The upcoming PlayStation game Humanity has a surprise new demo, and it's available to play immediately. Fans have been waiting for Humanity for years, and now they have a taste of what's to come when the game finally releases.
Humanity is the next game from Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the game designer that made Tetris Effect: Connected, Rez, Space Channel 5, and Lumines. The puzzle game has been in development since 2019, and faced setbacks that pushed the game's release date back farther than expected, but is now scheduled to be released in May 2023. The announcement for the demo was made during a surprise appearance at the Sony State of Play livestream, at the end of a new trailer for the game.
The demo is completely free, and is available on Steam, PS5/PS VR2, and PS4/PS VR. The gameplay involves herding large groups of people towards pillars of light while in the form of dog. The game is played in the third person, with options to move the camera around to help players solve the puzzles. There is an option for players to create stages, but the stages created in the demo will not transfer over to the completed game. Humanity was one of the many games that released updates at Sony State of Play.
The Sony State of Play trailer revealed more about Humanity than the previous trailers, some of which were considered to be extremely sparse with details. It showed a lot more gameplay, giving players more information to hold them over until the full game is released, as well as the promise of the free demo.
The general tone of the trailer and demo is mysterious and eerie. It's a bit reminiscent of the Portal games, with a setting that is modern and industrial, but also spooky and decrepit. The music fits the tone very well, though it has hints of hopefulness, as getting the groups of humans to the pillars of light seems to be helpful, supposedly. The game is also somewhat reminiscent of mobile games like Crowd Fight and Count Masters, which involve directing groups of people through gates that can multiply, add, subtract, or divide the number of people available to the player. In Humanity, the masses are directed by a dog, potentially once a human, who might be in the Kafka-esque situation of waking up as a creature. It's possible that the dog was not once human, but that remains to be seen, along with the answers to the other mysteries introduced in the demo.
Humanity will be available in May 2023 for PC, PS4, and PS5.