Game Review: The Human Age (Mobile – Free to Play)

The Human Age by Noodlecake Studios Inc is a game of two halves. On the one hand, it’s a cute looking & addictive game but on the other it has an obsession with ads that try to pry open the wallet with numerous in-app purchase options.

On a plus…they’re nowhere as greedy as what we’ve become accustomed too. Bravo, Noodlecake Studios Inc.

The aim of the game is to move through the ages of humanity by ‘matching’ the different stages of our development. Starting off as cavemen heading through to scholars. As you progress you can expand your board to give yourself more room to move & match.

Alongside the match part of the game you can also build some of the more famous landmarks throughout history. A pyramid, a monastery, a cave…these will provide you with resources to build more, as well as give bonuses during a match game.

There isn’t much more to the game than that. The building aspect is pretty pointless as some resources take an absolute age to collect. The real bulk, the real fun of The Human Age comes from matching. Addictive & simple to understand but challenging enough to keep you interested. You’ll finish one game & instantly start another…provided you have enough moves.

The most frustrating thing about The Human Age is how quickly you’ll run out of moves. Forcing you to either wait, watch an ad or use crystals to replenish them. The natural option is to just watch an ad, however the amount of moves it gives you will mean you’re going to be watching quite a few for any game that goes over a few minutes.

For example, during one lengthy game session 14 ads had to be watched to gain enough extra moves to keep playing. This is pretty excessive even for a free to play game although the £1.99 option to remove ads isn’t over-priced. Being a free to play game you have to expect ads but as soon as you load up the game?

The option to spend crystals isn’t an unreasonable one to be fair. The highest price being £5.99 for 1250. You could do a hell of a lot with that amount of crystals. However, the question that has to be asked every time with free to play games is simply…is it worth that kind of money?

The answer is no. Of course not. Had this be a £1.99 play up front game with no in-app purchases then I’d be screaming its name from the hilltops. It’s not though.