Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch

Jump on the truck, stay on the truck! A technical platformer, reinforced by physics and chaos!

If you were looking for a game to get hooked on and burn hours trying to master, this is the last review you’ll need to read: meet ClusterTruck, a game that paradoxically combines chaos and technical precision.

Mechanics: 10

ClusterTruck is a quite simple and straight-to-the-point game. Your goal is to reach the finish line of each level without touching anything in the scenery. To do so, you must leap from truck to truck with first-person controls.

The controls of this parkour game are minimalist, simple and direct. You use the analog sticks to move and orient yourself, there is a single button to jump, the left trigger to activate an equipped special ability and the right trigger which increases your speed while pressed.

Despite its simple, clean visuals and controls, the game is anything but. The experience is frantic, full of adrenaline, tension and chaos. Everything happens at high speed and at times disorients you and causes vertigo… But in a good way! The intense difficulty makes you feel like the runner, concentrating absolutely on the challenge ahead and guaranteeing enormous satisfaction when you finally reach the finish line.

CT demands dedication, effort and concentration. The trucks’ route isn’t always clear, forcing you to react according to the situation. Some levels will take dozens of attempts, but the experience doesn’t get frustrating thanks to the length of the levels (quite short) and the minimal time between attempts (a fraction of a second after failing, a new attempt already begins).

The game has a good variety of challenges and interesting obstacles to face, and in general manages a good progression in its difficulty… In general, because there will be some sudden spikes that will make you throw the controller at the wall! The minimalist design encourages experimentation, and sometimes you will complete a level by “cheating” – you almost feel sorry for the designers! This kind of openness makes ClusterTruck a very inviting game for speedrunners! The game also has a scoring system, and those points can later be used to buy alternative abilities to test and customize your experience.

Fun: 10

ClusterTruck looks like a silly experience at first glance, but the game hooks and entertains. Once I started playing, I couldn’t stop until I had completed all the levels of the main campaign and of the themed expansions (Halloween and Christmas). It’s hard to put into words, but there is an addictive element in how the game was designed to be hard and technical, yet at the same time funny and open to cheating.

Everything in the game seems applied in just the right measure: speed, chaos, introduction of new obstacles… The studio tinyBuild Games demonstrates mastery in level design and in implementing the game’s core mechanics.

Audiovisual: 8.5

ClusterTruck features simple, clean models and textures, and the decision works well together with the speed and amount of information the game presents on screen at once. At times scenes border on senseless chaos, but a focused player can always react appropriately to what they see on screen, despite all the apparent visual clutter.

The game surprises by maintaining a stable rate of 60 frames per second even in the most performance-demanding moments – and this holds true even in the Switch‘s handheld mode! One point that may bother some at times is the quality of the shadows, a clear sacrifice to keep good performance: they are jagged and in general show a quality that doesn’t match the beauty and polish of the rest of the game… But, still, it’s a justifiable trade-off.

While the songs themselves aren’t especially memorable, the soundtrack does an excellent job of building tension and injecting adrenaline into the player. The strong percussion beats help immersion and concentration, making the experience even more visceral.

Final Considerations

ClusterTruck is a game created without great pretensions, but that in the end reaches great milestones of quality and polish. It is the most perfect example of an addictive and engaging experience, one that always invites you to “just one more try” and ends up impossible to put down.

Score

Mechanics = 10

Fun = 10

Audiovisual = 8.5

Worth the 15 dollars? Yes! Do yourself a favor and try this game! Just be careful if you don’t have the patience to master the mechanics or don’t enjoy challenges with high demands for technique and perseverance!

Overall: 9.5

Played on the Nintendo Switch version