Clustertruck

Clustertruck’s surreal platforming action will have players jumping, running, and dodging among a flock of moving trucks in increasingly dangerous scenarios. As unique as it is satisfying, the tight controls and entertaining gameplay experience of Clustertruck is great while it lasts.

Thanks to its minimalist visual style, this is a game that can run at top speed on any hardware, which makes it a must-have for low spec gamers everywhere. However, the fun doesn’t last too long in Clustertruck – not because the game does something wrong, but rather because it’s over before you know it.

Action Truckformer

The concept behind Clustertruck’s fast-paced action is one of the most original ones we’ve heard in a while. The players will have to traverse the stages by jumping in the roofs of moving trucks: jumping into anything other than a truck will end in an immediate game over.

This goes against any basic instinct in any player (and sensible human being) would have: try jumping into a truck in Frogger and see what happens. What’s amazing is just how fluid and speedy Clustertruck’s gameplay feels. Everything moves fast and jumping from truck to truck never gets old: especially when you get one of the game’s powerups.

As you progress through the game’s campaign, you’ll unlock abilities to help you in your platforming endeavors. These abilities include grappling hooks, shooting trucks, and even the power to modify the flow of time. Considering the amount of pure hectic chaos that you must survive in Clustertruck, some abilities might even make things harder than before.

Edit and Create

The game’s campaign is a bit on the short side, which could be a downside for most players. However, the fun doesn’t have to end once the campaign is over, as Clustertruck features a fully-fledged level editor to create and share your own stages. Although is not as powerful as something like Little Big Planet, it is still serviceable enough to build your own maddening levels of platforming fun.

Even better, Clustertruck features Steam workshop integration for players to share their levels, meaning that you won’t run out of new levels to play any time soon. There’s also a replay mode to see how well you did in your runs, and you can also share these replays with the online community.

Other than that, there’s little else to do in Clustertruck, and that might be one of the game’s most crucial weaknesses: its severe lack of content. Sure, there’s a mountain of levels to play, and even more, if you use player-created levels, but you’re forced to play through the same modes over and over, with no real sense of progression.

Random Encounters

Each time you load a level in Clustertruck, the trucks race to the finish however they can in a random fashion. While this is great for the wholly unpredictable nature of the game, it also means that some runs can be ruined due to the game’s AI messing up. This can feel cheap sometimes, but it’s all part of the game’s random gameplay. If you’ve played games like Snakeybus before, then you know what to expect from Clustertruck: pure, cathartic fun.

Pros:

• Runs well on low spec machines
• Exciting gameplay
• Cool abilities

Cons:

• Lacks content
• RNG that can end entire runs