You wake up in a bathtub after a night of partying. Your main man, Big Mud, is missing. You need to find him so he can finally get his big break into the rapping industry. This is Sludge Life 2, a grimy vandalism simulator from Terri Vellmann and Doseone with help from the great folks over at Devolver. In Sludge Life 2, you are Ghost, Big Mud’s manager and the one tasked with finding him, while also sticking it to the Glug corporation by tagging as much as you can in the process.
The game takes place in the muggy Ciggy City Suites, a Gen Z gargantuan haven heaved over a stagnant sea of sludge. The city itself is an amalgamation of hotels, fast food joints, amusement parks, and industrial districts with a beach somehow placed on top. The world doesn’t seem to make sense, and yet it is through this world that the game shines through the most. Sludge Life 2 is bogged down by this grime, this sludge, that seems to permeate not just the physical but the emotional areas of the world around you. The people around you are excited for the show but can barely muster up a half-awake stare as they talk with you. People are drinking, smoking, and seem to be incapable of doing much of anything. The game is much like a morning hangover. No one seems to care about anything except for what they want to do, and it’s refreshing.
The game’s art helps in this department, spending time and effort to make the game look as low-energy as possible. There is no shading, no highlights or shadows, but instead a cel-shaded, simply modeled environment and characters that look straight out of a stoner’s brain. Sludge Life 2 isn’t trying to be innovative here; that would be counterintuitive to the game’s vibes. It isn’t lazy, but rather attempts to take the time to highlight the game’s story rather than how good it looks.
The only issue with the game is while it has a wonderful slow and steady, lackadaisical-designed setting and artstyle, the game suffers in the presentation of its gameplay, which gets stale fast. The player is only tasked with doing two things: finding Big Mud and tagging as much as possible. As a result, the player is left figuring out how to spend their time. There are power-ups such as shoes that let you sprint, or a hang-glider so you don’t take fall damage, but they only help with navigation or finding graffiti spots to hit up.
There isn’t much to, well, do in Sludge Life 2 save for a few minor minigames and talking to NPCs. The story is gripping, and the NPCs are quirky and fun to listen to, but for those who are looking for something substantive, this game isn’t much of anything, unfortunately. And while the game boasts a fantastic world to get lost in both through its story and its art, the gameplay makes the game akin to walking through sludge. I would recommend playing just for the story elements, and would not recommend it if you were looking for some gripping gameplay.
SCORE: 7/10
Sludge Life 2 is available for PC via Steam.
Related: Reviews by Matthew White
An avid gamer, Matthew is also an aspiring game developer. Because of this, Matthew knows not only what makes a game great, but also the hard work and artistry required to craft such a phenomenal experience.
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