Human Resource Machine is a somewhat difficult game, but isn't that what puzzle games are meant to be? The style and unique game play make you think back to previous games developed by Tomorrow Corporation such as Little Inferno and if you have ever played that game, then you should already know that this game would be fun before you even begin playing it. I never played Little Inferno, but I watched full playthroughs of it on YouTube and I loved the game so I knew I had to get my hands on this game once I heard about it and even though it was still quite different, it was a lot of fun, especially for those who love puzzles.

GRAPHICS 8/10

The graphics are great, and follow a similar approach to Little Inferno with cool little characters, fun cut scenes, and overall great art styles. For the most part, there isn’t that much animation or many things to look at because the game mostly takes place inside of an office with little to do but the graphics were done in a way that made the entire environment feel great. If I made a game like this, I couldn’t have picked better colors myself which make the game better and match perfectly with the overall feel. As for the cut scenes, the animations and motion seem to work well as well and help the game transition smoothly and overall, all the different aspects of graphics seem to work well together and give off a good atmosphere and for that, this aspect gets an 8 out of 10.

MUSIC 10/10

The music is amazing, the first time I opened up the game and the main menu theme started playing, I was hooked and found myself listening to it for a minute or two. What I really liked about this portion is how some of the characters on this screen dance and move around along to the music and even though that isn’t music itself, it makes you want to dance too. There’s music everywhere, by the time you actually start playing the game and you’re working, you will have heard four different songs. Even if you end up finding the music to not fit the game well, you will still find it to be very catchy and you won’t be able to stop yourself from listening to the various tunes over and over.
There is an aspect of sound that I like even more than the music and that’s the regular sounds of the game, which are very good. First you have the speech bubble sounds make me think back to the sounds that are used for the teachers and parents of the Charlie Brown shows, and that’s good because it makes the game more unique than it already was and it seems a bit more fun this way. There’s also some great voice acting in the cut scenes that ads to the humor of the game while at the same time adds a lot of value to the game by showing it wasn’t going to be all instruments to show voices. Because of the music and the unique style for voices and sounds, I have to say this is one of the 5 best games that I have ever seen in terms of sounds and for a grade, it will get a perfect 10 out of 10.


ADDICTIVENESS 9/10

The game is really addicting, I wouldn’t say it’s as much fun for me as Little Inferno because it’s mostly a puzzle game, but it’s still a lot of fun. In each level, you are in charge of moving boxes from the Inbox to the Outbox but it’s not like you can actually move around on your own, you have a list of commands that you need to choose and organize so that you have a long list of actions to do and then you can play those actions and see if you successfully put all the right boxes in the right order in the Outbox. The game requires a lot of thinking because you need to be aware of what command does what, the order of commands you need, as well as what needs to be done with the boxes themselves. The game really makes you think and gets your brain active so if you are the kind of gamer that loves these kinds of games, then this is the one for you.
You may find yourself doing the same level over and over 10 or more times because of trial and error but you might have no problem doing that because you could be fully immersed in the game and not care that you keep messing up. What happens when you beat the game? Well, you might want to play some of the levels over and over to either see what the levels are like or to try to beat the level in fewer commands. What do I mean by see what the levels are like? Well, no two levels are the same, but at the same time, no one level is the same either. Basically you can reset the same level, and get a different order of boxes or a different selection which will require a completely different set and order of commands. This is perfect for the curious puzzle gamer and for this aspect, the game gets a 9 out of 10.

STORY 7/10


There is a small story, but it doesn’t directly affect the game play unlike Little Inferno because the way that the game is set up is to have the actual game and then also have the story of the city that the company you work for in the cut scenes. Some of the story parts do leak into the actual game like eventually your office will have a giant hole in the wall thanks to some surprise attacks and over the course of the game, after you have worked there for so many years, you eventually become replaced by a new worker who can do everything you can do for a much cheaper price and at a quicker pace, a computer. The story is mostly a small part of the game, but is still there and is really fun to follow along and for a grade, the story gets a 7 out of 10.

DEPTH 8/10

When it comes to depth, there’s a lot of it, which can essentially be broken down into three aspects, the amount of levels, the level difficulty, and the cut scenes. As for the number of levels, there’s roughly 3 dozen or so for you to go through, which is a good amount for a game and normally should take quite some time to complete. However, once you add the difficulty of the levels, the game has so much more to it because as you progress through the game, the levels get much longer and much harder meaning you might end up replaying the same level over and over. For some of the later levels you could find yourself dealing with a hundred commands over and over so even though it’s just one level, you may spend a lot of time working on it. Beyond the levels, there’s about a half dozen cut scenes which add to the story and setting of the game and when you put those three aspects together, you find yourself with a game that could end up being very long. It’s good when a game can have this much stuff and for a grade, depth will get an 8 out of 10.

DIFFICULTY 8

At times, the game can be VERY difficult, but it is never impossible because it’s just a game of trial and error. Once you test out a series of commands and you find a set that works, then you just need to keep that and work your way up from there piece by piece. Of course, it will also help if you are good at math as well as memory because there’s going to be a LOT of adding and later on you will have spaces on the floor that you get to temporarily place boxes and you need to remember where you put boxes and of course you need to remember what each command does. Once you start off a level, you need to do a lot of thinking so that you understand what you have to work with, what needs to be done, and the path you will take to get there. But once you have the ball rolling, it can get quite easy, though some levels might just take dozens of attempts and take a while to complete. For difficulty, the game is nearly at the top of the ladder and gets an 8.

OVERALL 8.4/10

On an overall standpoint, I don’t find this game to be as fun as Little Inferno but I really like the style, the concept is amazing, and the puzzles really make you think, which is something that I like. If you have played Littler Inferno before or other games by Tomorrow Corporation, or generally tend to like puzzle games, then you have nothing to lose and should give it a try. It’s not that expensive either, only $10 and can lead to numerous hours of puzzle solving. The game is still quite new, having recently passed two months on Steam and is still holding a Very Positive rating on Steam so it’s definitely something that I recommend. Overall, I really like this game and my grade for I is going to be an 8.4 out of 10.

Special thanks to the developers of the game, Tomorrow Corporation for providing the game to be reviewed here as well as a few other things.
 
http://tomorrowcorporation.com/humanresourcemachine

So basically it's like a puzzle game with randomized levels? Sounds cool, especially since isn't just your run of the mill puzzle style. And I'm in favor of any game that takes the title "puzzle" back away from things like Candy Crush. Puzzle nearly became synonymous with match threes for a while there.

Thanks for reviewing consistently, man.