Stick it to the Stickman was provided by Devolver Digital for review. Thank you!
This is an early access title, so our final thoughts on Stick it to the Stickman will most likely change as it develops. This review is based on our thoughts of the initial release of the game.
There are so many games about building and managing different businesses. From bars and cafes to trading card shops, we consistently become the CEOs and try to get rich. However, we don’t think about the employees we hire to work for us, and while we may treat them right, some businesses don’t. Well, if you’re part of one of those businesses that is taking advantage of you, Stick it to the Stickman may be the perfect game to relieve your stress, and it’s cracking up to be a good one so far.
In this roguelike, you play as a stickman in that exact position: being worked hard and taken advantage of by your CEO. One day, you just get fed up and start attacking every other worker around, slowly moving towards the top of the building to face the CEO and take his position. And the cycle continues, with you taking the role of a new stockman who has to fight off against the new CEO, and it’s very hard to tell when, or if, this cycle will ever stop.
Developer Free Lives has gone all out here and shown their fantastic brand of comedy, which they mix extremely well with their games. The loose story is outrageous, watching yourself constantly become the new CEO and have to submit to shareholders and their ridiculous whims in such a dramatic fashion. It’s apparent from the opening when you have to name your stickman, only to find out that you aren’t naming your stickman, but we will be seeing them quite often.
The heart of Stick it to the Stickman's gameplay loop is the roguelike mechanics, but the implementation is something I haven’t seen before. Instead of the usual deck building or upgrades, we engage in real-time combat and add new moves to his moveset as we defeat enemies and level up. These can range from punches and kicks to throwing coffee or knives. They can also be upgraded twice in each run to more powerful versions, culminating in the epic showdown with the CEO at the top of the building.
This implementation of roguelike elements is way more engaging than I expected. Seeing it appear in real-time combat was exciting, and it is so much fun. Free Lives’ humor is packed into the gameplay once again. The fighting is all physics-driven, so our stickman and enemies will flail around, while office objects will fly around as we knock into them. The scenery is semi-interactable, with some electrical outlets able to electrocute and windows being breakable to kick enemies out. Even the upgrades range from ridiculous to epic, and take lots of inspiration from other famous moves from other games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.
In the hours I played, the core loop never got old. It was hilarious, engaging, and exciting. Each run starts off with you choosing from one of 20 different jobs, each having its starting moves that relate to its respective job. Like the Jogger with kick moves, the Extrovert who can shout at people, and the Taskdodger, who has a paper airplane they can throw (and tries to avoid being selected on the menu screen). They all have their own perks as well, which is a nice touch, too.
As we play, there will be new buildings to unlock, which we can use accumulated money to purchase and buy upgrades for ourselves. The upgrades can unlock new interactables in the office, like coffee jugs to increase damage temporarily, as well as new floor types, special moves, new job types, and more. It’s not always straightforward what the upgrades will do, but they’re exciting.
To get to all these buildings, we can run across a small map with some mechanics similar to games like GTA. We can carjack, find guns, shoot people, beat them down, and our wanted level will increase the more havoc we cause and have to fend off the police. That and some minigames littered throughout are a nice little break away from the main gameplay, even though I didn’t feel like I needed it.
This is an early access release, so performance will change as development goes through early access. This is based on the initial release that you can play on launch.
Initially, I was worried about Stick it to the Stickman on the Steam Deck. When I first played when I got my review build, the framerate was all over the place and controller support had some holes in it. However, the day 1 update dropped right before finishing this review, so I went ahead and tried it again. I am so glad I did, because there have been some great, necessary changes that make it borderline playable on the Deck.
The game will play at a stable 30 FPS throughout, with some minor drops in fights with tons of enemies on screen (which can happen). That will be the most stable way to play so far, but if you want to push, most areas and fights in the game will be playable at 40 FPS and above. Controller support also feels significantly more refined, and is my preferred way to play.
Before, I would have said to wait for some updates to play on the Steam Deck. But with this patch, I’d consider it playable and enjoyable. Yes, there are still some minor drops, but thanks to this patch, I am confident they will improve further throughout early access. I did notice that pausing the game sometimes ended up draining the game more, but overall, it's solid performance for an initial release.
We can enable a timer, change driving controls, and change volume sliders. There aren't many settings to change right now, but that could change as development progresses.
The game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, but it has solid controller and cloud save support. There are no HDR settings.
Stick it to the Stickman very quickly became one of my top three favorite roguelikes, and I can easily see it being my favorite I have played. The real-time combat mixes extremely well with roguelike mechanics, and for an early access release, there is a lot to love. The mix of minigames, a physics-driven world, and developer Free Lives humor elevates the experience even further. I'm looking forward to seeing what will be added as development continues, but it's a fantastic initial showing of how great this game could be.
It's also running decently on the Steam Deck, being able to stick to 30 FPS at least unless there's a ton of enemies on screen. For an early access release, this is solid, and I am confident it will only get better as time goes on.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Stick it to the Stickman has become one of my favorite roguelikes, even in its early access state, and it's quite playable on the Steam Deck so far.
