Human Fall FLat Review

​I Am Bob's Flailing Limbs
By Mike Johnson
​Reviewed on Xbox One
​Released on May 9th, 2017 for Xbox One and PS4
​Developer: ​No Brakes Games
​​Publisher: ​Curve Digital

Human: Fall flat is a charming, slapstick, physics-based third person puzzle game, set in a world of floating dreamscapes. Human places you in the wobbly, untextured shoes of Bob. As Bob, you’re tasked with completing puzzles in order to move on to the next floating dream-like world, and it’s pretty damn fun. Before you begin, you’re able to customize Bob by changing his colors, clothing, and other charming features I’ll let you discover on your own. You’ll start Bob’s adventure stumbling your way through inspired tutorials, oftentimes letting you know that the game is aware of its own ridiculousness. Initially, the controls may be difficult to wrap your head around. Your left hand will control the left of Bob, your right hand will control the right of Bob, and your brain will become pained as you learn how to coordinate the two. By design, Bob is a wonky character, but the dynamic physics and how he interacts with the world around him can be hilarious. You’ll be interacting with your environment one arm at a time, pulling, pushing, climbing, and jumping through the games untextured landscapes. The puzzles are fairly difficult, ranging from simply plugging in a cord in order to open a door, to learning how to control cranes in order to bash a wall down to advance. I know, it seems pretty straightforward, and it is just that, but it’s really how you go about these things that make this game a gem. I spent hours testing the physics and boundaries of the game. If there was a wall, I’d try to climb over it. If I found some glass, you know I was going to find an item to smash it. At one point I found a rope, got a running start, grabbed on that sucker, and swung my way from one part of the map to another. In a later level, you’ll find a canon of sorts, and I’ll let you discover the fun involved in that.
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     Much of the game is about climbing over different obstacles, and while I felt like I had a handle on the controls of the game, I often found myself falling to my death due to some of the issues involved with the mechanics. Fortunately, Bob is immortal. When you do fall flat on your keister, Bob manages to wiggle his way back to his feet, allowing you to restart wherever you left off. It’s a great mechanic and it keeps the pace moving quite nicely.

Graphically, Human gives off a “not finished’ vibe. Opting to use shading and coloring in place of textures. I liked this decision. It lends itself perfectly to the trippy nature of the game and allows the game to run smoothly. Human doesn’t skimp on level design either, you’ll be moving from construction sites to castles, and it all looks fantastic.
 
Complimenting the art design, the music and sound effects are also on point, often adding a layer of charm to the aesthetics: such as the thud Bob’s head makes when bounces off the ground. The music is light and whimsical, and the voice-overs during tutorials are inspired. In fact, I’d note that whoever read for that made me laugh as much as Bob on many occasions.

I do have a few concerns to touch on, however. The first being that this game is about 5 hours, or at least that’s about long my experience was. This isn’t a bad thing, but at times it can get a touch repetitive. I don’t mean just the puzzles and how you solve them, but towards the end when you know basically what you need to do and how I found myself still fighting against the controls. That didn’t bug me too much, but I feel like if you aren’t as captivated as I was, you may find yourself setting the controller down before the game’s finale.
 
Again, even with what I touched on above, there is an awful amount of fun to be had with Human: Fall Flat. I can’t stress enough how interesting I found the game's mechanics and if you’re willing to deal with the game's controls, you have an open sandbox at your disposal. Swing from cranes, climb on trains, check this game out and enjoy yourself!

*Note: A copy of this game was provided for the purpose of this review.

Final Score: 9/10

+ Imaginative
+ Dynamic physics
+ General Hilarity

- Controls Take Patience