The Company Man Review: Break Free From The Cubicle!
The Company Man is a new platform title from Forust Studio that depicts life in an office and all the red tape that goes with it. Line managers who don’t know your name, customer service reps with halitosis – it’s all here.
But before you bail and can’t stand the sight of another bleak, drab office space, the illustrations in this game are absolutely superb. For a debut title on Steam, the developers have done a fantastic job in creating some memorable characters, and backgrounds and animations on par with a Cartoon Network show.
The real highlight from my stance is the wit. The folk at Forust clearly have served their time in an office environment. From the pits in Customer Services (worked there), to the bean bags and yoga spiel in Marketing (worked there also), to the cutthroat environment of Sales (worked there too. Noticing a pattern?). Yes, The Company Man was made for people like us.
The Company Man Review – PC via Steam
You play as Jim. He’s only just started working at Good Water Company but finds himself demoted upon his initiation. Undeterred, he thrives to rise the ranks and eventually become the CEO, thus qualifying him to succeed.
Much like Say No More! The Company Man is a satire on office life and accurately portrays each department as Jim ploughs through each. Don’t be offended if you work in any of these departments – it’s all innocent and tongue-in-cheek.
There are seven departments/levels, and you’ll progress through each one relatively quickly; it’s quite an easy game for about two-thirds of the experience. Jim has a health and energy gauge, and can take a fair amount of hits as standard.
To refill on health, the checkpoints are coffee machines. One quick swig, and it’s full health and energy. Just a note here: even if you have full health, use it as should you die; you won’t return to this particular checkpoint. They’re pretty scarce in later levels.
No Need To Reply To This Email
Early on, someone on the board helps you out, and as long as you fire staff on their behalf, they’ll give you an email weapon. These are ranged attacks but limited to the energy you have. The only way to restore is through using melee attacks or waiting for them to regenerate.
These ranged weapons help for distant attacks – especially when you want to keep your distance from the boss fights. They’re pretty varied too; wave attacks, pulse and a shotgun, but all under the guise of emails – fired through your keyboard sword.
When you’re hit, there’s a brief pause, Jim freezes white, and you continue. With spikes, he’ll teleport back a nudge to a safe point, but in enemy encounters, he’ll stay still but won’t take any more damage in this state.
It is possible to exploit a few of the battles in The Company Man by spamming attack and taking the brunt of the attacks, but in the later levels, notably Sales, there are lots of spikes to avoid and should you get caught, you’ll return to a safe point.
Gaining Access
Between levels, you’ll speak to the receptionist, Alice, who Jim has a thing for. She’ll upgrade your access pass so you can jump in the lift to the various departments. It’s well represented, with the lifts often crowded with suits, you have to grab one in the brief time the doors open.
The marketing floor was the first challenging stage, with a yoga-inspired Ned Flanders following your every move in a cloud, centaurs, bouncy castles, bean bags and two bosses; if the earlier levels in The Company Man were like this, it would have been brill.
Throughout the game, you’re given coffee tokens. Foolishly thinking that these were just for storytelling elements, it wasn’t until level six that it became apparent you can cash these in for upgrades.
Included in the mix were health bars, energy, temporary invulnerability when on your last health bar and a few others. If you haven’t played this yet, I’d recommend investing in health and also the option to repel projectiles – very helpful later on.
The Life Of An Office Worker
While it’s not a one-hit-kill, the last boss will throw everything at you (literally), and there’s hardly any room for error. When you die, you have to return to the boss before. Though you’ll beat him every time, his few attacks can get unpredictable, and it’s hard to avoid his Raiden-like move.
There’s no doubt about it; the art style, level design and wit throughout are on point. There isn’t any dialogue in the game, but the noises characters make is often amusing, as are the sound effects. The music is varied in the game, but it’s background stuff and doesn’t stand out.
My issues with The Company Man is the amount of space not filled with enemies. It doesn’t have to be like The Addams Family, or let’s be a bit more recent, Aluna Sentinel Of The Shards, but it did feel like speedrunning in so many areas, irrespective if you’re the type to steamroll through games.
If the game had the same sort of challenge as the Marketing and Sales areas, this would have been so much better, but equally, the last stage could have been toned down a bit – even if you don’t have to go all the way to the start, it’s frustrating if you have a bad run with the CEO.
The Company Man Review Summary
The good points outweigh the bad, and it’s been a treat to play. I couldn’t fault the art style or social commentary – it’s brilliant. Even though The Company Man doesn’t have the type of collectables or filled with secret areas like many platformers are, it’s still one with replay value – for the humour alone. Definitely worth a look.