Flipy’s Tesla Lets Invent The Future Episode One Review (PSVR)
For the purposes of transparency, this review was created using a code provided by the company or their respective PR company. The use of a review code does not affect my judgement of the game.
Flipy’s Tesla Lets Invent The Future brings with it some education/science elements with it. However, will it appeal to everyone or does it really appeal to set people?
With this being Episode One of the game, it’s hard to say what the story of the game is going to be. All you learn in the first episode is you are a new student and at a school named Tesla and you are introduced to Flipy. But, as you start your complete your first experiment (the tutorial), a talking bird will interrupt you and take you to Flipy who is mysteriously sleeping – it is now your job to get to the bottom of this. However, just as you think it’s time to do this exploring the first episode is over.
The gameplay is basically made up of building objects and doing puzzles/experiments in order to progress. You will also be given a brief case that acts as your inventory – as you may need to collect items for the puzzle/experiment and takes things with you. With the way the game is built it pretty much walks you through what you need to do, and doesn’t really leave it open for any sort of difficulty spike, which in turn makes everything really simple. This is basically it for the gameplay in Episode One, hopefully more will come in to game as more episodes are released.
Presentation wise it is really a bit of a mixed bag, overall the visuals all have a crisp finish, but there is some issues. When it comes to the character design and the animation of them, it really does stand out as the best part of the game. They are cartoon like in design and their over the top movement and expressions really suit what I would say is the games target audience (we will discuss this later). Other than this, although the finish on objects is crisp the school doesn’t really have much detail and the environments are all a bit empty – meaning outside of the well animated characters there isn’t much to look at,
When it comes to the sound, I feel the people who provided the voice overs have done an excellent job in getting them to suit the actions of the characters. But, then there is the loading screen at the beginning, which seems to last forever and this point in enhanced by the looping music – I would strongly advise to remove your headphones until it’s loaded.
Now given the simple puzzles you are faced with, the character design and animation I really feel the target audience of the game is children. But, to be honest I feel the people who hit the recommend minimum age for VR would not find this game challenging. Which opens up a major issue for Tesla Lets Invent the Future. The typical VR demographic are not going be taken in by the game… so it is going to be hard to hit the target audience.
When it comes to controls the game is played using two Move Controllers. As you would expect given that you are carrying out experiments and completing puzzles, each controller represents the corresponding hand on the screen. You will also most likely need to play the game in a standing position, when I tried to play it seated some of the objects were too low to grab, because I hit the floor. When it comes to movement your only option is teleport and click turn, there is no free movement option in the game. Again, the school seems like it’s a big place, but you can not really explore it much and it doesn’t seem there is a lot to look at or interact with – unless its puzzle specific. You are also pointed in the right direction when teleporting by a blue circle appearing where you have to go, so it holds your hand in that aspect to – removing any reason to try to explore the area.
Due to the simple nature of the puzzles and how much the game guides you through it, this episode will take your about 15-20 minutes to complete and it offers no replay value. The game is priced at £3.29 to match it’s length, but it is still hard to recommend going out to buy it as it stands.
Conclusion
Flipy’s Tesla Lets Invent the Future is one these games that seems a curious entry into the VR platform. The simple nature of the puzzles and how much it holds your hand, makes for a game teenagers and adults just wont find entertaining. As it stands with the one episode, and no news of when the second will be released, it’s going to be hard to sell the game. I personally feel that as more episodes come out if the puzzle types and difficulty increases it may be worth looking into at that point. But at the moment the audience it would appeal to falls outside the recommended VR usage age – which seems like an odd decision.
Playstation VR Exclusive
