Human Upgrade Labs

This game is absolutely beautiful. It has the most unique art style I've seen in a game on Steam. I really can't stress how cool the art is. The gameplay in this game is similar to MarioWare, where it's composed of brief minigames. Each is short and to the point. A couple of the game have fuzzy rules, for example knowing which side the old tech and new tech were supposed to into was unclear. I understood what I was supposed to do most of the time, and if I didn't know right away, the grading system made it clear. The sound and music are fine. They serve the game well enough. The story is out there. Post human type stuff, where everyone is modified so they barely resemble a human anymore. I laughed at several of the jokes from the story, in particular at the battle between the Cartoon and early post human factions. The actual story is pretty good at spooling out the plot piece by piece. Several of the dialogue boxes are a little bit too cramped with text and could be broken up to make it easier to read. It is a very unique setting, telling a shockingly down to earth story about trying to land a job. Even post humans need to pay the bills I guess. I will call out the …

Amazing artwork Terrible gameplay It's simply a collection of games reminiscent of those found on the back of a cereal box, such as matching pairs or drawing a path through a maze, which isn't the issue in itself. The problem lies in the poor execution and subpar coding. Why do I still give a positive review? Because the artwork in this game is that good. Additionally, the sci-fi dialogues between mini-games are quite entertaining.

The most beautiful collection of boring minigames I've ever played. The activities in the game are often janky, sometimes tedious, sometimes impossibly difficult, but almost always full of strange and wonderful maximalist art to distract you from the fact you're doing spot the difference or a number guessing game. I do very much recommend Human Upgrade Labs, but as an art gallery rather than a gameplay experience.

Human Upgrade Labs is essentially a collection of puzzles and minigames, that narratively are a series of experiments that you’ve volunteered for in a far future earth where humanity has developed the technology to completely change both themselves and the world around them. As you complete the tests, you slowly learn more about the history and people of this gorgeously rendered world. The maximalist illustrations that this game is built around are outstanding (someone that knows about art could probably recognize what it’s inspired by, to me, it’s reminiscent of Bosch and the thought cabinet from Disco Elysium), I was always looking forward to seeing what would show up next. The designs are also very creative, in ways that emphasize how similar yet far removed from our world this one is. There’s also a variety in the subjects that are being depicted, as the society of the people in this world have divided themselves in groups according to their preferred aesthetic, so you have people and objects from the Horror Faction become disturbing and grotesque, while the Cybernetics faction mechanizes everything, whether it’s sleek and futuristic or archaic steampunk. The transhumanist w…

Note: I purchased and played this game on itch.io, completing it over about 4 days. The playtime recorded above is only for the Steam version of the game. Yes. I bought it twice. Let that be an additional part of the review. I loved this game so much! Visually it's absolutely amazing. A surreal world rendered in detailed, dreamlike paintings populated by bizarre people and creatures. I'd love to learn even more about the setting, as the bits and pieces of lore/history you gain access to are fascinating. The minigames themselves are generally a lot of fun and largely consist of brainteasters/puzzles/and the occasional "figure out the rules" pieces. Even if you can't clear all of the minigames you can still "finish" the game and view the epilogue (I cannot manage to shoot 500 jellyfish. It's just not going to happen). There were quite a few minigames that I'd happily play more versions of for a lot longer! The transformation sequences were great, as were the puzzles (Lesson in Patience), the matching games, and the sorting games. Honestly, the only ones I didn't much care for were the more "traditional" action-based games, but that's really just a me thing. I will say that som…