Struggling

Life is hard, even harder when you are the squishy abomination of two combined heads. This is precisely the type of life you will have to experience in Chasing Rats Games' first title, a gruelling, physics-based experience, made to test the limits of friendships. This is Struggling.

Following the tale of Troy, an abomination made up of two beings - Hector and Achilles - Struggling tracks their adventure as they cross dangerous hazards in a wretched world, as they look to challenge the Old Gods, and free the world of suffering. Without any assistance from able-bodied humans, and while being overwhelmed with challenging encounters and crushing physics-based puzzles, Troy will have to use its abilities and mangled, yet surprisingly strong arms to drag itself to humanity's salvation.

At its core, Struggling is simple to understand, however, playing is far from it. The controls revolve around manipulating Troy's arms to be able to grab onto the environment and move along it. The catch is how each arm must be moved with a whole range of inputs to simulate the intricacies of human movement. Think of it similar to Getting Over It's hammer movement mechanic, except this time there are two to worry about.

Even more so, Struggling isn't simply about making it to the end of a level. There is a whole range of encounters and puzzles to crawl through, each designed to test the limits of your mental resolve. These instances are the epitome of stress as you fumble through the encounter with the title's physics engine being your greatest nemesis. A great example of this comes near the beginning of the game, where you are tasked with moving a few feet out of the way of a grotesque Guinea pig-looking monstrosity, and then simultaneously closing a sliding door before the creature eats you. It may seem easy enough, but in the heat of the moment, it really does feel like life or death.

The physics engine really is the boss of Struggling and will quite often make you question every decision you've made leading up to trying to conquer the game's storyline. It's obvious having the system feel as challenging as it is was a major point of interest and it certainly has achieved that. Another great example of the physics engine in action is when you are tasked with escaping a room slowly filling with ravenous rats. All you are required to do is climb some minor obstacles whilst making it to the end of the room, however, with the beating soundtrack and hard to control movement, the encounter suddenly becomes incredibly stressful and more often than not, rage-inducing.

Since Struggling is a physics-based platformer, you have to understand it is quite hard to stay calm and collected all the time. The title is literally designed to make you struggle at pretty much every instance, and that can frequently be irritating to deal with. Does this make it bad? Absolutely not, but in a similar way to how Soulsborne games aren't for everyone, Struggling is definitely in the same boat.

To keep gameplay fresh, Struggling features several unlockable abilities, designed to make Troy's journey a little easier. These range from detachable arms, all the way to time manipulation and each of them is required to solve some of the puzzles encountered throughout the story. The thing is, since Struggling has such a demanding control scheme, the addition of unique abilities quite often only provides more of a challenge to an already difficult experience.

One of the craziest parts of Struggling is the locations that Troy traverses. Since the journey is already a little unorthodox, taking the toughest route is obviously the greatest solution, which is precisely why Troy has to make its way across sweltering desert mountain ranges, through dangerous abandoned mine shafts, out of hostile and poorly maintained laboratories, all the way to reach the location of the Old Gods. Needless to say, with Troy's dexterity and athletic ability, the journey is rough.

Aside from just passing through each area, Troy can also search for collectable hats dotted around the place to wear. Usually, they are hidden or placed in teasing areas designed to make you go out of your way, putting yourself in needless danger. If you do manage to acquire one, however, either Hector or Achilles can wear it (even two different ones at once - one on each head). The best part about collecting hats is how you always have access to them once they've been worn once, all you have to do is enter Troy's safe haven from the pause menu.

It is worth being aware Struggling's controls are obviously geared to be played on a controller. The title does have mouse and keyboard support, but it is seriously difficult to play using this method, so a controller is absolutely recommended.

As a way to wrap-up, a bit of focus should be brought to the art style of this title, which is wonderfully weird, and more often than not, grotesque. The way Troy looks, the way each area is designed and the appearance of the creepy creatures throughout is memorable, usually in a disturbing manner. However, with all of Struggling's art being hand-drawn, credit should be given to the creative individuals who had the imagination to think it up.

To conclude, Struggling is a creepy, physics-based platformer designed to test the mental resolve of its subjects. Featuring brutal puzzles and frequently stressful encounters, the bizarre hand-drawn world and perturbing storyline are enough to be fashioned from one's nightmares, unless you are accustomed to the ways of challenging physics-based platformers. For anyone brave, or crazy enough to tackle its action, Struggling will definitely be a worthy opponent to face off against. It absolutely was for me.