Game: 7 Billion Humans
System:Â Nintendo Switch
Developer:Â Tomorrow Corporation
Publisher: Tomorrow Corporation
Age Rating:Â 3/E
Price: £11.99 | €11,99| $14.99
Release Date:Â 25th October 2018
Review code kindly provided by the Tomorrow Corporation
A Frightening Scenario!
Imagine a world in which machines occupy every job on the planet which results in every human worker being made redundant. Contemplate how it would be if machines were our masters in every respect. Every position once carried out by man would be filled by a heartless mechanical object incapable of feeling or empathy. Imagine a world in which politicians are literally inhuman! Well, this is the case in 7 Billion Humans.
Eventually, earth’s citizens protest against the situation wanting well-paid jobs. Mankind’s robotic masters respond by making 7 billion jobs in an office building that’s so big that it can be seen from space. Once in the building, humans must complete group tasks, and your role is to instruct the group by using drag and drop programming commands.
It doesn’t take long before one suspects that the machines have sinister motives towards humankind, particularly when some tasks involves leading workers to their demise. Stuff like this makes you grateful for a Health and Safety Executive.
Gameplay
In 7 Billion Humans, the player issues instructions to workers in order to complete tasks set by your robotic masters. These duties include the likes of picking up and dropping data-cubes, instructing workers to rearrange and reposition data cubes, shred data cubes etc. How is this accomplished? By using basic programming commands. How ironic! Even the carrying out of basic tasks can’t be carried out without the influence of machines. There surely is something fishy going on!
Players control workers by using a nifty interface that’s positioned on the right-hand side of the screen. To make your workers step in any direction, you must use the step command. To pick up objects, use the pickup command. To carry out such tasks as holding or dropping data cubes of various values, players must use the if command. So for example, if your workers need to pick up and carry a data-cube that equals 50 or higher, players would make a query such as if “myitem >= 50 then pick up or take from.” The commands used depends on the task at hand.
More than one solution to the puzzles
At first, the concept may seem overwhelming but the game gradually introduces you to each command, and the drag and drop interface helps to make it more approachable. That’s not to say that I’ve been able to breeze through the game because I haven’t. In fact, I’ve even used the odd guide to obtain extra assistance, but overall I’ve never felt overwhelmed.
Part of the beauty of this game is that puzzles can be solved by using more than one solution. I’ve really enjoyed comparing my solutions to those of others to see how they could be made more efficient. I also enjoy looking up solutions to puzzles I’m stuck on and later tweak them to experiment and perhaps even improve it. The most efficient programming uses fewer commands and completes tasks quicker. If you become an expert, the game actually includes optimal size and speed challenges which I’ve enjoyed some success with.
Seven Billion Humans is great if you want to get to get to grips with simple programming. What’s more, I can imagine this sort of game being used by teachers in schools to teach basic problem-solving concepts. And even though the game can be somewhat frustrating at times, the player experiences great satisfaction once their team completes each given task. I never imagined observing clerical workers using shredders or re-arranging a few numbers could be so satisfying!
In total there are more than 60 stages to play through, and even though I haven’t finished all of them, I’m looking forward to working through each step and seeing how things pan out.
Robotic humour
The game’s robotic masters are somewhat humorous. The morale officers attempt to boost your confidence always makes me smile, particularly when they seek to boost staff morale by using physical exercise. Perhaps if you have enough floor space, others at home can join in on the action. The game contains a few cutscenes, which provide some extra entertainment and encourages you to keep playing to see what happens next. The humour is somewhat dark, so it’s probably not for everyone.
Controls and Presentation
7 Billion Humans uses two input methods the best being the touch-screen. I have heard others say that players with bigger hands could have issues with this method, but due to having small hands, I’ve had no problems. The game also supports Wii Motion+ like controls thanks to the gyroscope technology that’s built into the Switch’s joy-cons. I had hoped that this method would work well, but I’ve been forced to resync my joy-con’s numerous times during each play session.
I’ve always liked the unique graphical style used by Tomorrow Corporation. As usual, the style reminds me of a dark style cartoon. The game’s game’s cut scenes are well done which includes good but somewhat limited voice acting.
Overall
I like 7 Billion Humans a lot. The overall concept behind the game is both interesting and thought provoking. Just how far will automation go? Regardless of how we complain about work, it’s also an essential part of what makes us human. Â Along with solving each task by using the games unique use of computer programming, I’ve had and will continue to have great fun with the title.
                                      I like it a lot!