Developer: No Brakes Games
I've had my eye on silly physics multiplayer games like Gang Beasts and Human: Fall Flat for a while, mostly undecided on which one I should go with. I knew these were games that were really fun to watch streams of, but I was worried the controls would actually be difficult and annoying once actually trying it. Fortunately, I had the chance to finally pick up Human: Fall Flat during the recent summer Steam sale and haven't stopped playing it since. Human: Fall Flat is a physics-based puzzle game where you control a little human's every moment to move forward in levels.
I only picked up Human: Fall Flat as part of a sale and therefore expected it to sit in my long list of backlog games for a while. However, I was really curious about how it plays and decided to just try it out for a bit. "A bit" turned into quite a few hours. It's been a while since I've gotten so hooked on a game that I skip all other games I'm currently playing and consistently go straight to one. I haven't actually finished going through all the levels, but this is actually a game I don't want to finish too fast, since I'm just really enjoying experiencing it at my own pace.
In Human: Fall Flat you control your character's individual arms (left and right mouse click on PC) to grab, climb, and make your way as best you can through the environment. Looking up or down determines your body's movement - for example, you want to look down while you're climbing on to a surface so your little guy can push themselves up. It takes a little while to get used to the movement, and yes, most of the time you're going to be walking like a drunk person. However, once you get the grabbing and climbing down, you can not only get through the puzzles but often find roundabout ways to bypass them. I personally spent a lot of time seeing what I could do with each new item. Of course, when you find a dumpster with wheels at the top of a torn-up parking garage, you have to try to ride it off the edge into sure death. Unfortunately, despite my careful planning, I failed in this attempt and just hung off the side on a couple loose rebar poles. Not shown in the video below, I continued for several minutes trying to push myself and my ride the bars.
It's difficult to say much more about this game than just how genuinely fun and hilarious it is. I recorded several longer videos than the one above, just because I was laughing out loud to myself during certain ridiculous endeavors (I may be uploading some more of the videos on my channel and will post on my Twitter). The puzzles are well thought-out and satisfying, like using brute force to throw a rock into a wall that's in your way. Depending on how you pick up and item, you'll either be able to lift it properly or you'll get stuck tripping over it and suddenly your arms are under your legs and the box you were trying to move is now behind you (sounds painful, I know).
The background music in Human: Fall Flat might be the weakest aspect of the game. It's either completely silent, or just very subtle mysterious-sounding music. Playing in silence while you're spending too much time trying to push a couch off a ledge gets a little weird, so I decided to play some background music from YouTube instead. It doesn't really bother me, though, it was nice to bring my own music in to this chill but messy-ass game. It doesn't have the amount of domestic objects destruction that Catlateral Damage or Fly in the House has, but this stage with couches, tables, a TV, and breakable glass was right up my alley.
I played a little bit of couch co-op Human: Fall Flat with my partner, and I plan to play some online co-op (up to 8 players!) if I can convince of my friends to get this wonderful game. You would think the puzzles would become much easier with two people - sometimes they do - but the added chaos of another person suddenly adds an extra level of challenge. I wish I'd gotten a screenshot of our failed attempt to swing on a rope together, while he was holding on my character's head with one arm. Suddenly a part of a puzzle that hadn't been so difficult in one-player became a brawl. Also, we discovered the character creator, which has an impressive amount of customization, down to allowing you to paste a photo on to your character's face. The Steam community for this game includes a workshop full of a player-created skins you can download.
Human: Fall Flat is simple in some ways, but it is an absolutely ridiculous and hilarious physics game. You don't even need the puzzles when you're doing some time-wasting nonsense or when you're on multiplayer wrestling your friend, but they're excellent nonetheless. I'll be pouring more hours into this game, for sure, and looking forward to multiplayer with more people. I highly recommend this game, especially if you get a friend to join along the puzzles with you.
Human: Fall Flat is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.
Played on: PC
Last Played: 7/4/2019
Playtime: 9 hrs