People Playground

We all have that one person in our lives that we would never get sick of slapping. The kind of person that creates a deep ball of rage deep down within you which you have to use all your might to push back down. Well, what if we told you that there was a fun and visceral way to vent all your rage in a variety of creative and brutal ways without anyone getting hurt. Allow us to introduce you to People Playground.

This game plays rather similarly to games such as Interactive Buddy or Kill Your Boss. It acts as a sandbox death creation kit and allows you to experiment with a number of interesting assets to perform some of the most gruesome acts that you can possibly imagine. The gore may be no more than chunky red pixels but the feelings they make you feel are all too real.

A Glorified Flash Game

Visually, this game is far from impressive for a number of reasons. It would be easy to attack the dated and pixellated art style but that isn’t the issue. It’s the lack of charm or flair that this game approaches this with. When compared to Fez or Uncanny Valley that really nail this art style, it just looks lazy and underwhelming. It serves its purpose and facilitates gameplay but aside from that, it’s presentation is very drab and disappointing.

The only saving grace is the variety of models, items and assets, plus the smooth animations. The player will have access to a cavalcade of interesting things to use throughout the run and each function with smooth animations. This perhaps bumps the visuals up to mediocre but in general, it’s not enough to make this game look like anything more than a well-made flash game.

A Creative Assassin

Where this game really finds it’s niche is through the fun and varied gameplay. There are achievements and tasks for the player to strive for but the real fun is found in experimentation. If you want to test a theory such as can I stick my little guy to the fall with a sharp projectile, or perhaps how many backflips can I do in a tank, you can and that’s where this game really succeeds.

The intricate mechanics that allow you to set up increasingly complex kills are a sight to behold. You’ll have laser sensors, robotic arms, rocket propulsion, atomic bombs and so much more in your arsenal. Which translates to an infinite number of possibilities for the player to create. The replay value for this title is evident immediately and it’s all too easy to find yourself spending hours building crazy killing contraptions.

There is a certain level of vulgarity that does come with this title. While Call of Duty or similar titles will have you kill your foes. At least there is some context for doing so. People Playground fails to do this and is more like playing God and committing mass genocide for fun. We aren’t knocking it but it’s an acquired taste for sure.

1000 Ways To Kill

This game may not be the prettiest game on the market by any stretch. It may not be the most morally correct game either. However, you can’t argue that this game is quite a lot of fun. The sandbox nature of this title and the wide variety of options the player has at their disposal to create intricate kills are commendable.

Pros

• A wide variety of items and assets to play around with
• Smooth animations
• Surprisingly complex mechanics

Cons

• Content is morally suspect.
• Visuals aren’t all that impressive

People Playground is a ragdoll physics sandbox game developed by mestiez and released on Steam in 2019. With its deep simulation systems, the game gives players unlimited creative freedom to spawn items and manipulate ragdolls within an open world. Through seemingly endless experimentation, People Playground delivers plenty of shock value entertainment and dark comedic moments.

Gameplay

At its foundation, People Playground is a giant unrestrained physics playground. The open-ended sandbox gameplay allows you to spawn a myriad of items ranging from everyday objects to explosives and melee weapons. You can then let loose and utilize these items to directly interact with the ragdoll "people" in all manners of creative and destructive ways.

For example, you can stab them, burn them, vaporize them, crush them under vehicles - the possibilities are endless. The game truly shines with its robust physics simulation that convincingly conveys impacts and reactions, like getting impaled by a spear or blown up by an explosive. Coupled with the ragdolls' exaggerated motions, this produces plenty of dark humor and chaotic moments.

The expansive options available give you unprecedented freedom. Want to orchestrate an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine involving flaming barrels and spike pits? Go ahead. Feel like shooting the ragdolls out of a makeshift cannon? Knock yourself out. Fans of physics sandbox games like Goat Simulator would certainly feel right at home with the chaotic experimentation on offer here.

Comparable Games

People Playground invokes a similar physics sandbox experience as Totally Accurate Battle Simulator. Both games provide you creative control over spawning characters and objects to mess around with using their respective physics engines. However, while TABS is more battle and simulation focused, People Playground's sandbox centers purely on no-holds-barred ragdoll destruction.

Another comparable web-based game is Happy Wheels. While Happy Wheels offers more structured levels to play through, both games share a similarly sadistic focus on obliterating ragdolls in outrageous and darkly comedic ways. Fans of Happy Wheels' absurd physics playground would certainly enjoy People Playground's more freeform approach to dispatching ragdolls.

