Hands on with Stick it to the Stickman - Preview
When Devolver Digital announced that they were bringing a revealing a new game this week, part of me was like oh, its likely a sequel to a game that has done well, even though that is not usually what they do. A game based around the stickman animation that first hit the internet over 15 years ago, I couldn’t have imagined that at all and yet that is what they have done. They were also kind enough to let me go hands on with it.
Stick it to the Stickman is best described as a rogue-lite brawler, and the basic premise is that you have been hired at an unnamed company, but the moment you make a wave, you get fired. Stickmen are not known for their calm and you decide to fight back and as you do, you will rise from the bottom run of the corporate ladder, until you take on the CEO, at least that is what was available to me. The full game will offer up more level types, but even if it was just this, it would be pretty fun, as I had a good time playing it.
Where things were a little different, at least to what I expected, was that attacking is not done by button mashing the attack button. Once you press the button and complete the attack, the row of attacks across the bottom of the screen and at first I assumed each attack just played out in order and they do to an extent. It took me far longer than it should have, but each attack is not a press the button and you are done, some of them require you to press the button and then hold it down, in order to complete the attack. One attack I obtained, let me force choke folks and early on, I just hit the button thinking that was all that was needed, but it was not the case, as long as I held the button down, I would continue to use the force and once I released that, the rest dropped into place.
As I kept climbing up, I would get the chance to upgrade attacks and while early on, they are really worth it, some of the later choices can be harder to make. There was one attack I got, called the Bicycle Kick, which as its name implies has you kicking like you are on a bike, but it also moves you across the screen. In the upper floors, there were windows and I often found myself, cycling out of them, because the kick can take some time to play out. Other attacks were lengthy as well, so it became a balancing act, deciding which ones to upgrade and which ones to not, because you can’t choose which attack you use, its just the next one in the list.
Something else to consider is that your character is not the same with each attempt at taking down the CEO, well they will be early on, but after my first death, I was rewarded with the Weeb. While they run like they are from Naruto, they actually have different stats and attacks to start off with, while the basic stickman would throw coffee cups, the weeb would throw knives and after I took down the CEO the first time, after many attempts, I unlocked even more. How they all play out, is something I look forward to seeing in action, because some of the starting perks will make things much easier for some over others.
As always with these hands on, there is never enough time with the game, be it from a timer in the build or a small selection of content and this one was the latter. Stick it to the Stickman is an interesting game, the combat requires far more than at first glance and while I am sure I only scratched the surface of it, what is there is fun. While there is still a lot more game to discover, so far its all good.
You can learn a little more about the game here. Right now the game is only coming to PC, with the release date set for 2023.
