Have you ever had that thought of climbing up the corporate ladder, tossing your peers out onto the unemployment line while on your way to the top in order to fire your boss? Well if you have, The Company Man is definitely the best way to live out that fantasy.

Through its truly unique premise, enemies, and levels, this title manages to inject something new and worth trying into a bloated genre of samey-looking games. Though I have a couple of issues with how some things were treated in the game, I can honestly say that I’m glad that I played.

Story

Without giving too much away, you play as a humble water salesman named Jim whose dream is to be the CEO of his company and make mad money. It’s his first day and while he may be a big dreamer, fate is on his side and he is thrust into a mighty quest to rise to the top of his company.

The overall story is definitely on the lighter side with not so much exposition at the forefront, instead choosing Jim’s actions to make the point to most if not all of its elements. Through level design, that’s where a lot of the story also lies as each level depicts a different floor in this corporate dungeon.

Gameplay

The Company Man follows the tried and true formula of the 2D platformer genre. Your goal is to fight your way through each of its levels in order to face its penultimate boss or bosses. You’ll have a lot to look out for in each level such as different dangerous obstacles that vary from moving spikey blocks, bouncing pads, and even falling coworkers.

I found a lot of the obstacles to fall in one of two camps. They were either really funny or really fun to go against. I loved a lot of the actual-level design in terms of their flow. Nothing ever had the chance to grow stale as there would be something new tossed in to flip the level on its head.

One of these things was its enemies. The enemies also vary from level to level, keeping with the overall theme. If it’s an office-themed level, you have enemies-themed appropriately, the art department, the same, and so on. There are even coffee checkpoints where you can replenish Jim’s health.

There were actually a lot of enemies at play and I was pleasantly surprised to find that no two ever had the same attacks. Kudos to the team at Forust Studio because these enemies are so cool and a lot of fun to fight against.

I’d say my real complaint about the enemies though is that I felt a few of them were a bit cheap in terms of combat. Some would hurt you just by bumping into them and others wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have minded if the devs chose to go down either route but it felt weird and inconsistent to do both.

As far as the bosses go, I was also happy to see that they weren’t impossible to defeat. Some titles in this genre try to make bosses unstoppable but I think this title balanced it all well. Especially when you take into consideration that the levels are pretty difficult on their own, it was nice to find that I wasn’t going to be decimated when I finally reached level’s end.

The game also has a light upgrade system set within the office building’s lobby for which you can upgrade Jim’s abilities in between levels. You can give him more health, the ability to suck the life from his enemies, or even give his special attack more power.

And that’s the other thing, you earn special abilities at the end of each level. It’s another neat aspect that offers a bit of whimsy as each attack is themed for the office setting. I enjoyed using them every so often but found my favorite attack to be the tried and true standard.

Audio and Visuals

Another way in which TCM sets itself apart is in its visuals. It’s an insanely detailed and pretty game from start to finish. Its characters’ looks tell the story and do a great job at making you feel like this crazy world is a real one.

Everything has a great balance in light and dark colors which breathed different vibes into every moment of gameplay. I really love that the devs thought out of the box with some of the character models because it all pays off.

It actually kind of reminded me of the old Kim Possible games from back on the Game Boy Advance which also brought a bit of nostalgia. That also helped carry me through every death screen I encountered, and there were a lot of them.

There isn’t a lot of character dialogue, if any, but the audio throughout the game is done extremely well. There are many enemies that have audible cues that you have to watch out for to avoid being hit and not listening or playing on low volume definitely screwed me over a handful of times.

Replayability

As TCM isn’t an extremely long game, I feel that there’s quite a bit of replayability. This is a title that even upon completion, I’d keep loaded onto my console. It’s just a beautiful title and the gameplay loop itself is pretty satisfying. It’s a light and airy game that you can beat in a playthrough or pick up every now and again to get your fix.

What It Could Have Done Better

As I said above, the enemies can feel kind of cheap at times. I also thought that the checkpoints throughout some of the levels felt too far away. Though I eventually got over that aspect, it’s definitely irritating at times. I also found a couple of small glitches here or there but nothing seemed to bog the gameplay down or get in the way all too much.

I would’ve liked to see a couple more levels included within the game as I definitely feel that another one or two could have been done. And though most levels and enemies did a really great job of poking fun at the office lifestyle, some just didn’t make a lot of sense overall in the grand scheme of things.

Verdict

The Company Man accomplished exactly what I wanted it to do; give me a good old-fashioned platformer without roguelike or Metroidvania elements. The devs did a great job and focused on creating a solid simple game instead of trying to toss anything and everything at the wall.

It’s a solid platformer that has a great premise, fantastic enemies, and levels perfectly designed. It also manages to make some pretty great jokes about the corpo life through its depictions of characters and environments that I think anyone would love.

If you’ve got $19.99 and you’re in the mood for a fun title to sink a few hours into, The Company Man is just the suit for you. This dev team has a bright future ahead of them.