Struggling is a challenging physics platformer which can be played solo or co-op best described as a qwoplike though this is a dual stick controller based game, as you struggle to make your way over awkward layouts filled with death traps at every turn and just trying to make your way from one checkpoint to the next.
There is a lot more to the game than simply just trying to navigate over death based objects as the game is filled with alternative paths and well done physics so you can do whatever possible to make your way across the zones, though some surfaces will be coated in slippery gel to avoid you being able to hold onto just to make things a little more difficult, but at times you can use momentum to your advantage and spin yourself to launch over gaps as opposed to grappling from one cling to the next, and there will be more than just static death walls as more often than not the scenery will be falling causing more death hazards, sometimes you’ll be chased down by rats who want to eat you alive and plenty more creative and challenging obstacles to avoid sometimes even involving a time constraint to get through with death pursuing you.
You take the form of a lab experiment monstrosity with two souls blended into one body, and depending on whether you’re playing with a friend or not taking control of half of this being and attempting to work together, or using each stick and attempting to navigate alone is still challenging enough with each half of the controller independantly controlling each half of this creature. The area’s you will uncover will also be full of gruesome and crazy visuals along with adult humour and sillyness which eventually leads to the game breaking the fourth wall and even reality itself ultimately before a final battle with another godlike monstrosity such as yourself.
The game took me 9 hours to complete and while your time may vary depending on the exploration you choose to undertake looking for secret hats and how hard you struggle over other area’s there is more repeatability to go through again with someone else taking the other half of the controls even after you master the game, and some of the bosses have alternative challenges you can undertake with achievements beyond just beating them, and once you’ve got the hang of swinging through the area’s you may even want to see if you can get through faster, or even without dying (though whoever gets that achievement must really be determined because some area’s your character will just explode out of fear for being too close to danger for too long, and even while expanding may hit a spike or two so it’s a very difficult challenge)
Spoilers will be noted for this point forward as there are a few unexpected twists and turns which add to the game, and show just how clever they were with creating this game so if you don’t want to be spoiled go check out the game for yourself, now in a game like this you wouldn’t expect there to be bosses, but even though this is a physics based challenge game they did something really creative with the bosses and adapted each of them to be micro challenges in other styles of games, so the first boss (other than the secret demonic guini pig run or the escape from rats filling up the room) the first real boss of the game is amadeus the firstborn, which transforms you into a pinball as you have to bounce around off pseudo pinball flippers using scenery arms to fling yourself up and around to hit the tumours in order to cure the boss (or knock its teeth out along the way) and then this grants you further powers to use to create new challenges and new ways to traverse area’s by literally removing your limbs and throwing yourself around, and occasionally you will be called into more pinball challenges later too, but this was very creative and unexpected that it changed up the type of game for the boss that it deserves recognition for the creativity while maintaining the style of the game, and how they use this to grant you new powers to increase the challenges of the game from that point forward.
Struggling continues to incorporate other gamestyles for further bosses each providing further powers to utilise to explore further into the game, with a visual novel dating miniboss which grants time distortion powers, there’s a boss with a fallen plane crashing along the floor while you have to balance on a motorbike across trials rising style jumps to make it across the landscape to safety and then there’s a challenge area which upon completion lands you in a mushroom kingdom filled with memes and happyland where the game gives up on reality entirely and just sends you through so many silly and entertaining realms with all the memes you can imagine before a final boss fight against a duck with a tumourkin within controlling it which you have to defeat and dunk into it’s stomach acid and assert dominance as the one true god of this game.
Somehow despite all the sillyness they manage to incorporate a storyline throughout the game which makes sense with mutated tumour gods created by the scientists which grant you powers as their kind and explore crazy and creative landscapes filled with sillyness and filled with difficult challenges to overcome, if you enjoy challenging yourself and you enjoy games with well designed physics this is the game for you as the challenge is just right and the capabilities of the monster do feel good, and while at times your character might struggle with their noodle arms to do things you want or to pick things up, if you’re creative and use your momentum well you can overcome any challenge, even if it involves flinging yourself over a pit missing all the handholds along the way, this is just advanced techniques, as some hidden things will be found from flinging yourself out into area’s you might not think to look, even if it is just a new stylish hat.
You may have to have a dark and silly sense of humour with some of the adult jokes and gruesome layouts inspired by bodyparts and mutated science, but the challenge is fun and you will enjoy it, just know going in that there will be a lot of sillyness and memes involved, and expect to die a lot and maybe get frustrated at some points where your character explodes being too close to thin difficult to traverse area’s climbing across ropes over spikes either side of you, but you’ll get through and you’ll have fun doing it, so I recommend the game and you should go check it out for yourself.
Get struggling for yourself now at https://www.humblebundle.com/store/struggling?partner=indelacio&charity=114393
