Announced during theOpening Night Live from Gamescom Thursday night, Struggling is a new platformer game that’s now available on Nintendo Switch and PC. The little surprise from Montreal studio Chasing Rats Games is that the game has been available since Thursday evening, just after its announcement.
On the side of Presse-citron, it’s been over a week since we had the chance to discover the game and realize our first hours with Troy, this famous two-armed mutant experiment that will try to discover the world while avoiding the different dangers. Be prepared, because Troy’s life is really not easy!
One arm each!
Troy is therefore a mutant fleshy creature, slimy, very soft, and composed of a head and two arms. Of course, the latter was developed in the laboratory and several events will lead to the release of Troy who intends to leave this laboratory and go on incredible adventures!
We had the chance to preview the game via a version sent by the publisher on Nintendo Switch. From the launch of the game, we are offered to play alone or in pairs. Because yes, the whole point of Struggling is to play in cooperation. Thus, a first player controls Troy’s right arm, while the second player controls Troy’s left arm. And let’s go for many hours of laughter … But also frustrations.
The return of the real platform … Demanding!
© Chasing Rats Games
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The whole point of the game is therefore its gameplay. In Struggling you can play alone or in pairs and you will have to control only Troy’s arms. Alone, you will have to manage the left arm with the left analog stick, but also with the “L” and “LZ” keys so that Troy can cling to different platforms. It will be the same with the right arm that we will control with the right analog stick and the “R” and “RZ” keys.
You will therefore have to succeed in coordinating well in order to gain a good momentum and play with inertia to swing from one object to another, in order to move and avoid the traps of the different levels. As much to say to you that the game will be quite demanding and hard alone, because it will be necessary to manage to synchronize your movements well and not to mix your brushes with the arms of Troy who themselves… Will not hesitate to intertwine!
Suddenly, with two players it’s a real challenge to synchronize well and the platform game turns into a real puzzle game quite funny at the beginning, but which can very quickly frustrate the players by dint of missing a little save or a simple narrow action! In addition, the game is quite punitive since Troy has no extra life. If an object or an enemy touches its arms, they will detach and grow back like the tail of a lizard. However, if Troy’s head is hit, there won’t be a second chance!
A nice achievement and artistic direction
© Chasing Rats Games
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Troy may be ugly, that doesn’t mean the game is too, on the contrary. Struggling mixes many themes like humor, but also horror with some sequences that are not really scary, but above all disgusting and quite creepy. Besides the trash side, Struggling offers really nice environments, well detailed and quite varied. From the starting point in a laboratory, through a desert with many cacti, an airplane graveyard on a motorbike or even caves filled with rats, Struggling offers several increasingly difficult and quite varied levels.
The start of the game is quite interesting when we see Troy come to life before our eyes. When you hear her first screams, when you see her arms moving for the first time, you have to admit that the Canadian studio has transcribed it all really well.
During the boss clash, the staging is really impressive and that’s when we realize the work done on the game.
© Chasing Rats Games
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When pleasure becomes … Frustration
As we could mention a little above, if Struggling surprises us with its quirky universe, but all the same very pretty in its realization and its design, the game also surprises us in terms of its gameplay. But whether alone or with two players, it will push players to their limits very quickly.
While it only takes four buttons to move Troy forward and go from one level to the next, don’t take that for granted and think the game is straightforward. At first, alone, you will have to take a hand and manage not to mix the brushes between the keys for the right arm and the keys for the left arm.
Then, it should not be surprised to start again and again certain sequences. The checkpoints being quite numerous, in spite of everything, it becomes very quickly frustrating and annoying to have to start again a rather long sequence after having made a bad manipulation or having released a platform too quickly with a badly calculated momentum.
© Chasing Rats Games
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In addition, our friend Troy is not the smartest of specimens and it is not uncommon for him to crash on his own. Either facing an object or with your own arms. And there, we do not count the number of times we died just trying to untangle it! And there, the frustration is all the greater.
Fortunately, it will be possible to unlock over the course of the adventure “powers” for Troy who can slow down time in order to dodge an object or an enemy that arrives right on him. Or even the possibility of detaching his arms to be able to solve certain puzzles. It can also help him to manipulate the many objects and other vehicles in the game such as a crane, a motorcycle, or even go climbing.
My opinion on Struggling
© Chasing Rats Games
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With Struggling, you will enter a very strange game, which should not be put in the hands of all players. With its creepy atmosphere where it is quite normal to see many mutilated bodies with our hero himself plump by pushing quite stressful cries, Struggling clearly stands out as a game apart. And this is also what can be its strength, because believe us, we do not see games like that every day.
Nice graphically, technically demanding, the game offers us a good old-fashioned platform, demanding and very fun at times. If you are a fan of the genre, and have very strong nerves, you will undoubtedly be overwhelmed by the adventure of this funny and frightening mutant who discovers the world with the strength of his arms!
Struggling
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WE love
- A nice artistic direction
- Varied challenges
- Varied levels too
- A good lifespan (approx. 15h)
- Cooperation
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We like less
- A game that will quickly frustrate more than one
- Troy who crashes on his own (and often)
- A game for those who like to be frustrated
- Sometimes very punitive
- Cooperation even more difficult than playing alone
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