"Human evolves, this game does not."

Looks like I must have missed a puzzle game or two in the 90's. At first, I thought The Humans: Meet the Ancestors is a new puzzle game, but further research revealed that this game is a puzzle based platformer that has its root going back to the days of Atari. Taking controls of our ancestors can be fun, but taking controls of brainless pre-historical men can also be quite dreary.

Game play

The aim of the game is to guide ourselves from the humble beginning of Neantherdals through the evolution process, discovering the fire, rope, spears and teamwork. Oh yes, teamwork is very much an important factor in human evolution. After all, without teamwork, you will not be able to climb high ledges. At least not in this game.

The game is divided into different worlds, each with multiple stages. You have to clear a stage in order to advance. There are several objectives in each stage, and your performance is graded on how many of these objectives you have achieved during the stage. For example, you get one tick for completing the stage within a certain time limit, and another tick for finding a certain item, and maybe another tick for reaching a destination. You get gold if you complete all of them.

The top screen displays the much needed overview of the stage map, as it can get quite big and wide. You can control up to eight hairy men, but not all at once. Along the way, there will be obstacles that need overcoming, such as wide gaps, dinosaurs (both large and small), high ledges, tribesmen, etc. To combat them are tools such as rocks, spears, fire, ropes, and even Wiseman's advice.

The most logical way to tackle a stage is to survey the area to find the tools and obstacles, then plot a course that will allow your men to achieve their objectives. Teamwork is everything. Our ancestors seem to be a heavy bunch, so heavy they cannot climb a ledge, and must form a human tower to reach higher up. So a lot of time is spent rounding up people.

That in itself is simple enough, except there are loads of gaps in between platforms that you need to jump over. Jumping can prove to be quite fatal. Jumping in other games will make your character jumps up, it is only when you click on the left or right button that your character will jump to the desired direction. In Human, just hitting the jump button will make your human do a standing long jump in the direction that he is facing. It is not so much of a problem, except you need to be fairly precise. In order to jump over a 'normal' gap, you really need to be almost over the edge to be sure that your jump will be successful. Mistimed jump will undoubtedly land you in the abyss below, which is quite annoying. I mean, it's only two people's height, the worst that could happen is breaking some bones. How can they just die?? Mario has jumped from higher platforms and survived. Oh, right, they are brainless ancestors.

They haven't bothered to spend the time to learn how to swim either. So any body of liquid is as deadly as a one storey fall.

At least they have learnt to use spears to do more than one thing with it. Spears are used to poke dinosaurs, and also useful in jumping over larger gaps. All is great until you have to throw back the spear across the other side so the next guy can use it. Throwing is not rocket science, but it seems like you will need a degree in physics before you can accurately throw the required distance. Too powerful, and the spear will get lodged in your companion head. Not strong enough, and the spear will fall into the gap. It's worse if the spear is unrecoverable. The only solution is to restart the whole level again. Annoying, yes, I know, but please forgive our ancestors; they were not trained by Olympics javelin coaches.

If any of your ancestors have the unfortunate accident, he will be replaced by another same looking man. However, you only have so many men you can use before you fail the mission. Some stages will feature captured prisoners that are tied up and ready to be taken to the giant pot and boiled for dinner. Simply walk over to them to free them. In most cases, they will become useful later on.

Graphics

The Humans is not visually bad, but it could have been better. The environment is rich in colour, albeit washed out. Things might seem detailed, but there are rough edges all over. The humans themselves all look alike.

Different worlds have their own themes, and the settings reflect that nicely. Animation is not as smooth as it could be, but you get what you paid for.

Sound

There are various BGM. The tracks are long and even though it gets repeated after awhile, the tunes are not annoying. Sound effects are quite generic in nature. You probably have heard all the screams and jumps and whatnots in another game.

Replay Value

The level gets harder as you progress through the game. So there will come a time when all you really care about is to complete the main objective and ignore the rest. Doing so will create some incentive for you to go back to finish off secondary objectives in order to obtain gold for that stage. Beyond that, there is hardly any incentive to replay the stage.

Overall

Under the skins, The Humans: Meet the Ancestors is just a new take on an old puzzle game. It is mired with quite a few little annoyance, most of which are done by design rather than poor implementation. Still, I really wish I would not have to get so irritated while playing it.

There are enough levels for the hardcore puzzle solvers, but for the rest of us, its appeal will quickly peel away. It is not an addictive by any mean, but if you think you can help our ancestors evolve into something more intelligent, try this.

Good:

* Lots of stages. Good for puzzle lovers
* Simple game play

Bad:

* Annoying jumping mechanism
* Can force player to restart a stage if tools were not collected, or lost.

Score (out of 10)

Game play: 5
Graphics: 6
Sound: 5
Replay: 5

Overall: 5

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/21/09

Game Release: The Humans: Meet the Ancestors! (EU, 09/18/09)