Congratulations on joining The Company. Your onboarding packet includes a stapler, a dream of corporate ascension, and the unspoken understanding that every colleague between you and the CEO’s chair is about to have a very bad day. Stick It to the Stickman from Free Lives and Devolver Digital is a rogue-lite physics brawler that takes the universal fantasy of quitting your job by way of a flying kick and turns it into one of the most gleefully violent beat-’em-ups on Steam.
After a year in Early Access, the 1.0 launch on September 23 brought a flood of players and reviews — over 8,500 at launch, with roughly 96% positive. That enthusiasm is earned. Beneath the stick-figure aesthetic lies a surprisingly layered combat sandbox, one that rewards experimentation and punishes button-mashing just enough to keep each run interesting.
The Corporate Ladder Is Made of Bodies
The core loop is straightforward: you start as an intern, fight your way through floors of an office building, defeat mid-bosses who are very much not your friends, and eventually reach the Founder. Between runs, you unlock new archetypes — the Caffeine Addict who moves faster, the Ego Maniac who hits harder, the Temps who bring their own quirks — and each one changes how a run plays out. There are over a dozen moves to chain together, from staple-gun volleys to brain-chip telekinetic artillery, and the physics engine ensures that every punch, kick, and chainsaw swing feels appropriately chaotic.
The combat is where Stick It to the Stickman truly shines. Ragdoll physics turn every encounter into slapstick choreography. Bodies bounce off cubicle walls, staplers embed in foreheads with a satisfying thunk, and the screen fills with flying stickmen as you chain combos together. It’s crude, it’s loud, and it’s enormously satisfying — especially when you unlock a devastating super move that clears an entire floor in a shower of stick-figure limbs.
More Than a One-Trick Stapler
What elevates the game beyond a simple brawler is its variety. Multiple game modes offer substantially different playstyles. The main campaign has you climbing the corporate ladder through procedurally arranged floors, but there’s also a GTA-inspired open-world mode with a wanted system, a warehouse navigation mode with rogue forklifts, and co-op modes that let you bring a friend along for the violence. The roguelite progression — unlocking new workers, abilities, and game modes as you increase shareholder value — gives each run a sense of purpose beyond simply beating up co-workers.
The level editor, powered by Steam Workshop support, adds another dimension. Players can build custom offices with creative traps and obstacle courses, turning the game into a physics playground that extends well beyond the main campaign. For a game at this price point, the content density is impressive.
The Office Has Its Problems
For all its chaos, Stick It to the Stickman isn’t without its workplace hazards. Performance issues are the most frequently cited complaint across Steam reviews. Frame drops spike when the screen fills with enemies, and several players report freezes when entering certain areas — the fulfillment center, the cargo center skill tree, and boss transitions being common culprits. On lower-end hardware, the game can stutter badly even on reduced settings.
The co-op situation is also mixed. Local two-player co-op works well and is the recommended way to play, but online multiplayer is either missing or janky depending on who you ask. For a game that so clearly wants to be a social experience, the lack of smooth online play is a notable gap.
Repetition is another concern. While the variety of modes and archetypes keeps things fresh for the first several hours, some players report that the core combat loop can feel samey after extended sessions. The game’s sweet spot seems to be in shorter bursts — a few floors, a boss fight or two, and then back to the office (the real one, unfortunately).
The Bottom Line
Stick It to the Stickman is a love letter to everyone who has ever fantasized about stapling their boss to a ceiling fan. It’s crude, violent, and hilarious — a physics-based brawler that knows exactly what it wants to be and executes on that vision with surprising polish. The corporate satire is toothless but fun, the combat is satisfyingly chunky, and the sheer variety of modes and unlockables gives it legs well beyond the initial novelty.
At $11.99 USD (currently 50% off at launch), it’s an absurd amount of value. The performance issues are real and worth flagging, but they don’t negate the core experience — they just mean you might want to save often and avoid the fulfillment center. For beat-’em-up fans, rogue-lite enthusiasts, or anyone who needs to decompress after a long day at the actual office, this one comes highly recommended.
SteamGamer Score: 8/10
Reviewed on PC. Copy provided by publisher.
Jordan Hayes covers PC gaming news, hardware, and the ever-changing Steam ecosystem for SteamGamer.net. He believes some of gaming’s biggest stories are hiding in patch notes, performance charts, and suspiciously quiet price changes. When he isn’t investigating what developers or GPU manufacturers are doing, he is probably starting another roguelike run he insists will be his last.
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