There’s a strong range of guns between wide-shooting and fast-firing, perfect for any playstyle. Notably, the camera is agile enough to make sure that movement never becomes confusing, even when multiple players co-op on the same screen. This frees the player up to take the fight directly to the enemy, knowing that there’s little chance of winding up cornered.

This keeps the game from becoming a slog built around surviving battles of attrition, as Tesla can warp right through hordes of enemies or across small gaps - even through walls. Tesla is equipped with a teleportation backpack which allows the player to jump a set distance in their direction of movement with the press of a button, picking up any items that lay in their path. At the same time, they’ve built levels perfectly designed to utilize the mechanic. Smooth movement is vitally important for a great twin-stick shooter, and 10tons have done a brilliant job of developing one of the most agile systems for moving characters in top-down games.

This leads to thirty levels of hectic action as fishmen, shoggoths, and a few other Mythos-inspired enemies attack in ceaseless hordes, forcing the player to test their reflexes to the point of exhaustion. Lovecraft has one of those fantastic settings, pitting the famous inventor and his arsenal of electrical weaponry against the abhorrent hordes that Lovecraft summons using his trusty Necronomicon. The why isn’t as important as the how, but a great setting can elevate a solid shooter to unexpected heights. Players want swarms of enemies, monstrous powerups, and (depending on their preference of foe) fountains of blood or showers of sparks. Settings don’t matter much in twin-stick shooters. LOW Getting trapped by the Elder Polyp’s energy vortex again and again.

HIGH Using a fully-upgraded War Pigeon to wipe out two hundred monsters in a matter of seconds.

Tesla vs lovecraft gameplay choose perk