Company man - jump from desk to desk in platform fashion. That's what awaits poor clerk Jim in The Company Man.
The Good Weather Company
A fresh out of university graduate, Jim is excited about his new job at The Good Water Company. However, work life is not what it seems as the actions of lazy bosses and inhumane CEOs immediately put his job in jeopardy. After being demoted to customer service hell, Jim is determined to make his job work by systematically "firing" all of his corrupt bosses and making his way to the top of the office building.
Dismissals in The Company Man
Firing employees does not mean reporting them to Human Resources or criticizing their performance at a board meeting. Armed with your trusty keyboard, you simply wander up to an unsuspecting colleague and smack him on the head with it. First and foremost, The Company Man is an action-platformer that focuses on office-supply-based combat. Pretty much every other clerk you see is out to get you, be it by throwing paper at you in the mailroom.
Opponents in The Company Man
You'll have to get used to the attacks each enemy uses to protect your health points. Even simple enemies require you to wait for an incoming attack before jumping into the fray. Every encounter requires a little thought.
special abilities
Thankfully, you won't have to rely on the keyboard as a shield for too long, as each time you defeat the current floor's boss, you'll be rewarded with a new special ability. These projectile skills are really game-changing, and they're all about sending emails with your keyboard. The default email blaster sends a strongly worded shot across the screen. Reply All shoots a shotgun of emails off your board and spam sends out a huge laser of messages for massive damage. These skills are really useful when you want to protect yourself from damage and are essential when dealing with a boss.
The boss fights
The boss fights are perhaps the highlight of The Company Man. Whether you're screen-sized or just another employee, you always pack a punch and have to contend with a variety of moves. Some old-fashioned pattern learning is the order of the day, and there's real satisfaction in finally beating a boss after he's been knocked down five or six times.
The topic
The Company Man is a thoroughly enjoyable action-platformer, but what sets it apart from its competitors is the theme. Each floor of the office is a different department of the company and is brought to life with a truly inventive style. Accounting is a frozen world because it's so boring to work in that it feels like life is "frozen" and you have to dodge frozen assets like icy safes falling from the sky. Advertising is a creative hippie jungle of beanbag loafers, and customer service is a blazing hellscape of caged employees.
The money
On your adventure through the office you collect money that you can spend in the café. Coffee is Jim's lifeblood, it heals him completely at the checkpoints in the break area and also gives him energy for a few dollars. Some upgrades are pretty simple, like extra hp and energy for powers. The best upgrades are more unique, such as granting you invincibility when you get your last hit point.
The upgrade problem
Possibly the biggest problem with The Company Man comes from one of these upgrades. When purchased, each enemy you kill heals you for one HP. This breaks the game and changes the difficulty from maybe too tricky to almost trivial. You no longer struggle to get from one checkpoint to the next, but master each stage without dying. Since this power-up only helps when defeating smaller enemies, it doesn't help on bosses. Going from easy stages to really hard bosses is really jarring.
The graphic
One area where The Company Man doesn't disappoint is in the graphics. The hand-drawn style is gorgeous and the animations are full of character. Whether it's Jim himself swinging the keyboard or a bloated colleague bouncing along with the power of his bloating. Each character is drawn and animated with such style.
Conclusion on The Company Man
The Company Man is a fun action-platformer with a fantastic office theme, but it's not without its problems. Facing multiple enemies in a fantastic office block environment is great, but dealing with checkpoints that are too far apart, a melee attack that's too short range, and a completely balanced performance spoil the experience. The Company Man is a fun way to while away a few hours, but would have had more potential than it brings.
The game is published by Leoful. Forest is the developer of Company Man.
Continue to The Company Man website
