Conquer Humanity | Early Access PC Review

As technology continues to grow, the ability to create video games becomes available to more and more people. It seems new indie developers are popping up around every corner. Adi Zhavo is one of these developers, and with Conquer Humanity he adds another game to a growing list and is the fourth game this one man team has turned out. While playing, I have memories of Diablo and games like that with big explosions and power hungry characters. Making your way around the map and laying waste to everything in an arcade style game is a nice break from the more objective or grinding based games. Let’s see if this title has what it takes to conquer more than just humanity. 

Training Simulation

There isn’t a story about why you are training to conquer the humans, but then again games such as this don’t need a story. The point of the game isn’t to convey anything other than having fun dismantling people. Like I mentioned earlier, the game plays slightly like Diablo with the ability to cut down scores of enemies with different skills. Where the game gets interesting is using those abilities in such a way to earn a style score. Using your skills in combination with the amount of enemies hit and variety of skills used increases the score received. Getting a high enough score allows the use of “Hero mode,” further aiding the damage you can dish out. But keep that score combo going or you can get knocked out of it and have to start a new combo. Your health is also under constant attack and is recovered by the kills you make; large groups of enemies are good for both score production and survivability. 

Conquer Humanity is a fast-paced game with groups of enemies all trying to get a piece of you. As you progress through the waves the enemies get bigger and harder. A change in the way you need to approach these new enemies will help you avoid getting hurt. Turn up the difficulty for an even greater challenge and even more enemies.  

Achilles’ Footwork?

Even the weakest enemies can cut your run short if you stop moving too long. This is the part of the game I had trouble with. Either lack of experience or just a skill issue, but I found myself standing still more than I wanted. The bosses have weak points you use your heat vision on to get rid of them, but with heat vision your movement is limited and it cancels your sprint whereas most attacks do not and allows you to continue running. With Conquer Humanity, I feel it’s more controls than actual gameplay. I feel at some point you have to mash shift every other button to keep yourself moving at a decent pace, and without the ability to change button layouts, a few controls just seem out of place. With a game like this, every second counts and any motion that stops you from moving or attacking isn’t a good idea.

Another frustration I had was tripping. In both normal and hero mode, you can be launched into the air and in some cases very high. Tripping outside of hero mode rag dolls you into the air and you are defenseless during it. Depending on how you were launched can mean the difference of several seconds. Getting a good run ended because your super villain tripped on rubble or a body is like a slap to the face. Strong enough to destroy buildings, but not dexterous enough to stay up right.

End Simulation

Despite my nitpicking, my frustrations might not be yours. For what it is, Conquer Humanity is a fun little game. It doesn’t take long to start up, has easy enough controls, and no crazy system that you have to remember how it works to play. Whether it’s being played hardcore or just blowing off some steam, you can jump in and start tearing things up right away. I, myself, love indie games. Seeing the inspirations and aspirations of these new developers come to life in my hands has always been exciting to me, and with so much potential in this game it’s anyone’s guess what’ll happen next for Conquer Humanity. Hopefully for Adi Zhavo it’s more of this.

 

This review is based on an early access PC copy of Conquer Humanity provided by Adi Zhavo for coverage purposes. As of the time of this writing, it is exclusive to this platform.