Indie games come in all different shapes and sizes, renowned for being weird and wonderful: Clustertruck is no exception.
Developed by Landfall Games, Clustertruck is a chaotic physics based platformer with the concept that ‘the floor is lava’. The game has a total of over 100 different levels in the ‘campaign mode’ in ten different worlds. Furthermore, there is also an endless mode, level editor and steam workshop support.
Within each level, players will be greeted with many wacky obstacles including spiral wheels, humongous falling rocks and wooden beams. The variety of obstacles is reasonable, with level designs varying in complexity as you progress. At times, the difficulty can send you into a rage, but for some reason, I couldn’t stop smiling throughout my playthrough, even on levels which took more than 20 minutes to complete. Personally, I think this is because of the hilariously ridiculous nature of the game; everything from the title to its gameplay feels like a good joke. Moreover, even though there is no writing or story line, Clustertruck still has its own personality shown through its design.
In addition to the gameplay, there are a variety of different ways to jump from truck to truck, depending on your position. For some illogical reason, players can jump much further when at the back of a truck, instead of the front. This justifies the seemingly impossible time results on the leaderboard. Players are rewarded via time and skill bonuses, gained from near death experiences. You then get the option to spend these points on new abilities such as jetpacks and grapples. Yes, I said jetpacks on trucks!
The fun doesn’t end there; thanks to the level editor and steam workshop support, players can create their own eccentric maps and share them with the rest of the world. The interface of the level editor was intimidating to me at first, but soon become manageable. Personally, any developer that allows modding support should be praised highly.
Moreover, The controls are thankfully simplistic, suiting the pace of the game very well. The responsiveness of the controls is fantastic on mouse and keyboard, but as it is a very fast paced game, I cannot recommend using a controller as you won’t get the best experience.
In terms of art style, Clustertruck is very simplistic with bright non-textured colours. I would love to have seen some more experimental/bizarre colours to credit its overall gameplay. The soundtrack works well with the pace of the game, but a little more variety would have been nice to see.
Overall, Clustertruck was an absolute blast to play and is easily one of the most enjoyable games of 2016 so far. More variation in the soundtrack and the addition of more colours would complete the game for me, but as far as platformers go, this is one of the best. Furthermore, I can’t thank the developers enough for adding steam workshop support. Finally, for the price of $14.99/£10.99, I strongly urge you to pick up Clustertruck now.