Human: Fall Flat

Human: Fall Flat is weird and it embraces its oddity enough to make it worth a full playthrough.

Human Fall Flat is a game that’s aware of how unusual it is and builds to its own strengths. Bob’s ungainly controls work particularly well in the invitingly designed worlds that let you play around, cheat and conspire with a co-op buddy.

Human: Fall Flat is without a doubt an interesting little game. The dream-like tone is achieved to great effect, and the core gameplay hook is a solid one that has theoretically limitless possibilities. It is a shame therefore that there are only eight levels, which can be quickly played through in around five hours, and that only a few feel like a true sandbox.

A fresh take on the physics-based video games we’re used to, but gets tied up with awkward camera angles and tricky movement.

As weird as ridiculous, Human: Fall Flat is more fun to watch than to play it because its random controls, something not very good for a puzzle game albeit its puzzles are not challenging.

A competently silly, physics based puzzler. Its wonderfully simple dreamlike aesthetic and solid physics make it a joy to play for the majority of the time. The longevity of the experience is somewhat lacking and puts it at risk of becoming frustrating over longer play sessions. But taken in bitesize chunks with friends, it stands on it’s own two legs as a wonderfully stupid party game.

Ultimately, it’s a little difficult to really understand what the developer was aiming for here. It seems more like it was a project from someone who was simply inspired by the entertainment value of stuff like Octodad than a game that is really looking to break out with its own identity. The potential’s there, but it’s all a little to raw for its own good.

Human: Fall Flat just doesn’t have the humour of Octodad: Deadliest Catch or the challenge of Surgeon Simulator. Whilst it does have a few good ideas, especially with the incredibly fun swinging puzzles, and it’s obvious a lot of thought has gone into how the few mechanics can be used to their best effect, it just doesn’t make up for its many flaws.