Nikola Tesla: War of the Currents Reviews

Power to the people in more ways than one. This was a great game. Really well written. Emotional, fun, and impactful. You really get a sense your choices matter in almost every regard. Plus it's a great length. Loved it. 9/10

Not being able to romance Tesla is the evilest thing this author could have done.

indulging my middle school fantasies of being a brilliant scientist/engineer and being a literal ride or die for nikola tesla. died in his arms confessing undying love while we gave light to the whole world. crying about it!!

A markedly pro-Indigenous game, with some rather pithy lines regarding the hypocrisy of Edison and his ilk.

i died for science. i love this game. first i got shot, then i got beamed up, then i got burnt to a crisp. literally this game is awesome and i'm starting another playthrough.

What other game is going to let you play as Tesla's black female sidekick who had a homosexual relationship with Thomas Edison's daughter? No serious, I am not kidding, you can do that in this game.

A truly outstanding game that I will be thinking about for a very long time, like a book you can't put down. Clear your day when you start your play through as you will truly be unable to stop "just a little more" has never been more appropriate.

The biggest sin a CYOA game can commit is for the player to have no real agency in the story. Sadly, this does commit that sin. Now, there are choices, but very few that matter, and your abilities mean effectively nothing. The world around you dictates your successes and failures, with your own actions effectively meaning what they are named. I will make a point to praise the impressive character art, though, which deserved a better story to go with it.

I got shot by a German Nationalist and died in Tesla's arms, saying I loved him, while Wardenclyffe Tower was being attacked by an angry mob. 20/10, Needs option to romance Tesla in some way. Edit: I have achieved a new ending where sentient robots roam the world for a day with childlike wonder, before they all power down after the day ends. 50/10 This game just gets better and better. Edit 2: I literally got abducted by aliens this time. This game is awesome. Edit 3: After building a death ray, I have completed all 4 choices for what to build with Wardenclyffe. And instead of using it to blow up Germany on the Western Front, or getting revenge on Wall Street for holding me and Tesla back, I made it self-destruct, so that no government could harness that power for themselves. All in all, this game is awesome, and I STILL haven't gone down all the branching paths withing the choices I've made yet. I highly recommend this game.

Without a doubt, Nikola Tesla: War of the Currents is the best Choice of Games work I have experienced in years. I will try my best to highlight particular aspects of the game, but truly it's difficult given how practically everything about it made me fall in love with it. There is a lot of gushing in this review, but I cannot help it. To start, the blending of history, science, politics, and imagination is wonderful. From dealing with the intrigue of the electric company rivalries to leading the charge in electric power (pun intended), I was absolutely invested. I enrolled in college as a mechanical engineering major before transferring to liberal arts two years later, but what I did in this game nearly made me want to go back. I didn't, of course, but that is still a feat! More broadly though, the different themes and player choices really revealed the author's voice. I really got the sense of somebody who is not just passionate about science or technology or the history touched upon in this game, but who is just passionate about making the game. No matter who the author is, a work of fiction is enhanced immensely when the creator puts their soul into it. That sounds like a no-brainer, but you can tell when a story lacks that spark. War of the Currents, thankfully, is seeping with passion. Which leads me to the actual writing style of this game. It is gorgeous! Not a single word is wasted, and there are plenty of moments that are described beautifully without sounding super pretentious. The author strikes a great balance between writing succinctly and poetically. Truly, the writing of this game stands out among the entire Choice of Games lineup. However, everything I've doted upon pales in comparison to War of the Currents's greatest feature: the characters. This game has some of the best-written characters out of all the media properties I have consumed, beyond Choice of Games. Many of the characters did exist in actual history, and few of us can truly guess how they behaved and what they valued. Nevertheless, for the purposes of this game, I loved them all. I was willing to go to war for Nikola Tesla, and I was somehow brought around appreciate Thomas Edison at the end despite the overall conflict with him. Everyone else was so full of personality, and even if I didn't agree with them, they were always a joy just to talk to. I first encountered the demo of War of the Currents on the Choice of Games forum so long ago and was immediately captivated by everything described above. Since then, I have eagerly awaited its release, and I am overjoyed with how it turned out. My one gripe with it is that its ending could have been expanded on, but I have only done one playthrough, so I do not know if different choices address this. All in all, though, I love War of the Currents. I have to stop writing now, otherwise, I'll be here forever, but I will certainly be looking into the author's other works now.