Enhance has announced that Humanity is releasing for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One on May 30. On the same day, the game will also become available on PC via the Windows Store. Meanwhile, on both PC and Xbox, Humanity will also be available via Game Pass.

Humanity sees players playing as a god-like Shiba Inu that is capable of controlling massive hordes of mindless and faceless humans. The game tasks players with guiding oceans of humanity through increasingly complex puzzle courses. Outside of a meaty campaign, a level editor mode is also included, which allows players to share their creations with each other online.

In our review of Humanity, we awarded it a score of 9/10, saying, “Humanity delivers some excellent puzzle gameplay in a weird, unique setting, and constantly ups the complexity and challenge in new and creative ways that should be experienced by all fans of the genre.” Read the full review through here.

Your task in all of the hundred-plus courses in Humanity’s story mode boils down to one thing- guide these endless waves of humans to the exit. Throughout the level, you’ll find obstacles to overcome and puzzles to unravel, all of which is done by placing commands on tiles that your flock of humans then obeys as soon as it walks over those tiles. On paper, it sounds incredibly incredibly simple, and when the game kicks off, it is simple. But constantly, throughout its surprisingly meaty campaign, it keeps layering on one complexity after another, one new idea after another, one new challenge after another, and keeps doing that until the very end. Humanity injects a consistent dose of variety, complexity, and creativity throughout its runtime, to the extent that if you were to somehow jump from the first level of the game straight to the very last, you might feel like you’ve been dropped into a completely different game.

"Right from the off, everything about the game is bizarre in a wonderful way, from its minimalistic visuals to its strange premise, and that, crucially enough, is not only something that contributes significantly to the game’s whole vibe, it’s also used in excellent ways to deliver some incredible puzzle gameplay."

When Humanity starts off, the commands that you have at your disposal are few and straightforward. It starts off with changing the direction your endless human stream is walking on, or commanding them to jump over a large gap. Then you unlock the ability to jump higher, or to jump longer, or to make your humans lighter so that each jump now has a different variation. As you progress further and further, you can command them to split off in different directions, use weapons against enemies, and more.

The levels themselves also keep getting increasingly complex as you get deeper into the game. They start out as simplistic collections of plain blocks with some gaps and ramps and walls thrown in there, but then they start introducing fans on the ground to make your humans hover in the air, or water bodies that they can float through, or walls that they can climb, or blocks that they can move- and all of that is just in the opening couple of hours. The pace at which Humanity introduces new mechanics, or new challenges, or new twists on old ideas ensures that it never feels like the game is coming even close to resting on its laurels. It introduces something new, executes it succinctly, and then quickly moves on to up the ante even further, constantly sliding up the complexity.

At the same time, Humanity never becomes too complex or overbearing, because it never throws all of its ideas at you at once. Every single level is a small box (literally) of a limited set of ideas mixed together, and never do things get too muddy. More often than not, there are only a handful commands that can be used per level, and though the challenges and obstacles you do face do get increasingly intense as you play on (especially in the latter stages of the game), the actual set of mechanics that you have at your disposal as you deal with those challenges always remains wonderfully succinct and compact.

"The pace at which Humanity introduces new mechanics, or new challenges, or new twists on old ideas ensures that it never feels like the game is coming even close to resting on its laurels. It introduces something new, executes it succinctly, and then quickly moves on to up the ante even further, constantly sliding up the complexity."

Levels themselves are also mostly quite compact. In the initial hours, the average length of a level can be between 10-15 minutes, and though some of the later ones do get a little longer than that, by and large, they’re all structured like bite-sized chunks that you can play at whatever pace you want. You can devour them all in large quantities in one go, or conversely, you can just hop into the game every now and then, finish a level or two, then hop back out. Regardless, the game always maintains a brisk pace, and thanks to how much variety it boasts across all of its levels, it never feels like it’s getting long in the tooth, regardless of what pace you choose to play it at.

Humanity also goes out of its way to ensure that your experience is as frictionless as possible when it comes to the actual puzzle-solving aspect. This is a game that involves a lot of trial and error, a lot of iterative problem solving, especially if you’re the kind of player that wants to collect the (partly) optional collectibles known as Goldies, who are big, golden humans that reward you with everything from cosmetics to new gameplay features, like being able to fast forward (which comes in quite handy). That trial and error, however, doesn’t often feel frustrating, because of how easy the game makes it to retry levels. Not only is the process quick and snappy, you can also choose to restart a level with all of your previous commands still in place, so it still feels like you’re making progress.

