When I played Humanity’s demo in February after it shadow-dropped during a State of Play stream, I was confused as to what point the game was trying to make. Its reveal trailer said only that it was a tale of ‘hope’, ‘conflict’, ‘chaos’, and ‘order’. It seemed to imply that this physics platformer had a larger narrative, but I was concerned about how effectively this could be expressed without feeling hamfisted. Unfortunately, my fears were very much founded – but that doesn’t make for a bad game.

Created in collaboration with Enhance, the developers of the critically-lauded Tetris Effect, and Tokyo-based design studio tha ltd, Humanity has you play a shiny Shiba Inu that, by using floating icons issued with barks, directs people from glowing doors to checkpoints where they get sucked into the sky. You dish out commands telling these crowds of faceless people when to turn, when to jump, and even when to float. Each level has different obstacles to negotiate in order to get your humans to the endpoint. These might be blocks you can push, ledges you need to reach, or switches to press. You know, puzzle stuff.

Related: Games Need To Stop Being So Secretive With Marketing

The level design is very impressive. Every stage, which is made up of a number of trials (or levels), has a different theme and core mechanic. Each puzzle allows you to use certain commands, forcing you to be creative within the restrictions you’re given. Some trials make you plot out all your commands in advance, so you have to be extra careful about making sure your routes don’t cross. It’s sort of like Lemmings with an added dose of atmospheric music, on the edge of an existential crisis.

People walking up a ramp guided by a glowing white dog

Then there’s the Goldys. These golden, statuesque objects are, according to the game, “all that people desire, and value, and worship”. Placed in every level, they require diversions to collect and result in greater rewards if you decide to go after them. Levels themselves are usually fairly easy to get through if you don’t pursue Goldys, but collecting them unlocks neat new features and cosmetic changes for your humans. You also need a certain number of Goldys to finish a stage, so you should make an attempt to collect as many as possible, even if it makes your game harder. Every time I finished a level, securing all the Goldys on the map, I felt like a genius. Humanity is very satisfying as a puzzler.

Later on, you meet The Others, who most concerned me when first playing the demo. When they’re introduced, the game tells you “they’re different from the people… but also the same…” and that they “prize Goldy just as much as the people do”. They’re grey versions of the people you control, and are clearly your enemy. I had feared that Humanity would try to make a statement about division between the different types of people it depicts, and how having full-on battles between the groups might not be able to approach the issue with nuance. However, the game doesn’t go into how The Others came about or why they’re there at all. Instead, it touches on a different theme.

Humans pass through a tower of three separate tunnels in the Crossroads trial of Humanity.

The Others try to take Goldy from you, and eventually take up arms against the humans in order to do so. It’s a clear comment on how greedy and money-obsessed both humans and The Others are and what they’re willing to do to obtain it - The Others start using glowing light sticks to attack your humans, and you do the same. Then guns enter the picture, and the puzzling takes on a strategic aspect. Often you have to flank your enemy, using your weapons to kill them in droves while they kill you in return. Countless people die on both sides in service of a goal that ultimately feels fruitless.

That’s part of what makes Humanity so unsettling - people die. A lot of people, actually. It’s not just that you have to send them to their deaths, it’s that if you don’t do anything, they’ll usually end up falling off the edge and plummeting to their death anyway. It makes me feel so guilty that I intentionally put my game into free camera mode while I scope out the level, so I don’t have to watch massive crowds of people falling to their deaths like a waterfall made out of bodies. The game tells you that “you need not fear for them, nor mourn their loss” because “though their bodies are lost, their spirits persist” and they’ll come through the door again. But it freaks me out. The music, after listening to it for too long, freaks me out, and the amount of death freaks me out.

Two lines of humans leap and climb to the light in the Goldy Arches trial of Humanity.

I do think that’s the point, though. I was originally upset about the lack of explanation for The Others, but I understood that wasn’t what the story was really focusing on. At one point, the game does show some empathy for The Others, but the final level has you killing them in unprecedented numbers. Regardless of the overall intent, the way it approached war and killing was ham-fisted, and the narrative remains lightweight in its messaging. I don’t want to spoil things here, but I found the conclusion disappointing, though it did provoke some thought as to what it means for human beings to have autonomy, the cycles of civilisations and how we create mythologies.

However, if you don’t care about the story and you just want a really good puzzler, Humanity might be for you. Apart from over 90 story levels, the game has a Stage Creator function that allows users to submit their own levels. This gives you a huge number of levels to access even after you’ve finished the game, giving it a much longer shelf life. You can also play it in VR - I chose not to do this because VR gives me migraines, but the visuals of the game are pretty cool and worth seeing in VR if you already own a headset. I wish Humanity’s marketing had focused more on its puzzles than its story, because it’s fairly clear to me which is stronger and I came away a little disappointed. The game’s mechanics evolve very well with the story’s narrative, and it’s a lot of fun. I’m just not sure its story was worth telling.

Humanity Cover
Humanity

Humanity is a puzzle game that draws on the likes of Lemmings before it. As a ghostly Shiba Inu dog, your job is to guide a bunch of humans to safety while barking out orders so they don't fall to their doom. 

Humanity review card

Next: Some Of The Best Games Are Games You’ve Never Heard Of