Video sourced from the GAMEAY YouTube channel. © 2026 Rodd Games.
When I first laid eyes on The Rusted, I expected the quiet, atmospheric dread of Playdead’s Inside.
Instead, what I found beneath its hand-drawn metal exterior was something far more demanding—a twitchy, reflex-heavy test of agility that relies heavily on your precision and speed.
There are narrative crumbs and light environmental puzzles scattered throughout, but they largely act as structural scaffolding. The real beating heart here is the sheer kinetic challenge of its platforming.
For a demo, it feels remarkably substantial, giving us two full stages and two bosses to chew on. My first run took about 50 minutes as I wrestled with the rhythm of the inputs; the second time around, with muscle memory locked in, I breezed through in about 20.
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Honestly, the immediate hook is the visual landscape. It is a stunning blend of hand-drawn warmth, sci-fi scale, and gritty punk environments.
The plot itself stays out of your way: humanity built AI, the AI went rogue and took over, and now you control a mechanical dog named Rex fighting back against the world’s new metallic overlords.
But Rex isn’t entirely alone. A detached, humanoid robot head named Sira follows you everywhere, offering commentary and guidance along the way. I suspect Sira might have been Rex’s original owner, her body torn apart by the machines, leaving only this chatty relic.
The game chooses to tell its story with minimal text, letting the shifting scenery and bruising boss encounters illustrate the downfall of this world. There is a brief introductory setup, of course, which effectively roots you into Rex’s perspective before throwing you into the wild.
The level design is clever, though it will absolutely test your patience. During my initial run, I found myself plummeting into bottomless pits repeatedly just trying to clear a single gap. It took a lot of trial, error, and meticulous timing to get my positioning exactly right.
That is not to say the design is flawed; it simply demands an adjustment period. That is the nature of these sidescrollers. It is painful at first, but the hit of satisfaction when you finally clean-run a section is immense.
Mechanically, Rex is given a five-point health bar and a UI battery gauge that lets you recharge your health. Here, though, I hit a bit of friction.
If you get blasted by a cannon mid-jump, you would expect to take a hit of damage but maintain enough forward momentum to land safely. Instead, the impact completely kills your animation, dropping you straight down into the abyss to face a harsh chunk of damage or instant death. I spent a long time stuck in one particular spot because of this.
To be clear, it pushes the difficulty up, but I wouldn’t call it a design failure. It is just the rules of the house. Outside of the jumps, Rex can climb ladders, headbutt enemies, and drag heavy objects to interact with the environment.
Surprisingly, the bosses felt simpler than the stages leading up to them. They operate like clocks. Watch them for a few cycles, map out their attack patterns, and you can reliably dodge and counter. Do that a few times, and they fall.
I did notice a minor hiccup during the second boss fight, though. The boss has a phase where it retreats out of reach and summons minions. One of these is a flying drone.
If you strike it too early, the knockback can jam it directly into the invisible wall at the edge of the screen. You end up staring at each other across an impassable barrier, neither able to inflict damage.
Because the boss is hardcoded to return only after every minion dies, the entire fight grinds to a permanent halt. The demo includes a ‘reload last checkpoint’ option that clears it, but throwing away hard-earned boss progress midway through leaves a bitter taste.
Here is the thing: The Rusted offers a healthy challenge, but it feels entirely manageable once you adjust to its cadence and sharpen your reflexes.
The hand-drawn aesthetic does an incredible job of pulling you into its machine-dominated world.
The premise might feel familiar on paper, but I am genuinely eager to see where Rex’s journey goes next.
Currently, the game is slated for a Q4 2026 release, though a specific launch date has yet to be announced.
Note: This hands-on impression is based on the early demo; the final experience may vary.
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