Google Stadia’s direct touch controls on Humankind are (almost) like magic

I think we can all agree that touchscreen controls kind of sucks. Don’t get me wrong, with virtual joysticks and on-screen buttons you can get by in most games, but in general it’s just better to use a controller.

Case in point: humanity. When the Upstart 4X game went into beta on Stadia last October, I loved it. Google Stadia is by far the top performing cloud gaming service, but its limited catalog still tends to tip the balance in favor of the unbeatable Xbox Cloud Gaming / Xbox Game Pass Ultimate combo. Having the latest Civ-like available anywhere, anytime sounded exactly what I would need to rekindle my crippling addiction to strategy games.

4X games have traditionally been firmly invested in the mouse and keyboard technology tree, but I found the idea of ​​only playing with touchscreen controls intriguing. With no Twitch mechanics or quick responsive input required, it should play great right?

Well no The on-screen joystick essentially controlled a mouse pointer, and the rest of the buttons were basically just replacements for left and right clicks on a mouse. The physical Stadia controller did the same. After struggling for a few hours to convince myself that I just had to get used to it, I finally gave up and played on a pc.

Months later, developers at Humankind Amplitude Studios and Stadia announced that the game would be the first to feature a new “direct touch” control scheme that essentially turns a tap anywhere on the screen into a left click. Other actions can be performed with other types of touch input, e.g. B. Drag, hold, or tap with two or three fingers.

Amplitude was kind enough to provide a review copy of Humankind and I have to say the tech works wonderfully. There is no noticeable input lag and it feels like playing every game installed on your device. This feels like a big leap forward to an input scheme that is perfect for controller-averse strategy and point-and-click games.

There are a few important caveats, however. The user interface in Humankind is hilariously small and in some cases borderline illegible. Icons and menu options are tiny boxes the size of a grain of rice. Maybe you would have better luck on a Galaxy Z Fold 3 or tablet, but playing on my (large) OnePlus 8 Pro put a lot of strain on my weak gamer eyes. There is a button to enlarge the screen, but even that is not enough.

I’m also not thrilled with the choice of using two- and three-finger tips for controls, as they don’t really match the way people hold a phone in landscape orientation. I haven’t been able to successfully use my thumbs for two-finger tips, and using my nose for three-finger input was similarly ineffective (and really smeared my screen).

Granted, the game only came out a few days ago and a simple update from Amplitude would completely solve most of these issues. Scaling the UI more generously would make gaming much more enjoyable on mobile devices (not to mention TVs via Chromecast, which still use a joystick-controlled cursor).

But will amplitude interfere?

Google’s “if you build it, they’ll come” approach to Stadia development has largely failed due to the waning interest of game developers. Cool features like State Share (which Humankind fully supports), 4K gameplay, and Stream Connect (which allows you to see your teammate’s point of view in real time) have come down to the developers to implement in their games. But with such a small audience on Stadia, it’s generally not a priority.

Related: The best games on Google Stadia

It’s worth noting that Microsoft has developed a similar technology for direct touch, but has not yet fully embraced it. As far as I know, it’s only limited to the menu in Minecraft Dungeons, with the actual gameplay returning to a virtual joystick and buttons.

Microsoft has a much bigger incentive to push the technology forward with tons of first-party games and a Game Pass-centric strategy for the future. However, Xbox Cloud Gaming’s performance is still lagging, despite the move to upgraded server blades in some regions of the world earlier this year.

Regardless of who does it, I really hope the direct touch resonates. There are so many menu-heavy and low-control games that would benefit from it, and it’s a great alternative to workarounds like the Razer Kishi.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll just do One More Turn ™ in Humankind before I leave …