Games inspired by rogue-likes usually go in one of two directions: action games with a brutal difficulty curve or a RPG with the usual rogue-like trappings. Teleglitch leans towards the former with a top down shooter rogue-like, but was this glitch worth investigating?
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The basic story of Teleglitch is that you are the lone survivor after an AI went rogue on a far distinct planet, killing all the inhabitants and turning them into zombies, with your goal is to find the main teleporter off the planet and to freedom.
Teleglitch: Do or Die Edition is all about procedurally generated levels with you making choices between certain levels to determine the next level and the enemies you’ll run into. The closest comparison of the gameplay would be atop down shooter like Smash TV, with an inventory system and limited ammo.
As you wander around each level, you’ll be attacked by swarms of enemies of increasing danger. You start out every game with a basic handgun and a default knife. The challenge of the game is that you want to try and conserve as much ammo as possible as you explore each level for new guns and ammunition.
Enemies will constantly swarm at you forcing to weigh the choice of using your knife or your guns.
Teleglitch features a basic item combination system where items that are compatible can be mixed to create something new. So you could combine a nail box with explosives to create a nail bomb.
There is no wondering about combinations, as pressing the item combine button will let you view any and all available combinations.
The game’s story is told through text logs that are randomly placed throughout each level and helps expand on the lore of the world.
Teleglitch does a good job of combining the dire straits of a rogue-like with the action of a top down shooter, but I found the game to be hard for all the wrong reasons.
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The problem for me with Teleglitch’s gameplay is that I just found it not all that compelling to play. The ammo and item shortages meant that you’ll fall back to using your knife, which entails left clicking repeatedly as you are swarmed by groups of enemies. Your knife’s length is about the width of your character and it is very hard to deal with any enemy in close range without them getting a free hit.
The item combo system sounds interesting at first, but the actual combinations leave a lot to be desired. Most created items are only a one shot use, preventing you from getting a chance to really play with your newly created toys.
The item combination system is interesting but like combat, forces the player to rely on getting lucky with items for it to be of any use.
I would have preferred a more functional basic weapon and up the general difficulty, as that would allow the player’s skill level to be more of a factor of success.
Similar to The Binding of Isaac where your basic attack was decent enough to let you get by if you didn’t find any attack upgrades early on. Here it comes down to luck of the draw if you can find enough ammo or weapons to scrape by.
And before anyone suggests it, you can’t truly escape from enemies as they will follow you through doors and such until they either corner you or you find the exit portal.
The other problem was that the retro graphics did not click with me. When a designer uses retro graphics, there is a fine line between creating a legitimate cohesive style with them (see the titles from Puppygames or Hotline Miami as an example) and just an uninteresting mess. And sadly Teleglitch’s graphics fell on the latter, with everyone looking like undefined blobs going down rudimentary hallways.
There is just very little growth to the game mechanics and nothing amazing or standout that makes replaying it engaging, such as The Binding of Isaac or even Spelunky. In the end, this is one deserted planet that for me was better left unexplored.
