down into difficulty level 4. It's very Crimsonland, possibly even better. The big thing is the maps - Crimsonland was 100% large flat killing fields. This game has several maps that are either claustrophobic or have mazes that funnel enemies around and give you ways to escape.

Several stages are only passable with the right luck getting Perks or Weapons, and sometimes it's possible to become so grossly overpowered that it's plain absurd, explosive fun.

The introduction of EPIC guns is a nice twist, too. My favorite so far has been the epic Uzi - the Tesluzi. Coupled with a few good perks, you become a pinwheel of death that's giggle-worthy.