Nikola Tesla: War of the Currents
Choice of Games · 2022 · RPG, Interactive Fiction, Casual, Text-Based, Historical
PC
Positive95% · 20
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About Nikola Tesla: War of the Currents
At the dawn of the electrical age, can you outsmart Thomas Edison and electrify the world? Rewrite history with worldwide wireless power, alien contact, death rays and sapient machines!
Nikola Tesla: War of the Currents is a 225,000-word interactive science-fiction novel by Dora Klindžić. It's entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
The man who invented the 20th century was a queer immigrant from Serbia. Nikola Tesla dreamed of distributing free energy to all of mankind but passed away in a New York hotel room alone and forgotten. What if it had gone differently?
In the year 1886, you join the eccentric Tesla as his laboratory apprentice. Notoriously bad at monetizing his inventions, but nonetheless ingenious at building them, Tesla needs your help with making a living wage as much as your help in the lab.
Fend off Edison’s spies, Wall Street bankers, electrical industry magnates and other unsavory types as you navigate real historical adventures involving electrocuted elephants, the Niagara Falls electric plant, pigeons, and that time Mark Twain had the mishap of soiling his trousers in Tesla’s lab.
Develop your own science skills, your social life, or opt to be more business-minded. Manage your mentor’s fragile mental state while balancing your laboratory’s checkbook. Love your work, your pigeon, or pursue a risqué romance with Edison’s daughter. Will you manage to maintain enough funding and influence to prevent the destruction of Wardenclyffe tower and perform the most esoteric of experiments? Bring free power to all, contact the aliens, or accidentally flatten a city. The history of the last great independent inventor, as well as the future of society, are in your hands.
The world awaits in darkness, ready for your electric light.
Nikola Tesla: War of the Currents is a 225,000-word interactive science-fiction novel by Dora Klindžić. It's entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
The man who invented the 20th century was a queer immigrant from Serbia. Nikola Tesla dreamed of distributing free energy to all of mankind but passed away in a New York hotel room alone and forgotten. What if it had gone differently?
In the year 1886, you join the eccentric Tesla as his laboratory apprentice. Notoriously bad at monetizing his inventions, but nonetheless ingenious at building them, Tesla needs your help with making a living wage as much as your help in the lab.
Fend off Edison’s spies, Wall Street bankers, electrical industry magnates and other unsavory types as you navigate real historical adventures involving electrocuted elephants, the Niagara Falls electric plant, pigeons, and that time Mark Twain had the mishap of soiling his trousers in Tesla’s lab.
Develop your own science skills, your social life, or opt to be more business-minded. Manage your mentor’s fragile mental state while balancing your laboratory’s checkbook. Love your work, your pigeon, or pursue a risqué romance with Edison’s daughter. Will you manage to maintain enough funding and influence to prevent the destruction of Wardenclyffe tower and perform the most esoteric of experiments? Bring free power to all, contact the aliens, or accidentally flatten a city. The history of the last great independent inventor, as well as the future of society, are in your hands.
- Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, bi, or asexual/aromantic.
- Achieve fame through spectacular inventions, people skills or cunning business.
- Change historic events such as the invention of the electric chair, the Chicago World Fair, the social unrest at the turn of the 20th century, and more.
- Monetize your inventions or uphold Tesla’s ideals of working for the betterment of mankind.
- Uncover secret societies lurking in the background of early-capitalist New York.
- Meet a cast of historic characters such as Thomas Edison and his family, George Westinghouse, Mark Twain, J.P. Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, Lewis Latimer, Charles Steinmetz, Lord Kelvin and many more.
The world awaits in darkness, ready for your electric light.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 611: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆ (9/10) Wow. I know I say this all the time, but [i]Nikola Tesla: War of the Currents[/i] ("[i]War of the Currents[/i]") truly is an underrated ChoiceScript gem! I wasn't expecting much tbh—(1) it only has 19 reviews on Steam, (2) focuses on science and history, two fields I am notoriously awful in, (3) and is somehow only 225,000 words?! But somehow, it's become one of my favorites. You play as Nikola Tesla's laboratory apprentice, and it's just ... everything. I'm not selling this very well, but when reading, I had an experience similar to Kevin Gold's [i]Choice of Robots.[/i] Yeah, THE [i]Choice of Robots.[/i]. Both games have that same magic where you feel like you’re actually participating in the development of something huge. You’re not just watching history happen: you’re in the lab, experimenting, building prototypes, arguing about ideas, and trying to push technology forward. Just like [i]Robots[/i], [i]War of the Currents[/i] spans your whole life, with the focus on your young adult to adult years. And along the way, you're truly [i]living[/i] in 1886. There are moments where you make a h…8 found this helpful
Not being able to romance Tesla is the evilest thing this author could have done.5 found this helpful
For a single moment in history, there was the conviction that science could electrify the world in one perfect harmony. That is the beauty of the period known as the War of the Currents, one that had both plenty of ramifications in the collective conscience and not the popularity that you would think. So little is taught about it in schools (I can speak about the Italian side of things, at the very least), in fact, that this videogame has often the cadence of edutainment, and I mean that in the best possible way. Rich with historical facts, precise with its contextualisation, passionate about bringing to life the characters as well as their mentality: War of the Currents is a project born out of passion, you can tell as much as soon as you read its vibrant descriptions. However, you could be easily tricked (I certainly was) into thinking that this premise would make for a pretty railroaded experience. After all, there is always a certain risk that comes with rewriting history and the fates of the characters in it, the kind of risk which an historian seldom takes. That’s why WotC isn’t made by an historian, but by a physicist-turned-writer, videogame writer to be specific. There is …1 found this helpful
Enamoured by Tesla, excellent aroace representation. The characterisation is wonderful, I have an attachment to Samuel Clemens and his avuncular vibe. 10/10 would join his bookclub1 found this helpful
I didn't expect to get so hooked on this game and at the same time learn a little history.1 found this helpful
Rarely are games written with so much love and passion for the subject, and with such high quality. A must-read.
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