Completely Stretchy was provided by Super Rare Originals for review. Thank you!
There is something that always appeals to me about the weird and quirky games that are just meant to be a bit crazy. You know, the games with the weirdest characters with the craziest names and designs, a story that barely makes sense, and it all feels like it came straight out of an 8-year-old’s fever dream. If you enjoy these games as much as I do, let me introduce you to Completely Stretchy. Developed by Warp Digital, this first-person game is filled with some of the weirdest and funniest characters I have seen in a game, and while I do love the charm, some issues stop this from being a must-have game.
While almost non-existent, the story sets the stage for the entire game and how you become so stretchy. It starts as a normal day heading to work, where you are experimenting on some unknown substance with Dr. Grimble. However, something goes wrong, and you end up merging with the liquid that is being experimented on. Now, you are blue and stretchy and have to go collect Elektrons that have scattered across Grombi Isles in the hopes that you will figure out exactly what happened.
Throughout my time playing, I was never really invested in the main story. I didn't care much about why I became stretchy and that didn't change much the more I played. But I did enjoy the side quests that are all around. They were never telling compelling stories, but the small tidbits into the lives and world of the citizens of Grombi Isles were enjoyable. And a lot of them were just downright hilarious.
One quest I took involved stealing a recipe from a competing restaurant, which was ridiculously easy to do. But when I got back, I saw some guy attached to a spinner mixing a huge vat of some unknown liquid. Talking to the guy spinning, he mentions that he hates his job and was told by the ones who requested the quest that he will have to work overtime. I wouldn't go into Completely Stretchy expecting a compelling story, but it more than makes up for it with the charm of the world and its inhabitants.
The charm of the world permeates throughout both those small stories and the designs of the bizarre inhabitants. The huge eyes, lanky bodies, various sizes of limbs, and the things they are doing all contribute to the quirkiness. There is a full room of people spinning around while T-posing for exercise, a dance party in a cave, a huge head sticking out of the sand complimenting my outfit, and so much more. The devs did a great job making me want to look and explore and talk to everyone to see what they would say, and I almost always unexpectedly enjoyed what they talked about.
The bulk of Completely Stretchy will have you traveling through different islands in Grombi Isles to find Elektrons and complete random quests to get more Elektrons or upgrades for your stretchy powers to latch onto more objects without touching the ground. The big hook is that you are so stretchy that you can swing from building to building, travel fast across the island, and access hard-to-reach areas. For an exploration-focused 3D platformer, it does the job, but I did find myself a bit bored after a while.
Stretching and swinging around is the big focal point of the gameplay, and there are definitely moments of fun here. However, there were more moments than I expected where it was a little bit hard to control. This could be due to me using a controller/gamepad to play, but even when I tried with the keyboard and mouse, it wasn't much easier. When it works, it's awesome, and chaining together swings to gain momentum feels wonderful, but I often either missed the object or wasn't able to control myself super well when I did make contact.
To figure out where you need to go, you can access a 3D map of the island to find people you can talk to for side quests, and while this is nice, it's not easy to navigate. I found myself getting lost multiple times to find the last one or two people to talk to. It wasn't impossible, and moving the map around helped a little, but I still got lost.
Then, we have the Steam Deck performance, which was not what I was expecting.
When I first saw Completely Stretchy, I was pretty sure that the game would be playable on the Steam Deck. It doesn't have very detailed or complex visuals, and with the more limited scope, I thought this would be quite easy to play. However, I was wrong, and boy, is it a tough game to run on the Steam Deck.
The game struggles to hit framerates above 30 FPS despite the simple aesthetic. Unless I was in closed-off areas or inside buildings, there would be huge drops, with the framerate sticking around 36 FPS on average and a high battery drain. There aren't any graphical settings to change, making it a bit harder to test and pinpoint the issue. My guess is there is a CPU bottleneck due to the drain for the CPU being much higher than the GPU.
It is still playable, and the small drops are manageable, but it feels like the game could have been optimized better on this front to ensure it was more playable on the Steam Deck. So, for now, I recommend just setting the in-game framerate cap to 30 and playing that way for the most stable experience:
There is an accessibility tab in the game that allows you to toggle aim assist and reticule center lock, as well as aim forgiveness. Outside of that, you can change the volume for different parts of the game and change languages.
There is no 16:10 support, so you will have black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, but you do have controller and cloud saves. There are no HDR settings.
Completely Stretchy is an intriguing game with a charming world, but the gameplay holds it back. I love the world of Grombi Isles, and while the main story didn't hook me, I enjoyed running around, meeting the inhabitants, and seeing what they would say and do. The 3D platforming and swinging can be great when they work, but I often find them rare, and I could not control my swinging too well more often than not.
It also doesn't run as well on the Steam Deck as I had initially expected. With the simple visuals, I had expected higher framerates and lower battery life, but it has a CPU bottleneck which keeps it at 30 FPS with a higher battery drain. It's still playable, but not to the extent that I would have liked.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Completely Stretchy is an intriguing, unique platformer filled with interesting characters, but the gameplay and Steam Deck performance doesn't match the charm.
