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I’ve not played too many puzzle games since I was completely absorbed in Tetris Effect back in 2018. I’ve always liked the old PS1 puzzle games, but could never quite find a more modern game that was that satisfying. Talos principle was okay, The Witness was fine, but nothing hit quite like Kurushi or Vib Ribbon.
Suffice to say, this did. Go buy it.
Follow Me
Your character has, by their own admission, awoken to find themselves transformed into a dog (a spectral Shiba-Inu to be precise), and you are tasked with corralling the mindless, Lemming-like masses of humanity and guiding them to salvation.
You get drip-fed your powers, but initially the goal is to select at which point on their path the humans should turn, jump, or long jump. It’s honestly surprising how much this initial concept branches out, as later on you can have them follow the sound of your barks or stop on a dime in order to navigate some of the trickier levels.
The level variety here is pretty astounding, and that gradual build up of puzzle game competency even more so. You yourself will go from the feeling of frantic concern befitting a new parent to an incalculable number of children, to the hardened demeanor of a general as you organize your legions to take on a level comparable to a military siege, or one of the game’s bosses.
Yes, there are bosses. Yes, I was surprised too. Yes, they are excellent.
How to Keep it Fresh
The variety in what they decide to throw at you across the game’s 7 worlds obviously keeps it fresh, but the actual puzzles themselves are kept fresh by the inclusion of the game’s collectibles: Goldys. If you’ve spotted those golden figures in the previous screenshots, there they are.
There are one to several Goldys per level, and these act as both the game’s collectibles as well as the level gating for other worlds. A certain number of these have to be collected in order to progress to the next set of levels, but that number is obviously less than the total number available. The fun with this comes from trying to figure out how to collect these often visible collectibles while also completing the level. There are many that in order to collect, you have to switch up your strategy pretty drastically.
But aside from level-gating you also get unlocks for every few Goldys you collect. These range from superfluous but always fun cosmetics, to actually necessary abilities like being able to stop time, or to restart a level while keeping all of the orders you’ve already given. Though anything necessary will be collected through normal completion, as these are the tiers which will be reached by simply getting the required Goldys for each world, alternating between the abilities and the sillier stuff really makes these otherwise required powers feel like rewards, and this incentivises you to then find them all.
Hopefully Here to Stay
As well as all of the pre-made content, Humanity also includes a level creator as well as the ability to share your levels online. Many games try this, but this game has that Mario Maker malleability that, if this game gets the widespread adoption it deserves, will hopefully mean that it’ll be alive and kicking for years to come.
I haven’t touched on the music yet, but the game is full of ethereal tracks and loops which can either keep you calm or keep you sweating for as long as the level takes. In later levels, the deceptive vibe of some of the calmer tracks reminded me of sweating over my controller while playing marathon mode in Tetris Effect. A true compliment.
This game is shockingly cheap given what you’re getting. To me, this is the same as the bargain you get with Cuphead or Hollow Knight. Especially considering that this game was rolled out day one on PS Plus Extra (Sony’s comparatively anemic answer to game pass). There is no reason that any fan of puzzle games should skip this. I’ll go door to door if I have to.
