Review: Exhausted Man Is Relatable, Occasionally Exhausting Game

I get so tired. Like when I check my smart watch, sometimes during busy weeks or seasons I’ll have under six hours of sleep per night. Plus with things like inflation or family troubles, that’s more stress. Exhausted Man, a new game from Candelman Games, gets that and shows exactly how much effort it can feel like it takes to get things done. It’s really clever! But, at the same time, it’s also honestly a bit of a chore given how tasking some challenges can get in this physics puzzler.

Everyone in Exhausted Man is exhausted. From the woman going through exercises in the tutorial to the people like the game developer preparing a demo ahead of a festival. It’s a real problem! However, they still need to accomplish tasks, and that’s where players come in. Each person will need to accomplish a set number of “tentpole” milestones over the course of a limited number of acts, while also managing energy levels. If you manage to get all the hallmarks done, you get an optimal ending situation. However, being so tired that you can’t even stand up or properly move your appendages means getting through the two to five tasks for each selected challenge each act could feel like an impossible task. Funny and clever, due to some fun flavor text, but tiring.

At the start of each “pack” and adventure you open in Exhausted Man, you hear a quick story about the goal the character is trying to accomplish in the game. You then see how many milestones you need to complete to make certain major story beats happen and get a best result. Cards will appear, depending on the props placed in the room. Each one will take up a certain amount of your limited time (but is not timed), will potentially give you multiple milestone points, and will either add to or detract from your overall energy. Completing a task also can unlock more items to place and allow you to set up more before the next act. So it’s almost like you’re pairing a stat management simulation with an action puzzle game. 

Also, there’s a nap button. That’s fun. I like naps. 

The thing about Exhausted Man is while I admire its concept, its humor, and the social commentary, playing this game can really tire me out! If you have your character get too tired, then there will be these yawn bubbles spawning. If you run into them, your avatar just falls asleep for a second and drops, potentially losing any progress you made. There will be moments when you can’t choose which “event” will happen next in the story, that could lead to a challenge that is multi-part or especially frustrating. Even if you do pick a next act that is one you think will work, you may find out after selecting it that the items you chose as critical parts to interact with it weren’t good options due to their size or them possibly moving. Building gets frustrating, since it means needing to constantly shift the camera angle to properly gauge positions and, again, maybe not selecting certain items as proper setpieces for that series of actions. Also, stages get crowded toward the ends of stories since you’re constantly getting to add new props, and sometimes I wished there was an option to just… not place items before the next act.

Some anti-frustration features are in effect in Exhausted Man, to Candleman Games’ credit. If your character gets stuck, you can head into the pause menu to unstick them and basically get a fresh start. I noticed after I got so exhausted that choosing an energy-rebuilding act card wouldn’t make a dent, a forced event would come up that would completely refill energy. Also, there is an option to just… reset and pick a different act and challenge completely if you realize what you went with was too much and isn’t working. They’re little things, which help.

Also, there’s the fact that you don’t have to power through Exhausted Man if you are getting annoyed or exhausted. You can take breaks and come back to it. I’d recommend playing it that way! I rushed through, for the sake of the review, and it wasn’t ideal. 

Besides, it isn’t like the controls are really ever working against you when you play Exhausted Man, especially compared to other physics games. I did have some trouble with building up “ladders” out of items. However, moving around the avatar and generally completing tasks is pretty easy. The character is responsive, and the only time I’d ever get tripped up is if the person started slithering around awkwardly shaped items (like the large toy dragon) or ones that move (like the spinning chair. The physics are on point, and it’s possible to use momentum and the generally tight controls to accomplish any tasks. 

I love the concept behind Exhausted Man and feel like it is a genuinely clever game, but the nature of some of the tasks mean it’s best played in short bursts. Going into too many challenges at once, especially if you end up with a forced task or one that ends up being more annoying than expected, might even feel a bit stressful. Still, the concept is sound and I do recommend it! Just take your time and don’t rush.

Exhausted Man is available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC.