Skip to main content

Sludge Life is getting a surprising sequel and we’ve already tried it

Oddball indie Sludge Life is getting a surprise sequel, bringing another installment of the urban open-world game. Sludge Life 2 will launch sometime in 2023 and it seems like the project is already far along. In fact, I already got a chance to play one hour of it.

The original Sludge Life, a collaboration between artist Terri Vellmann and musical artist Doseone (Adam Drucker), launched in 2020. It gained some attention at the time because it was initially offered for free on Epic Games Store for an entire year. While it’s not clear if the sequel will take the same approach, the first game is once again free on Steam from March 23 to March 30.

A character lays passed out on a shipping container in Sludge Life.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The sequel is very similar to its predecessor based on what I’ve played so far. Its setup is almost a video game version of The Hangover. From what I can piece together so far, players take the role of a manager for musical artist (and frog) Big Mud. After waking up from a bender, Big Mud has gone missing and players need to explore a sludge-filled urban world to find him.

Publisher Devolver Digital notes that the world is bigger (and “gnarlier”) this time around. During my demo, I’d start in a high-rise motel before breaking out into a wasteland full of construction sites and cigarettes. Devolver says the sequel also has three times as many NPCs as the original game, giving players a lot of weirdos — and knife-wielding crabs — to meet.

A food stand called Hot Snakes appears in Sludge Life 2.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Gameplay is about the same as the original game with some added traversal features. I’d spend much of my demo parkouring around, tagging buildings with graffiti, and observing its slice-of-life world (my favorite moment came when I accidentally tripped on mushrooms and had an out-of-body experience). The sequel brings some new tools in form of shoes that enable sprinting and double jumps, as well as a Portable Launcher that lets you fling your character into the air.

If you loved the original game, Sludge Life 2 is essentially more of the same. It’s another zany open-world game that plays out like a slacker comedy — Dazed and Confused for gamers.

Sludge Life 2 is scheduled to launch in 2023. The original Sludge Life is free on Steam from March 23 to 30.

Editors' Recommendations

Giovanni Colantonio
Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…
Card Shark will get you kicked out of Las Vegas
A still from Cardshark where a player holds up a 9 of spades.

Cheating in video games is usually frowned upon. If you enable aim bots or wall hacks in a game like Call of Duty: Warzone, you’re probably going to find yourself banned – or worse, thoroughly embarrassed. Winning a few games simply isn’t worth the mark of dishonor. In Card Shark, however, cheating isn’t just encouraged: It’s the entire game.

Developed by Nerial, the team behind the popular Reigns series, Card Shark is unlike anything I’ve ever played. It’s a narrative adventure game set in 18th-century France about a peasant who gets sucked into the world of petty criminals and cheats. It’s technically a card game, but not in the traditional sense. With its one-of-a-kind premise, Card Shark is a must-play curiosity that completely rethinks what gameplay can look like.
Read 'em and weep
In Card Shark, players control a young mute peasant in pre-Revolution France. His life takes a left turn when he meets Comte de Saint-Germain and is roped into a simple card cheat. In a plot that’s almost a little reminiscent of Nightmare Alley, players slowly rise through the ranks of society, swindling rich French aristocrats with a variety of tricks. That rags to riches story intersects with a wider political mystery that revolves around a conspiracy dubbed the “Twelve Bottles of Milk.”

Read more
Return to Monkey Island is a surprise 90s sequel
A sksleton plays a violin in Return to Monkey Island.

Devolver Digital has announced Return to Monkey Island, a sequel to the beloved Lucasfilm Games (formerly LucasArts) franchise that helped define the point-and-click adventure genre in the 90s.

Return to Monkey Island is being brought to life by series creator Ron Gilbert via his development studio Terrible Toybox. Also returning are writer and programmer Dave Grossman, composer Michael Land, and actor Dominic Armato, who voices the main character, Guybrush Threepwood.

Read more
Acer’s Nitro XV2 is the fastest 1440p gaming display we’ve ever seen
Acer XV272U KF monitor.

Acer is gearing up to release a new monitor, and it seems like this one might make its way on to every list of the best gaming monitors out there. Part of the successful Acer Nitro line, the new XV272U KF offers something that many other displays do not -- a lightning-fast refresh rate combined with a 1440p resolution. It's 300Hz, to be specific -- and that's not something we've seen before.

The trick? It's really not cheap.

Read more