ClusterTruck Review: A Trucking Good Time!

3.5
out of 5

In a world full of overly complicated games with highly detailed graphics comes ClusterTruck. A simple if silly idea, ClusterTruck, from LandFall Games, has players leap from moving trucks without touching the ground to a designated finish line. Sound easy? It’s not, it’s trucking difficult.

ClusterTruck at its core is a first person parkour physics game that relies on players having quick problem solving skills, and even quicker reflexes. Players start each level on top of a basic white semi-trailer truck. These trucks move almost like cattle, funneling into places, or even falling off cliffs as you jump from one to another. All the while obstacles for both the trucks and the player get in the way. If you touch anything other than a truck, the whole level resets. The levels are each fairly short and with as many times players will die and have to restart, that is a good thing. Thankfully the levels reload very fast as well. ClusterTruck rewards you for being fast and at times the best way I found to finish a level is to run and jump along as quickly as possible.


The graphics in ClusterTruck are VERY simple. It’s almost charming how basic they are. Really the gameplay is so fast though, high detail would be lost as it whizzes past. The levels change between various climates of desert, snow, jungle, and such, so there is some variety at least. The downside to ClusterTrucks graphics is lots of clipping and at times I felt that I should have made a particular jump and the game just didn’t process it correctly and I had to start over.

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As players progress through the 90 levels, they gain power ups like double jump and grappling hook. These add complexity and allow for some creative ways to get to the finish line. Some levels are more of a brain teaser than others. Some levels just require more skill than I could muster to complete them. Again, ClusterTruck is challenging. This is part of its charm as well, when you finally pass that finish line after 50 attempts it is pure joy.

clustertruck

I can see where ClusterTruck would be more enjoyable on PC. The controller made it hard to run, jump, activate a power, and change camera angle at the same time, where a mouse would gain favor. I think the developer intended for this to be a mouse and keyboard game.

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ClusterTruck is short yet challenging and I can see myself coming back to time and again when between other games. I think ClusterTruck is well worth the $14.99 price point. Players who have a lot of patience and enjoy fast paced, quick thinking, run and jump games, will get their money’s worth.

ClusterTruck is available for PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One. This review is based on a PS4 copy provided for review purposes.

 

 

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