Sony's recent State of Play was filled with surprises, and while not all of them were hits, Humanity did an excellent job of standing out from the crowd. Originally announced back in 2019, Humanity is coming from the same team behind Rez and Tetris 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 like Pikmin and Lemmings.
In Humanity, 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 to Pikmin. But that's just scratching the surface of Humanity's wonderfully odd exterior.
Humanity Blends Pikmin-Like Gameplay with Dream-Like Visuals
Humanity's developers describe the game as a puzzle game with action elements, where players need to "guide humans to the light." During the course of Humanity'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.
While Humanity's gameplay definitely resembles Lemmings or Pikmin, its visuals are wholly unique, and they seem to get quite bizarre the more the trailer goes on. At the start of the trailer, Humanity has 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. Humanity has 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 weirder Humanity starts to look. The soft and bright visuals of the indie 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 that Humanity really 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, almost tower-defense-like gameplay will appeal to many, and it certainly makes Humanity stand out in a sea of other puzzle games.
While Humanity will 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 with Humanity's mechanics and visuals freely on offer, this game could end up getting some truly bizarre user-created levels. It seems as though Humanity is 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 like Pikmin or Lemmings.
Humanity is set to release in May 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, and PlayStation VR2.
