[SEE] the amazing minimalist crowd puzzler developed by the makers of Tetris Effect , Anime News

I’m going to be very honest with you: although Tetsuya Mizuguchi is one of my favorite developers – responsible for games like REZ, lights and Tetris effect–, when I saw a first preview of humanity It didn’t pique my interest much. He new game from the Japanese indie studio Enhance was presented at a rather bland State of Playadded to the fact that its excessively minimalist presentation and its very strange concept was extremely difficult to explain in a trailer.

I didn’t even have it on the radar but It came into my hands like a balm that helped me a lot to fill the enormous void that left me watching the credits of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in a year that has been wonderful for video games.

humantiy is a very pleasant surprise and one of the games independent most interesting and original I’ve played in a long time. It’s a little gem that I dusted off PSVR 2 with and that keeps me intrigued every minute I spend on it. Do you want to know why I tell you this? So give me a few minutes and continue reading this review.

Leading Minimalist Crowds

I remember when humanity It was presented in a State of Play we were on live broadcast. We did not understand much the concept of him and we joked by describing it as ‘the CDMX Metro game at rush hour’. If there is something that immediately catches your eye in humanity is that it presents crowds of people moving like a river –just like it happens every day in big cities– and your role as a player is that these ‘rivers of people’ reach a specific destination.

That being said, you will control a ‘spirit dog’. With DualSense or PS VR 2 Sense controllers you will be able to move in all directions the canine that is nothing more than an adorable cursor to leave commands in three-dimensional puzzle levels through which the rivers of people will flow. The objective of the game is for a crowd to move from point “A” to point “B”, but the settings are intricate enough to make this task far from easy. The river of people moves automatically in one direction, but the commands that the puppy leaves with its barking indicate at which point they should turn or jumpto give a couple of examples of the available actions.

Another element is added to this relatively simple concept. In the scenarios you will find giant golden humans that lie dormant until picked up by the river of people. You don’t have to get them to the finish line to clear the level, but if you do there are cool rewards that are unlocked throughout the game when you get a good amount of them back. Let’s just say they’re a puzzle within a puzzle and I’m sure obsessive gamers –like this reviewer– won’t want to leave a single level without saving these golden dummies.

In a few words that is what it offers humanityalthough I can assure you that it’s a game that you really fully understand until the moment you hold it in your hands and you see how something that seems very simple turns out to be addictive and interesting.

If I had to compare it with other games on the market, I would say that its puzzles reminded me a bit of what games like the classic have done. lemmings or more contemporary proposals like the cult classic for PSP, echochromeor the adorable Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker from nintendo.

Sum of elements and complexity that trains the brain

Among the things that I have enjoyed the most humanity this one steadily rising difficulty curve that adds elements to the relatively simple concept that we described in the previous lines. Every time you go to a new level there are surprises that add elements to make the puzzles more complex and make you think differently in each situation.

Platforms with conveyor belts, turbines, switches to activate or deactivate the previous ones, blocks of water where humans float like little fish and mobile blocks that can be pushed by the river of people are some examples of the elements that are added to the puzzles. You will quickly realize that you have gone from small levels to huge scenarios where you can see the flow of various rivers of humans, arcs of flying people or human waterfalls moving back and forth to solve the puzzles.

Seeing that sum of elements and the way in which the levels are gaining complexity is extremely satisfying for all those gamers who love puzzles and are looking for a good challenge. The campaign mode offers very varied levels and Just when you think you’ve seen it all, there’s something else that comes to put a new twist on puzzles..

humanity It is a game with a high level of difficulty. Its levels will make you stop on more than one occasion to think for many minutes about how you are going to solve each challenge. It feels like a real brain workout and I confess that on many occasions I had to stop my game session after finishing one of the levels to rest, because their situations exhausted me mentally due to their complexity.

The special perspective of virtual reality

If you’ve played an Enhance title before, you’ll know that they’re characterized by having a very special and even somewhat hypnotic atmosphere that combines the movement you see on the screen with sound patterns and music that enters through your ears. humanity is not very different and the combination of all the sensory impulses it offers generates, once again, a highly enveloping environment.

With this in mind, it is a great advantage that the game has support to enjoy it with virtual reality. Eye, It is not a game designed exclusively for this format, but it is one in which the extra offered by the immersion of reality is quite appreciated.

If you play this title with a PSVR or a PSVR 2 you will have a unique perspective of the levels, like small immersive models in which rivers of people pass in front of you like little ants. It is very difficult to describe it without experiencing it yourself, but we can tell you that having three-dimensional models of the scenarios in front of you will give you a unique perspective that favors concentration when solving its intricate puzzles, something that is not easy to appreciate in a two-dimensional format.

The game works perfectly without virtual reality, but the extra of this format makes it even more enjoyable.

Community Levels – Endless Possibilities

Although humanity is a puzzle game that stands on its own and because of its incredible campaign full of very good challenges, it offers an interesting extra for the community: a level editor with which you can design and share your own puzzles.

In the hours we’ve had our hands on it, we’ve been able to enjoy little of the community’s creations, but having the ability to play levels designed and played by players from around the world is a major asset to the game that should be mentioned.

We didn’t fully immerse ourselves in creation either, but The little that we experimented with its tools let us see that they are intuitive and not very difficult to use once you give yourself time to get to know them.. Perhaps the most difficult thing is having the ingenuity and creativity to design this type of puzzle, but it starts for a reason and you can start creating simple challenges before creating intricate puzzles.

If you want to enjoy what the community has done, you’ll be happy to know that there’s a selection of developer favorites and that all levels are graded by level of difficulty, so you can always pick something that’s right for what you’re looking for. you’re looking for

A very worthwhile indie, play it with PS Plus Extra

I can go on writing much more about Humanity and not end up conveying in the best way an experience that you have to experience for yourself. just tell you that is a very creative and special indie game for having a very solid foundation in its construction as a challenging and well-designed puzzle game.

If you have a subscription to PS Plus Extra you can download it for free on your PS4 or PS5. It is available on both PlayStation and PC consoles. It’s worth it.