Who Ya Gonna Call? Sludge Suckers!

If you had told me when Steam Next Fest started that I would end up falling in love with a new genre, I would have said, You’re crazy. I’m too old to fall in love with a new genre. But here we are. I was asked to check out Sludgineers, a game where you travel to different towns and vacuum up sludge. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I loved this. What’s great about Sludgineers is that it’s well-designed and straight to the point. You click on a level and start sucking, but sometimes your sucking skills aren’t good enough, so you need to earn money and upgrade your equipment. Once that’s done, head back to the level that you couldn’t complete and show off your newly upgraded sucking skills.

And that’s the loop. And guess what, folks? I couldn’t stop. Was I sad when this demo ended? You’re damn right because it meant I had to stop playing. Was I happy when this demo ended? You’re damn right because I couldn’t stop playing and I needed an intervention. What’s funny, though, is that about halfway through the demo, I thought I was hitting the wall. I thought I had seen enough and didn’t need to play anymore, but just as I considered leaving, I unlocked a new item to use, and I was locked back in. That said, the game isn’t perfect. I have a note.

As players progress through the game, they’ll come across levels that are covered in sludge that requires more power to vacuum up. Players are then required to spend their resources to upgrade their equipment. This is all fine. No notes. Where my criticism comes in is on the visual side. It doesn’t matter if it’s the first or last level of the demo; the sludge is all the same color. Yes, the addition of the crystals that eventually show up is a nice visual change, but I think just the little touch of the sludge that’s harder to vacuum, being green or blue or whatever, would really help raise the quality of what’s already an incredibly fun experience. For me, at least, a little visual storytelling can go a long way.

With that said, I had a great time with Sludgineers, and I really hope you wishlist it so you can be reminded to pick it up when it releases on Steam on August 25.