Hoomanz!

Genre: Stealth

Players: 1

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Review:

Hoomanz! is a Stealth game released in 2025 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. In this game, players take the role of Shoo, a cute cuddly squirrel-like forest spirit who aims to rid its forest home of the loud, abrasive, littering hoomanz. To do so, he’ll scurry through the shadows and search for opportune moments to scare them away.

Like most Stealth games, you’ll spend a lot of time in Hoomanz! slinking through the shadows, with light not only making you vulnerable but also reducing your speed. Your main goal in the game is getting rid of all of the hoomanz in each level, and this is generally done via a 2-part process – first, you must distress the hoomanz by throwing a piece of trash at them from the shadows or luring them into a trap, and then you must sneak up near them without getting caught and frighten them with a short-range attack. If you are caught, you’ll be mercilessly cuddled and sent back to the last checkpoint.

The premise here is decent, but the execution is frustrating in multiple ways. Firstly, you’ll often be stuck searching for some way to do the “distress” part of the process I mentioned above – the tools to do so can only be found within the environment, and you’re strictly limited in how far you can carry any of these before you run out of stamina and the thing you’re carrying disappears entirely. What’s more, the environment itself is frustrating, with players sometimes forced to do some difficult platforming with only a dash and no jump button, which is not only tricky but failing to do so can often land you in the midst of enemies without any way to deal with them and a need to take a circuitous route back around to where you were so you can try again.

At the very least the presentation here is excellent, with cute stylized 3D characters in wonderfully-detailed 3D environments with excellent lighting and shadows. This is joined by silly noises for both Shoo and the hoomanz, and backed by a subdued (but fairly repetitive) soundtrack that fits the game’s stealth gameplay well.

Overall, I think Hoomanz! had some good potential as a Stealth game, and its presentation is well beyond what we’ve come to expect from a $5 budget game. But the frustrating and at times tedious gameplay keeps this from being a truly great take on the genre.

tl;dr – Hoomanz! is a Stealth game where players take the role of an adorable forest spirit named Shoo trying to, well, shoo away a group of terrible hoomanz that have invaded Shoo’s forest. The presentation in this game is solid, and there are some fun ideas here, but the execution is unfortunately lacking, with some frustrating and tedious gameplay that just doesn’t deliver on this game’s good concept.

Grade: C+

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