Human Fall Flat — the controls are the puzzle

Deliberate clumsiness

Your character has no skeleton worth speaking of. Each arm is controlled separately, grip is a button you have to hold, and climbing anything is a matter of hooking one hand, swinging, and hoping. The comedy and the difficulty come from the same source, which is a bolder design decision than it first appears.

Once it clicks, the game becomes genuinely expressive. There is usually more than one way through a level, and improvised solutions that were clearly not planned by the designers work more often than not.

The problem on a phone

This is a game built around two analogue sticks and two triggers, and a touchscreen has none of those. The mobile version provides a workable layout and it can be reconfigured, but climbing sequences that are fiddly with a controller become properly awkward with thumbs. It is the one title on this site where we would say the platform is a real limitation rather than a compromise.

Controller support helps enormously if you have one.

Alone or together

Solo, the levels take about three hours and the humour thins out. With other people, the same levels become considerably better, because failure is funny when it is shared and merely irritating when it is not. Online play needs a connection; single-player does not.

Payment

One purchase for the base game, with optional additional content available separately. The store listing shows what is included and what is not, and prices are shown at checkout only.

Performance

The heaviest of the four titles covered here. On the four-year-old test phone it runs but drops frames in the larger open levels, and load times are noticeable. On current mid-range hardware it is smooth.

Where it falls down

Solo pacing and camera control. The camera fights you during climbs, and a mistimed grab often costs more progress than it should. Neither issue is fatal, but both are felt more sharply on a phone than elsewhere.

Who it suits

Players with friends to play alongside and, ideally, a controller. Anyone looking for a solo puzzle game will be better served by Bridge Constructor Portal.

Our verdict: an excellent design that the touchscreen serves least well of the four here.