Review: Stick it to the Stickman

If you had a mobile phone back in the early 2000s, you would remember seeing the stickman fighting videos that looked amazing back then. These were brutal, but perfectly choreographed videos that were both action-filled and satisfying to watch. Developer Free Lives, the studio behind the amazing Broforce and Genital Jousting, took that same concept and turned it into a video game called Stick it to the Stickman. Add Devolver Digital’s publishing charm, and you get a chaotic, melee-combat brawler that is insanely fun and unapologetic. This is our review of the PC Steam release of Stick it to the Stickman, in which we punch employees into oblivion and try to climb the corporate ladder, one kick at a time.

Stick it to the Stickman is a game that every person who has worked in a corporate environment will relate to instantly. It is about a new employee who will do anything to get to the top of the corporate ladder, but when he finally reaches the top, his own hire will follow his own steps in reaching the top, and the cycle just keeps going. It is an excellent take by the developer to explain the cutthroat competition in 9-5 jobs and the corporate sector. At the start, the game puts you in the shoes of a new hire who is placed at the bottom of the corporate chain, literally. Your office is located on a basement floor, which has multiple floors above it before even the ground floor appears. Your only way to reach the top is by beating the living hell of your colleagues and senior management, upgrading your skills along the way, and finally getting face-to-face with the CEO of the corporation.

Combat in Stick it to the Stickman is mostly automated. It is not an auto-battler because you have to press the attack button to land hits on your enemies; however, the move or attack is determined by the attack list at the bottom of your screen. The initial move list is determined by your chosen employee. Every character has a pre-determined skill, and its move list is based around that skill. For example, the Conservative has guns right from the start, and the Weeb has ninja moves at the beginning. However, as you progress, you can find and add more moves to this list, and they are executed in a sequence during a fight. Every next button press executes the next move on this list.

After every set of floors that you clear, you get a star which allows you to upgrade one move. Every move has three available upgrades, with the third upgrade giving you access to the most powerful form of attack. Similarly, you also get briefcases, which are promotions, and they allow you to add a brand-new move of your choice from a roll to your move set. The game calls killing enemies in the game firing them, so you are basically firing everyone else and moving up on the corporate ladder. At key points, you come across stronger enemies that are able to call additional enemies as reinforcements. One of the funnier ones is a manager who is able to call in interns for his backup, which are smaller in size but in greater numbers.

The enemies do not hit too hard in the game, but they have an annoying habit of jumping on you and tying you to a location, while some powerful enemies also have stronger moves inspired by other franchises, such as the Force Choke from Star Wars. Most of these moves are aimed at constricting our movement in the game, which means that with these attacks, the enemies do not deal damage but rather make our character unable to move, and the remaining smaller enemies do the damage dealing. Stick it to the Stickman is not a difficult game, but you can make it interesting with your builds and upgrade choices.

This is the basic gameplay loop; however, once you defeat the current boss, you become the boss, and then you have to repeat the same loop with a fresh hire. What makes every next run different is the upgrades and expansions that you purchase. At the end of every run, you earn money, which is used to purchase expansions. Some are demanded by the shareholders, while some can be purchased on your own as well. These upgrades allow you to change the gameplay in multiple ways, like unlocking new run types in different locations, and also some activities like putting the business on the Stock Market and reaching additional milestones of progression.

It’s not very clear when you first start the game, but there is a narrative hidden behind the runs, and every successful run unlocks a new type of scene for you to see. For example, quite early in the game, after clearing a run, my character wanted a statue for himself, but soon I was ambushed by men arriving in limos, kidnapped, and taken to the higher-ups, where I got into a mini-game where I had to match directions with the shareholders dancing. These small moments keep gameplay fresh and also introduce new gameplay mechanics so the progression does not feel stale after completing a few runs.

What I love about Stick it to the Stickman’s gameplay is that it quickly elevates in terms of chaos. As you start from simply kicking around your fellow employees, after a few minutes, you are literally making them fly out of windows with Dragon Kicks. The updates for nearly all moves are extremely cool, and they are not just visual upgrades as well. Every move’s next tier completely changes its animation, and you can actually feel the power increase for that move as well. With the right build, you can launch enemies out of windows with a single hit. During my very first playthrough, I managed to one-shot the boss with a Dragon Kick because my timing of the hit was good.

However, I am not a fan of the ranged moves in the game. Despite the upgrades, they run out of ammo, and once they do, you are left with a move that is just sitting there in your move list. Unlike melee attacks, the ranged attacks in the game require ammo, whether they are delivery boxes, stones, or even guns. During the ranged attack, your character will throw a projectile at the enemies based on the selected move, for example, a delivery box, at the enemy. It will consume ammo, and once you run out of ammo, it will just sit in your move list with a cross on it. When you upgrade it, you get more ammo, but it runs out eventually as well.

From the pictures, it may not look like much, but I loved the visual art style of Stick it to the Stickman. It is a nostalgic throwback to the early 2000s videos that featured stickman fighting sequences. The figures and the world are made in 3D, but there is one particular sequence that is exactly in the retro style of the stickman fighting videos. The special effects in the game look very good, such as explosions, windows breaking when you launch enemies into the air, and the throwables when they get stuck in walls if they miss an enemy. There is no shortage of visual details in the game. As you progress in the game, you get to explore additional areas as well, which bring their own unique details to the table, from warehouses to bunkers.

Stick it to the Stickman is also very good at overall optimization. The game runs like butter, and it helps the cause, especially because its gameplay style demands smooth gameplay. There is no stuttering at any time; the controls are crisp, and the movement is on-point. Every input is instantly reflected in the game, which results in a satisfying loop. I did not encounter any sort of gameplay bugs or errors during my 20-hour playthrough for this review. There were no crashes or freezes as well. Free Lives has done an excellent job at optimizing the game for its 1.0 release.

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Final Verdict:

Stick it to the Stickman is an insanely addictive game, with varied gameplay mechanics and a satisfying roguelite loop. The fighting mechanics are solid, and the attack moves are deeply satisfying. The way this game takes a comedic jab at the corporate structure and what every employee ‘wishes’ he could do for a promotion is just brilliant. Stick to the Stickman nails in every aspect, whether it is humor, combat, attack moves, level design, extra content, visual design, or the gameplay loop. If you love playing roguelites, beat ‘em up titles, chaotic games with fun ragdoll mechanics, or are simply a fan of the stick-figure art style, you will absolutely love Stick it to the Stickman.

Final Score: 9.5/10

Disclaimer: A PC Steam review code for Stick it to the Stickman was provided by Tinsley PR on behalf of Devolver Digital for this review. For a detailed breakdown of our scoring and review process, please refer to our Review Policy.