Struggling Reviews
Struggling isn't the first game whose main gimmick is a protagonist who's deliberately difficult to control. Whereas other games do this for comedy effect, though, here it only serves to frustrate. It's difficult enough in single-player, but as a co-op experience you're far more likely to want to slap your friend in the face before you'll high-five them. Success does feel like an accomplishment, but the end rarely justifies the means, making this strictly a game for masochists.
If you love a challenge, Struggling provides it in spades. The visuals and level designs are fantastic, and the music is the icing on the blood-soaked cake.
Struggling is a mess. While I can't fault the controls themselves, the object physics are just not reliable enough in crucial areas, as the momentum when using some objects is too chaotic to reliably make progress. Unless you have the patience of a saint or an online audience eager to see your reactions as you're battling through, this is probably not the game for you.
Struggling is a unique game: difficult, sometimes frustrating, full of nauseating characters, but incredibly fun. Coop multiplayer is also a great experience.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Struggling is a game that I was sure I was going to dislike but had me changing my mind with pure joy from the earliest stages.
Struggling's difficulty and intense nature will have players on the edge of their seats gripping their controller as they helplessly attempt to flop Troy's arms away from danger. Or, if they bring a friend, it will incite some hilarious gaming memories. Struggling is easily an instant classic from Chasing Rats studio, and anyone who is up for a challenging and memorable experience should give this game a whirl.
Like its repulsive protagonist, Struggling is a two-faced herm. It has a stomach-turning glance, yet irresistible. Alternate questionable design choices with fragments of good entertainment. It is a poison (in single) and a panacea (in pairs). You may hate it, if patience is not your forte; or worship him, if you are a person of spirit. One thing is certain: you have hardly had - and will have - to deal with a video game as absurd as Struggling.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Constant deaths, relentless levels, control schemes that are difficult to master... Victory in Struggling is a luxury, something that is not easily granted to us and for which we have to fight constantly. Deliberately stripping the player of almost any kind of action carried out not only radically changes the mobility and style employed, but also has a great psychological effect on it. It is precisely here where the greatest charm of the adventure lies, and although sometimes the end does not justify the means, it is a proposal as original and different as frustrating.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Chasing Rats and Frontier bring us Struggling, a game where control becomes primordial in our goal to guide our "hero" Troy to freedom. An original, provocative and very funny title.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Struggling is a bizarre, hilarious and thoroughly entertaining adventure that makes the most of its relatively simple graphics and gameplay
If you like overcoming frustration, maybe you'll find something worthwhile. I don't.
There is an audience out there for something like Struggling. The variety of set-pieces do show an attempt to break up the monotony of fumbling, but the journey is much too long. Trial and error scenarios are too frequent due to the gameplay, and the real struggle is having the patience to redo many simple tasks.
Struggling has imaginative indie talent sloshing throughout. Plus, you can tell it's got a big publisher behind it, believing in its charm and uniqueness.
Unique main character and his Controls. It is so easy to hate this game and so hard to play it. But give it a chance in co-op mode.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
While Struggling eventually comes together to a degree and showcases impressive creativity, it doesn’t change that this is a game with audio that made me want to mute my TV and controls, which simply don’t feel good. It’s a real struggle to play. While that may be mostly intentional, it doesn’t make the game more enjoyable in the end. Some players may find more in it than me, but I’m more interested in seeing what the creative team at Chasing Rats Games does next. Any team with this much creativity feels like they have a great game in them. They didn’t get there this time, though.
Struggling is a very creative and endearing platformer that surprised me with both how much I enjoyed its grotesque universe and how tight its physics-based gameplay is.
Never has a game title been more fitting. Struggling is, well, a bit of a struggle. Imagine the abstract movement and control system of Octodad paired with some platforming feats that require a modicum of precision. It’s a recipe for frustration and turmoil. There were a few things though, when I looked past the struggle, that I quite liked.