It takes a lot to stand out in the puzzle genre of gaming. Because you have to do something different to keep the player wanting to solve the puzzles you have designed, if you make things too easy, they will cheese it and leave feeling unsatisfied; if you make it too hard and frustrating, then the player will leave mad and go back to Tetris or Candy Crush. So, it was pretty impressive to experience a puzzle game that kept my attention and made me lose track of time in a way I haven’t felt in a long time, and that game was Humanity.
Humanity is the newest game from publisher Enhance, headed by REZ creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi, whose previous work was Tetris Effect. That many players view it as not only the best variation of Tetris ever made but one of the most extraordinary experiences that gaming can offer. As someone who played it back when the PlayStation VR was still new and hip, I can agree with this statement; their games tend to have this psychedelic feel to them like you are stuck in a trance while playing them. So, I was a little bit interested when they first showed their next project, Humanity, all the way back in 2019, before going quiet until a few weeks ago when they dropped it on PlayStation Plus. I also feel like that was the best move to get as many eyeballs as possible on this game, especially given that this is a jam-packed month for big new releases. But after experiencing this game, I can say, without a doubt, do yourself a favor and attempt this game.
The puzzle gameplay is at first very similar to Lemmings back in the 90s, where you set up directional pads or jump pads to navigate your endless stream of humanoids to a great pillar of light; along the way, you are sometimes tasked with collecting golden gods along with your pilgrimage. It’s surprisingly addictive once you learn how specific jump pads work, and you soon zoom out and witness your giant conga line of people marching towards the bright light. What I like about this is the simultaneously subtle and not subtly storytelling that some levels have; you can create a pathway that all people will make it to the light, or you might have to sacrifice some/a lot so that others can reach the light. It’s messed up when you think that for others to succeed, others must suffer on their behalf. The music was also putting me in a trance, even though at times it started to sound like one of those lo-fi live streams you would find online; I know that was the point, but I figured it was worth bringing up since this company is well-known for mixing music and gameplay, and with that said this isn’t on the same level as mixing that was present in Tetris Effect, it’s still better than most games, but if you were expecting that level of mixing then keep your expectations in check.
I was loving the first 3 hours of this game, figuring out the cleverly designed puzzles, excited for what they would add next, and just witnessing the game getting crazier and more prominent at the same time as the amount of people you “saved” keeps going up. But that came to a halt at the halfway point when the game smacked me in the face with a rake and turned into a test, not of smarts but more of frustration. The game introduces a new pad that allows you to control a large of people and move around freely; sounds like a clever idea, I thought to myself, but that goodwill quickly went from my brain to the veins in my hands from breaking the controller in two, when the game for the last third turns into a mix of a stealth game a bullet-hell shooter. Where the challenge now doesn’t come from making a complex direction machine; it’s now trying to fight against what the game wants you to do in a precise way. Now when first starting this game, I did not expect it would go this route, but as I got closer to the ending, I didn’t have the same feeling I had hours earlier; I just wanted the game to end, and when I got to that ending it was unlike anything I have ever experienced before in a video game. But at this point, I was just tired, both from frustration and starting at the game for an extended period with the trippy art style.
So, as I write this, my thoughts on the game are still optimistic because I like when developers do something so far out of the current comfort zone that they are waiting for the rest of the explorers to come and reach them. Still, that mix of spiking and frustrating is holding this back from getting a recommendation to complete. With that said, you need to do yourself a favor and at least experience an hour of this game because those first three hours are some of the puzzle designs I’ve experienced in a long time. I know that puzzle games tend to spike in difficulty near the end, but the issue comes from the design, not fighting against the game; I hope someone takes the concept and goes even further with it because, from what I liked, it was an experience.
Score: 8 out of 10
Reviewed on PlayStation 5