To say Humanity arrives today is the sort of grandiose phrase you might expect from an American President as he signs off on a new space program, Nothing quite so poignant from me I’m afraid, but nevertheless, Humanity arrives today. On Xbox Game Pass. That does not make it any less of an important announcement, however, as to not pay attention could deprive you of playing one of the best, and possibly most profound puzzlers in decades. So don’t do that.
Humanity has been circulating around on the Meta Quest 3 for a short while and on Steam for the last two weeks but today it comes to Microsoft’s gaming subscription service and, if you have even the slightest enjoyment of exceptional puzzle games you should download it.
At face value, Humanity is a bit like a 3D version of the classic 16-bit puzzle game Lemmings. ‘Oh No!’ you reply, well you do if you have ever played Lemmings. In Lemmings you had to guide hordes of the cute rodents to safety, in Humanity you do the same, but with Humans.
To leave it there though would do a great disservice to gaming journalism, and I am not all about that. Humanity is much, much more than Lemmings with people.
You control a Shiba Inu (the dog, not the meme coin) and must herd said Humanity to safety across ever more fiendish levels and existential threats that they face.
Unlike Lemmings your Humans will end up in battles with rival humans and lives will be lost. You must factor in a method, and quickly, to enable the most to survive that you can.
The art style of Humanity – its low-poly physics-based setting – works well for the artiness the game is shooting for and also the technological barriers between having 100s or even thousands of humans moving on screen at once.
Oh, I am not doing it justice but definitely go and play it when it arrives on Game Pass later today.
While you wait you can go and grab Lords of the Fallen, which also arrives on Game Pass today and has already landed.
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