Sony’s recent State of Play was filled with surprises, and while not all of them were hits,Humanitydid an excellent job of standing out from the crowd. Originally announced back in 2019,Humanityis coming from the same team behindRezandTetris Effect, and like those other two, it is set to be a visually stunning, mind-bending puzzle game, that seemingly takes a lot of inspiration from games likePikminandLemmings.
InHumanity, players control a Shiba Inu as it guides a sea of humans toward the end of a stage, similar to guiding a group of Lemmings. It also seems like in some stages, certain humans will have specific abilities, denoted by color and size, and the player will need to guide those humans into a specific location,similar toPikmin. But that’s just scratching the surface ofHumanity’s wonderfully odd exterior.
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Humanity Blends Pikmin-Like Gameplay with Dream-Like Visuals
Humanity’s developers describe the game asa puzzle gamewith action elements, where players need to “guide humans to the light.” During the course ofHumanity’s gameplay reveal trailer, a variety of levels are shown off, with most of them revolving around this core gameplay mechanic of herding humans to an endpoint, where they’re then lifted into the ether. Taking control of a glowing Shiba Inu, players herd these humans by placing down different commands, telling the horde which direction to move in, and issuing commands like jumping, climbing, and swimming.
WhileHumanity’s gameplay definitely resemblesLemmingsorPikmin, its visuals are wholly unique, and they seem to get quite bizarre the more the trailer goes on. At the start of the trailer,Humanityhas a calm, dream-like atmosphere, with the human herd moving slowly toward its end goal. The visuals match the speed of gameplay here, with the action occurring on simple sleek surfaces suspended in the sky above some fluffy clouds.Humanityhas a very minimalist approach to its art style, and it’s already making the game stand out quite a bit.
But the more the trailer goes on, the weirderHumanitystarts to look. The soft and bright visuals of theindie game’s earlier stages are swapped for dark and muted grays, while the humans themselves start to speed up their movements. The tone seems a lot more frantic here, and it all culminates in some pretty out-of-left-field mechanics and visuals.
By the end of the trailer, players have witnessed a horde of humans tumbling through the sky, a wall of humans shooting at one another with laser beams, and even two armies of lightsaber-wielding humans going head-to-head. It’s in these glimpses thatHumanityreally shows off the “action” part of its “action puzzle” gameplay. While this dramatic shift in tone won’t be to everyone’s liking, the mix of calm, dream-like stages and action-focused, almosttower-defense-like gameplaywill appeal to many, and it certainly makesHumanitystand out in a sea of other puzzle games.
WhileHumanitywill come packaged with its swathe of missions, players will also be able to create their own stages for other users to enjoy. User-created content can always get pretty wacky, and withHumanity’s mechanics and visuals freely on offer, this game could end up getting some truly bizarre user-created levels. It seems as thoughHumanityis continuing its developer’s long history of phenomenal,mind-bending puzzle games, and if it continues to show off its weirder side then it should have no issues standing apart from games likePikminorLemmings.
Humanityis set to release in May 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, and PlayStation VR2.