One aspect of Humanity’s gameplay that does deserve criticism is how it controls. As mentioned previously, you play as a Shiba Inu, which means you have to physically move the dog through the levels in order to place the commands you want to place, though I always found those controls to be a little imprecise and clunky. I would often miss jumps or find it hard to judge where that small glowing dog is on the screen, especially given how busy things can often get, which caused some annoyance. Later levels in the game also sometimes require you to quickly move across levels in order to change commands on the fly, and that’s when the frustration can really kick in. Though I do like the inherent weirdness of the idea of playing as a glowing dog that can command never-ending swarms of humans, I do feel Humanity could have been better served as a puzzle game that just lets you use a cursor.

"From its minimalistic yet striking visuals to its excellent synth soundtrack, from the core simplicity of its design to the startling complexity that constantly spawns, this is a game that has so much going for it."

The game’s flaws, however, are easily to overlook. From its minimalistic yet striking visuals to its excellent synth soundtrack, from the core simplicity of its design to the startling complexity that constantly spawns, this is a game that has so much going for it. Once you’re done with the 15-20 hour campaign, there’s also a robust stage creator to dive into, while if you’re not the creative type, there’s already a healthy selection of user-generated stages to browse through and check out. Humanity is a dense, addictive, unique, and satisfying package, be that in terms of its mechanics, its design, or the volume of content it has on offer. THA Limited and Enhance have another weird little hit on their hands.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

If the trailer didn’t confound you enough, Humanity is about a Shiba Inu who guides crowds of humans through various trippy environments. Depending on your commands, the humans will navigate environments, solve puzzles and even fight bosses. There are over 90 stages to complete as part of the story, but there’s also a Stage Creator for creating and sharing levels online.

You can also try out other players’ creations with various categories like Best of the Week and Beautiful Creations to navigate. Whether you’re looking for more challenging stages or fun distractions, there’s plenty of content available. Head here for more details on the entire game.

Apparently putting a greater emphasis on story than one might expect from a puzzle game, Humanity’s Story Mode will see players waking up as a glowing Shiba Inu, with a voice telling you to guide hordes of mindless humans to the light. That voice, interestingly enough, apparently comes from giant, hovering, shining balls, which are entities known as Cores. Each Core has a series of trials for players, and collectively, the Cores are trying to rebuild humanity bit by bit.

Clearly, there’s plenty going on, and Story Mode will be focusing on its fair share of mysteries and questions. Humanity doesn’t exactly seem like a game that needs to set itself apart from its peers any more than it already is doing, but Story Mode surely seems like another attractive prospect. Check out the trailer below for more details.

Humanity is due out on May 16 for PS5, PS4, and PC. It will also feature PS VR and PS VR2 support, and will be available for PS Plus Extra and Premium subscribers via PS Plus Game Catalog at no additional cost.

Humanity will see players playing as an all-powerful glowing Shiba Inu, with your goal being to direct massive hordes of humans through obstacle courses to their end goals. From gaps and chasms to other hazards, there will, of course, be plenty that you will have to deal with, and for that purpose, you’ll be able to issue a number of commands to the aforementioned hordes, including turning in a specific direction, jumping (with different heights of jumps also available), splitting into multiple directions, and more.

Across the levels that you play, you’ll also find collectibles called goldies, and though many of these will be optional, a certain number will be required to progress further in the game. Collecting goldies will also allow you to unlock cosmetics for the humans in your hordes, as well as a variety of features, like being able to fast forward gameplay, a free-moving camera, and more.

Certain stages will also have unique elements and obstacles, like switches that can open new paths, water that humans can swim inside, blocks that can be pushed off of paths, walls that can be climbed, giant fans on the ground that propel humans into the air, and much more. Check out the video below for more details.

Humanity is due out for PS5, PS4, and PC on May 16, and will also feature support for PS VR and PS VR2. It will also be available via PlayStation Game Catalog for PS Plus Extra and Premium subscribers at no additional cost at launch.

As a Shiba Inu who must command massive groups of people, Humanity offers over 90 stages with different obstacles and puzzles. Progressing through the campaign, you’ll meet a rival faction, the Others, and a late-game antagonist force in The Machines. There are bosses to fight and even a Stage Creator for generating and sharing content.

It’s an unorthodox game with a unique style since Rez Infinite creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi and visual designer Yugo Nakamura are involved. Stay tuned for more details on Humanity when it releases on May 16th worldwide.