The Matrix: Reloaded will forever live in the shadow of its predecessor, but it did give us a few unforgettable moments, namely Morpheus fighting an Agent on top of a truck while trying to rescue The Keymaker. Imagine thus a video game where you are Morpheus; you can still do all those fancy gravity-defying jumps but there are no Agents to fight. Instead of only a single truck you have hundreds of them, all going about their regular everyday truck life. Add a sprinkle of ‘the floor is lava’ and voilá: Clustertruck was born.
Landfall’s truck jumping simulator quickly became (with good reason) a Twitch streamer favourite when it was first released back in 2016 and tinyBuild has now graced Nintendo Switch with that very same phenomenon. Worry not, the game and its concept are timeless thus potential players need not worry about picking up some old rehash from yesteryear.
Another subject you need not worry about is performance, because you won’t have any issues with the game playing in either portable or docked mode. The entire three-dimensional world of Clustertruck is made up of flat, shaded polygons so even during the most insane levels (with a ton of physics engine magic delightfully showcasing the chaos from a dozen trucks head-on collision) everything satisfyingly shifts around as expected.
At the start of the game you can only move about, sprint and jump. The objective of each stage is to safely make it to the ‘goal’ alive by successfully jumping from truck to truck as fast as possible, a feat that starts out simple enough to ease you into the core gameplay by providing some very stable trucks to jump from and land on. Things do quickly get out of hand just a few levels in, with the game continuously throwing barrages of new and inventive ways to wreak utter chaos onto the peaceful hordes of white trucks roaming the land. We have rarely ever seen such a tight blend of casual and hardcore gameplay experience so masterfully implemented: The concept is simple enough so that anyone can quickly grab and play, but some of the later levels will truly test your hardcore gamer reflexes (plus good fortune factoring in due to the fact that the same level won’t ever run the same twice because of real-time physics).
Taking risks will reward with points, which are actually currency that allow you to buy ‘special abilities’ that will enable you to become the Nintendo equivalent of Neo. Double jumps, air dashes, even a Batman-style grappling hook and a jet-pack will greatly add to your movement options, while a choice of utility abilities enable you to freeze trucks in place or even trigger ‘bullet time’ (‘trucking time’?) to better make jumping decisions. Mix in the factor of the randomised nature of collisions within every level and you have a successful recipe for a delicious dose of player freedom regarding ways to tackle each stage.
There is a lovely soundtrack playing along every world, but you will probably be deep into a blissful state of zen to even notice it. A shame because these are some really catchy tunes to be found here and they perfectly blend with the whole absurdity going on-screen all the time.
By the time you realise that you can not only land on top of the trucks, but actually piggy back on the back and side of them to gain huge amounts of airtime, it is too late. You are already helplessly hooked into this unique package and eagerly waiting to see what the game throws at you in the next stage (dare we mention ‘lasers’? Generous amounts of ‘lasers’!). With nine distinct worlds with ten stages spread on each one (plus some seasonal bonus levels as well), you'll never have the same experience twice, there is more than enough content here to make us forget the sad but understandable omission of the level editor and ability to share and play custom stages in this version. Another not so understandable omission is the lack of online leaderboards, which feels like a terribly wasted opportunity considering how the game lends itself perfectly for such jolly Switch player competitions.
Conclusion
Clustertruck stands as a metaphor for life itself. Where do these trucks come from? Where are these trucks going? None of that matters now that you can play this game anytime, anywhere free from the tyranny of non-portable entertainment centres. An exquisite balance of arcade first-person action and physics puzzle that leaves little but one single course of action when faced with a glimpse of its pure brilliant absurdity: Keep on (cluster)truckin', baby!
Comments 33
This is a very strange game.
Bought it on a PS4 sale a while ago. It's a fun little game. But I think it's a bit expensive on Switch. Good game nonetheless
Level 3-8 is currently trucking me over
Cool. Will buy
This really needs a demo
The game interested me from the get-go, BUT the price point is too high. I'm not paying $20 just to hop around on the tops of trucks.
I wish the review scores would reflect the value as well. Can anyone honestly tell me that this game is worth the current asking price?
I wanted to try out this game for PC, so I might get it for Switch. My only question is, if you stream the Switch version on Twitch, can Landfall Games still backdoor the game and take over your stream like it can on the PC version? Because if yes, I would definitely get it then. XD
@Racthet916 That is completely subjective. However, if there was a huge gap in price/quality content I would have written so in the review. These tinyBuild games have been around for years now and as such they have previously established their quality/price ratio accordingly. My main worry when review these is to make sure the ports are properly optimized to ensure the Switch version is not an inferior cash grab. Considering that and the sheer absurdity and chaos of it all, It is indeed well worth the asking price and if not for the review copy supplied I would be buying it on Thursday for certain.
@Biff_ARMStrong You would be surprised on how cheap 20 big ones is for the privilege to jump around these majestic white trucks.
@Daftbomb
Great review! I read the title a bit differently though...
Looking at it I expected a 3/10 review
@sandman89 Absolutely no way this game would ever get the same score as WWE 2K18.
but it looks so bad
now that you can play this game anytime, anywhere free from the tyranny of non-portable entertainment centres
Take a big whiff of that.
No, it's not my armpits. That's the smell of freedom, my friends.
What the truck!? This game is actually good?
Did anyone else misread that title and think it was a very different kind of cluster?
Be honest, they came up with the title first and game was an afterthought.
It's a real cluster truck. <grin> I just had to say that.
@Heavyarms55 I'm guilty of that
Wow, that is about 5 stars higher than I thought this would get. But in Shiryu we trust!
Needs gyro controls if it doesn’t have them.
Anyone else finding the pikachu ad takes over the whole page making it impossible to read stuff in more than ten second bursts?
Looks like a good game with a terrible name IMO. I may get this though despite the cheap gag of a name
Some user reviews report problems with control scheme and performance issues, including crashes. This review mentions that performance is not an issue. I'll wait for some more details, as this looks interesting enough, especially in case of a sale.
I am a bit surprised everyone was expecting this one to be bad, the game is a certified indie hit on PC for a few years now. I was more worried if it lacked optimization but it is not the case. 'Jump in' and give it a go, I assure you will be constantly going "One more try!" just to see what sort of new insanity comes up on the next level.
Unfortunately, there are just other games I want more at the moment, but eventually I'll pick this up.
in this version can you invert the controls? on the playstation 4 version you can't and its a real pain
I didn't realize this was on steam and was expecting a lot worse. I still have no interest in the game though I am interested in some of their other titles.
@ultraviolet yes, the options menu allows you to invert x and y individually and fine tune sensitivity.
For what its worth, whilst I can understand the argument it seems dear for what it is, it really is good fun.
@Daftbomb cheers for the info, i'll add it to my wishlist
I actually watched my friend play this via PS4 sharing, and then we found out I could actually take control of the game remotely. It was both amazing and hilarious! XD
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