Tired of the nine to five grind? Can’t take another performance review? Finally had enough of your overbearing, inconsiderate boss? Well, now thanks to The Company Man, you can finally bring down the machine in this stylish, fast-paced, yet rough around the edges 2D action platformer. Down with the corporation, man.
The Company Man does a lot with its narrative while using very little. You take control of a young man named Jim, who, after landing a job in the good water company, quickly realises that company life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Who would have thought? After quickly being demoted on his first day, Jim must quite literally fight his way to the top of the company, dealing with each department and its eccentric employees. It sounds rather comical and simple, which it is, but the narrative does more than enough to give flavour to the game world.
What did surprise me was the mixture of cynicism, satire, and wit woven through the game’s story. Using a series of dialogue boxes during levels, you get an insight into Jim’s thoughts on the company, the employees and some backstory, all whilst also taking aim at capitalism and corporate culture in a way that wasn’t overbearing, yet still managed to be poignant and lighthearted at the same time. It blends these themes and elements to great effect, overall making a narrative that whilst simplistic managed to say a lot about corporate greed in a unique way.
When it comes to gameplay, The Company Man is about everything you would want from a 2D platformer, albeit with a few blemishes. The overall experience feels fast and snappy, as you can dash and jump through levels with ease that feels fast and enjoyable. Thanks to the responsive and quick controls the game has a quicker pace than some other games in the genre, and platforming through the seven, varied levels, or departments — to stick with the whole business theme — rarely feel boring or monotonous. It helps that levels are incredibly detailed and visually appealing, managing to take the trope platformer areas and reimagine those in this corporate office building setting. Whether that’s frosty accounting, lush forest of marketing, or the Gothic-inspired legal department, every stage showcases great hand-drawn visuals and animations with detail and character aplenty which is made all the better by overall great level design. All this and you get a decent soundtrack to add that extra bit of character, lovely.
Each new floor feels completely distinct in both their gameplay and design, with every level having different obstacles and challenges like gravity flips, ice patches, and portal TV’s. It does however suffer from some practically empty areas, almost like the developers forgot to put in assets that leave some sections void of any enemies or platforming. Thankfully this isn’t too regular an occurrence, and more often than not feels fun and interesting to traverse.
The combat displays the same snappy energy as the platforming. Using your trusty keyboard sword feels super satisfying as you slash through enemies and objects, and it’s got that oh-so-sweet gamey goodness you’d want from a weapon that just makes you want to mash the button for the hell of it. It helps that the game’s enemy variety is plentiful and makes enemies fun to fight, even if they aren’t the most challenging. Like the game’s detailed levels, the enemies and bosses share the same attention to detail with each floor’s enemy types all in keeping with that floor’s themes. Lawyers become vampires and werewolves in their gothic castle-themed floor, whilst HR workers swim through the paperwork like seals. It all oozes charm and detail, with bosses being the key standouts.
Each boss was distinctive in every way, with no two being remotely the same with the only real downside being the inconsistency in their difficulty, with some bosses in later games feeling way too easy to beat or could easily be exploited with animation locks. That said, this was in the minority, and most were the firm but fair challenges I hoped for. Plus they just looked awesome, I mean the first boss I encountered used an intern’s body like a helicopter. I didn’t think that could be topped, but it only got wackier from there.
A decent selection of abilities that you unlock as you progress through each level adds to that snappy gameplay in an overall enjoyable way. These email arts add a little extra variety to how you handle the employees you face, each with various damage and energy costs that range from shotgun blast spam emails to chain emails resembling a move from Dragon Ball Z. It’s a shame then that these are not all created equal. Whilst the abilities naturally become more diverse as you progress, some felt pretty useless for most of the time I had them, and I often found myself using only two of the five abilities and they were some of the first I unlocked, and the few times I ventured to use others often lead to either wasting energy or leaving myself open to attack and dying.
Upgrades felt like they had more value than the abilities, which much like the checkpoints, involves the office worker’s best friend, coffee. Between levels when you return to the lobby, you can spend coins you’ve collected to purchase upgrades to health, energy, and a few extra abilities such as stopping projectiles. That’s not to say some weren’t clearly better than others, which was made quite apparent as I approached the later levels. Despite this, these upgrades are a decent addition that gives players a little bit of progression to round off the player’s gameplay.
It might sound like the game is lacking in some areas, but truthfully I found The Company Man to be an enjoyable and engaging game. Yes, it has a few issues, and yes it’s way too easy on normal mode, but the overall package is one that is full to the brim with character, wit, charm, style, and incredibly unique designs. When you are jumping across platforms whilst dealing with multiple different enemies, using your abilities to tackle each one effectively, and finally reaching one of the game’s ace boss battles, it feels thrilling and rewarding.
It’s a great platformer that is short but sweet, with imaginative designs, fun gameplay, and an oddly thought-provoking narrative, and when it works together, is a great showing from Forust. Just maybe play it on a higher difficulty to really see its full potential.
The Company Man is out now on Steam and Nintendo Switch. Check out the Games Website and Twitter for more details.
