Man, beating this was more pure determination than actually enjoying myself, at least on the final stage 9-10, which took me 2 hours to beat (mainly because it's hard, but also because I overlooked one specific thing I'll mention in a bit).
Clustertruck is a platformer developed by Landfall Games and released on September 27, 2016 for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch. Landfall Games are also behind Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, so suffice it to say, they've done alright for themselves. The game goes for 14.79€ without a sale, a price point I wouldn't recommend this game at. I played it through Amazon thanks to their monthly free game offerings through Amazon Prime.
Clustertruck is a Truck-themed platformer in which you jump from moving truck to truck and try to reach the finish line without ever touching the ground or anything else that isn't part of a truck. The main campaign has 9 worlds featuring different themes (steampunk, sci-fi, HELL) with 10 levels each, and they progressively get harder with a few unusually difficult levels sprinkled throughout. I've gotten to the final stage 9-10 in about 3 hours, and apart from about a handful of levels, none took me longer than 10 or so tries individually.
The game lets you restart pretty much instantly, which is great in allowing the game to flow pretty well and not interrupt gameplay at any time. When jumping from truck to truck, the abilities you have are, well, "jumping", sprinting to gain speed before jumping and the ability to move directions mid-air. As you finish levels, you collect points, which you can use in an Ability shop to unlock more advanced abilities to help make things easier. I believe each level can be beaten without an extra ability, but you'd be mad to do so without at least the first ability the game offers you, which is the "Dash" ability. There are many more which are presented to you on two sides, and you get to choose one ability to equip from each side. I didn't know you could equip more than one, so for most of the game, I stuck with Dash only.
Going with just this one ability was more than enough to go through 89 levels, and while you will be frustrated during this time, it rarely will be because a stage appears to be impossible. I'm by no means a skilled gamer and I somewhat smoothly made my way through them. Where it gets ridiculously hard though is on the final level, where you truly understand how many weaknesses the game has in its controls. Usually, the game asks you to just sprint and jump from truck to truck and reach an end point, but on this stage, the game asks you to do traditional platforming in that you climb up a flight of 'stairs' aka trucks. Unfortunately, the game does not have smooth enough controls and should really not be doing this. When you jump, it often is hard to control how far you move to each side, as sometimes you'll just move too far even though you barely move the stick, or even though you move backwards, the game will push you forward as if a truck hit you in the back. The game in general is incredibly sensitive to movement and, again, irratic in output as well, so you'll die a lot just because you're fighting the controls, not the challenges in the levels. You can not touch ground nor walls, so you have to be very careful in your input.
So due to this, I spent two hours on the final stage in sheer pain, until I looked through the shop again and bought an ability that slows down time. This made one specific part of this stage actually possible, and not too long after, I finally beat the game. I'd suggest picking that, if you decide to play this.
One final note I want to make is on the game's presentation. Visually, the game is pretty bland, with little detail in the environments. It gets better as you advance through the worlds and they get different themes, but apart from the final level, 'bland' is all I will remember from this game visually. The soundtrack has hints of vanilla as well with a lot of tracks that sound like your average mobile game platforming tracks and two or three that have some good parts in them. Overall though, I wouldn't really want to listen to it again.
So, all in all, would I recommend you to play this? As a pallette cleanser or just a fun little game for an hour or two with friends, sure, I think there is some fun to be had with the game's physics. Would I recommend you to go all 'thickheaded idiot' at this game just to get that satisfaction of beating it like I did? Not really, I think there are better games to waste 5 hours of your life on.
Clustertruck is a platformer developed by Landfall Games and released on September 27, 2016 for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch. Landfall Games are also behind Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, so suffice it to say, they've done alright for themselves. The game goes for 14.79€ without a sale, a price point I wouldn't recommend this game at. I played it through Amazon thanks to their monthly free game offerings through Amazon Prime.
Clustertruck is a Truck-themed platformer in which you jump from moving truck to truck and try to reach the finish line without ever touching the ground or anything else that isn't part of a truck. The main campaign has 9 worlds featuring different themes (steampunk, sci-fi, HELL) with 10 levels each, and they progressively get harder with a few unusually difficult levels sprinkled throughout. I've gotten to the final stage 9-10 in about 3 hours, and apart from about a handful of levels, none took me longer than 10 or so tries individually.
The game lets you restart pretty much instantly, which is great in allowing the game to flow pretty well and not interrupt gameplay at any time. When jumping from truck to truck, the abilities you have are, well, "jumping", sprinting to gain speed before jumping and the ability to move directions mid-air. As you finish levels, you collect points, which you can use in an Ability shop to unlock more advanced abilities to help make things easier. I believe each level can be beaten without an extra ability, but you'd be mad to do so without at least the first ability the game offers you, which is the "Dash" ability. There are many more which are presented to you on two sides, and you get to choose one ability to equip from each side. I didn't know you could equip more than one, so for most of the game, I stuck with Dash only.
Going with just this one ability was more than enough to go through 89 levels, and while you will be frustrated during this time, it rarely will be because a stage appears to be impossible. I'm by no means a skilled gamer and I somewhat smoothly made my way through them. Where it gets ridiculously hard though is on the final level, where you truly understand how many weaknesses the game has in its controls. Usually, the game asks you to just sprint and jump from truck to truck and reach an end point, but on this stage, the game asks you to do traditional platforming in that you climb up a flight of 'stairs' aka trucks. Unfortunately, the game does not have smooth enough controls and should really not be doing this. When you jump, it often is hard to control how far you move to each side, as sometimes you'll just move too far even though you barely move the stick, or even though you move backwards, the game will push you forward as if a truck hit you in the back. The game in general is incredibly sensitive to movement and, again, irratic in output as well, so you'll die a lot just because you're fighting the controls, not the challenges in the levels. You can not touch ground nor walls, so you have to be very careful in your input.
So due to this, I spent two hours on the final stage in sheer pain, until I looked through the shop again and bought an ability that slows down time. This made one specific part of this stage actually possible, and not too long after, I finally beat the game. I'd suggest picking that, if you decide to play this.
One final note I want to make is on the game's presentation. Visually, the game is pretty bland, with little detail in the environments. It gets better as you advance through the worlds and they get different themes, but apart from the final level, 'bland' is all I will remember from this game visually. The soundtrack has hints of vanilla as well with a lot of tracks that sound like your average mobile game platforming tracks and two or three that have some good parts in them. Overall though, I wouldn't really want to listen to it again.
So, all in all, would I recommend you to play this? As a pallette cleanser or just a fun little game for an hour or two with friends, sure, I think there is some fun to be had with the game's physics. Would I recommend you to go all 'thickheaded idiot' at this game just to get that satisfaction of beating it like I did? Not really, I think there are better games to waste 5 hours of your life on.