You’ll play as a Shiba Inu that guides crowds of people to an exit in this puzzle game.
Humanity, a curious hybrid of a platformer and a puzzle game, at last has a release date. It’s coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Steam on May 16th, with virtual reality support on all platforms. PS Plus Extra and Premium subscribers will be able to check it out at no extra cost, as Humanity will join the PS Plus Game Catalog on its release day.
The latest title from Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s Enhance studio has been in the works for quite some time. We got our first look at it in 2019 and it was supposed to be out the following year. However, the delay gave Enhance a chance to create PlayStation 5 and PS VR2 versions as well. Enhance announced the release date with an outstanding homage to early PlayStation ads.
In Humanity, you’ll play as a glowing, nameless Shina Ibu. Your mission is to guide crowds of people to an exit by placing commands on the ground that get them to turn, jump, float, swim, climb and so on — effectively flipping the atypical dog-human relationship on its head. The story mode has more than 90 levels, somehow including boss fights. You’ll be able to create your own stages and share them with other players too.
On the PlayStation Blog, Enhance executive producer Mark MacDonald wrote that the team decided to bring Humanity to the PS Plus Game Catalog on day one so it can reach a large number of players right away. Several titles have debuted on the base PS Plus Essential tier over the years and quickly found a large audience, most famously Rocket League and Fall Guys. Meet Your Maker was the most recent game to hit the Essential tier on its release day.
Since Sony rolled out Extra and Premium a little under a year ago, the only games that have hit those particular tiers on their release day before Humanity are Stray and Tchia (subscribers have access to Essential games too). Meanwhile, PS VR2 owners may be particularly pleased by Humanity’s PS Plus debut, given that PS VR titles don’t automatically work on the new headset and they’re having to piece together a fresh library of games.