In an already bizarre year, Tesla Force’s absurd concept of pulling famous people from history and making them fight monsters seems right at home. Tesla Force is a roguelike twin-stick shooter starring Nikola Tesla and Marie Curie, fighting waves of monsters with over the top guns and powers. Each level follows a set objective, such as collect parts or survive for a certain amount of time, that ultimately lacks in variety. Level types are constantly repeating and even though the level design is random by nature, it becomes monotonous very quickly.

The biggest issue Tesla Force faces is in its art style. Not only is it extremely bland, but it also makes it difficult to see what is happening in the game. Several enemies blend into the environment, leading to huge chunks of unnecessary damage. This caused dozens of instances where Tesla would be trapped by a swarm of unseen enemies with no escape, leading to a quick and infuriating death. As this is a roguelite, the game then restarts, leaving a feeling of frustration and dread of doing the same repetitive level tasks over again.

Running on the PS5, Tesla Force makes great use of the PS5’s added features. The game runs at a rock-solid frame rate, loading times are extremely quick, and the implementation of adaptive triggers are nice touches. While it is great to see these features in use, it unfortunately does not do enough to save the base game’s issues. It is also worth noting the game supports up to four player co-op, which is also a nice option.

Tesla Force is a bizarre amalgamation of ideas that never seem to really make much sense together. While science relies on experimentation, Tesla Force could really have used more time in the lab.