What’s more romantic than faceless hordes marching through sterile environments? Not much, it turns out. Today, the team behind 2023 puzzle game Humanity released a Valentine’s Day-themed playlist containing 10 holiday-appropriate user-created levels, and it’s one of the best game holiday tie-ins I’ve played. Like slapping a heart on a Companion Cube, it’s amazing what a few little details can add.
The playlist, which you can find in the game’s Library tab, contains levels ranging from the easy “Lovers”, where you just jump on four panels then sit back and watch your infantry take out a series of turrets, to the expert “Heart to Heart”, where you have to chart a perfect path to get one of your Oscar-looking “Goldy” friends to the top of a hill made of hearts before a group of enemies takes out your army of teddy bears.
On Bluesky, developer Enhance called out one level, “Let There Be Love”, saying it “might just be the most romantic (and challenging) stage yet”. I’m not sure the data supports the latter claim (the game itself lists the stage as “hard” rather than “expert”, and as of publishing this story its completion rate is 8.31%, which is far from the game’s lowest), but its hard to deny the romance of the thumping stone hearts floating in front of you. Even if you have to shatter them to finish the stage. The stage puts a twist on the typical Humanity design approach by hiding some of what’s happening from the player, forcing you to use context clues to figure out the best approach.
I also recommend “Lovers Quarrel”, which tasks you with guiding your troops through a forest below two giant statues that look like a couple fighting. What it lacks in optimism it makes up for in an excellent mix of stealth and strategy.
All-in, the playlist offers a great curated package of levels that, for me, made for a nice excuse to return to a game I loved at launch but hadn’t gone back to in awhile.