Review: 6/10

With its deep physics systems and expansive array of items, People Playground basically gives you free rein to be a sadistic playground god. It's like having a giant violent toy box catering to your inner psychopath. The dark humor and endless emergent gameplay lie at the very core of its addictive and entertaining gameplay loops.

You can easily lose hours coming up with new ways to obliterate the hapless ragdolls within the sandbox environment. While the game lacks conventional gameplay elements like objectives or progression, the sheer range of experimentation possibilities more than makes up for it. There's no right or wrong way to engage with People Playground - it wholly depends on how creative and destructive you want to get.

Pros:

• Extremely robust physics systems
• Practically endless experimentation potential
• Great dark and comedic moments
• Highly addictive sandbox gameplay

Cons:

• Lack of objectives or progression
• Repetitive gameplay for some
• Ragdoll reactions get old over time

What we have here with People Playground is a game that is perfect if you want to destress after a long and brutal day. This is a physics based murder simulator that is going to make you laugh as you come up with all kinds of crazy ways to make death machines. I have played many of these ragdoll style games over the years and I would probably put this on close to the very top of that list, if not on the top!

The Point Of The Sword

If you are coming to People Playground looking for some kind of deep narrative driven experience, you have clicked on the wrong game! What we have here is a ragdoll sandbox game where the whole point of the game is to murder and destroy as many of these ragdoll characters as you can. I know it sounds shallow, but trust me when I tell you that there is a ton of depth in this game.

Yikes!!!

Ok, so as I said the whole point of People Playground is to kill, but not just kill, kill people in very creative and amusing ways. The game gives you what feels like an unlimited amount of things to play around with. You want to grab a machine gun and just unload? You can do that. You want to get an electricity generator, and some cables and hook a guy up to it? You can do that. You want to make a crazy, over the top death machine with multiple levels for your guy to fall down? You can do that. I know that it sounds cheesy, but the only limitation in this game is your imagination.

Laughing And Wincing

While the idea of a murder simulator sounds pretty brutal and dark. The way that People Playground goes about it is fun. do not get me wrong there were certainly more than a few occasions I would let out a loud “oooh” as something would happen to one of my little rag doll people. However, more often than not I would be laughing and sending a video of my death trap to a buddy of mine. This is not a game that is going to turn someone into Jigsaw from the Saw movies! It is the kind of game that is great to blow off a bit of steam with and just have fun.

Just Five More Minutes

One of the things that I think shows just how great a game People Playground is, is how addictive it is. You could turn this on, destroy a few ragdoll people, turn it off and be satisfied. Yet, sometimes you turn the game on and one thing leads to another and you end up spending an hour or so making this ultimate death trap that looks like something out of a James Bond movie! Seeing all your work and planning work is so much fun, but even if something does not work out the way you intended, figuring it all out to make it work is also a good time.

Pros:

• The game is just a ton of fun!
• I like how you can come up with all kinds of crazy death traps
• The way the rag dolls fly around is hilarious
• This is the kind of game that can become very addictive

Cons:

• I think they could have put in some kind of story mode
• Sometimes a murder machine will not quite work the way you want it to!

Beyond the Senseless Violence

While physics-based murder sprees might look like People Playground’s only gameplay mechanic, there’s something hidden deeper under that façade of senseless brutality. If we take a moment to look beyond the guts and copious amounts of blood, we will find that the game has a rather complex building system that can escape most player’s gazes.

Indeed, players can build some pretty advanced stuff, going from simple buildings to advanced electrical contraptions. It can also be used to construct some intricate killing machines, as everything in People Playground looks to be a weapon of some sort.

This is partially the reason why the game has such advanced fire and electricity simulations built-in. Some bodies conduct electricity better than others, meaning that players will have to experiment to dispose of their little stickmen figures with more efficiency.

Complex Stickmen

At first glance, the poor stickmen you have to torture in People Playground might look like simple dolls. In any other flash game, these characters would simply be alive or dead, but this game goes a step beyond, featuring an impressive injury system that is as fun as it is sadistic.

The stickmen can survive some hits, leaving them unconscious or bleeding out. Losing blood will make the characters behave differently, causing them to eventually lose consciousness and die. It can be dark, a bit morally reprehensible, but, in the end, that’s just what People Playground is in a nutshell: violent fun in a vacuum.