What is 'Shouldermen'?

'Shouldermen' is a puzzle game developed by Outdoor Devs and published by FCF Studios, released on March 7, 2026, with an Early Access release on May 20, 2024. It stands out due to its innovative voice-controlled gameplay, where your voice serves as the primary input. The game's premise involves an evil genius trapping everyone's 'Shouldermen'—their tiny angel and devil doppelgangers that offer moral guidance—in secure virtual reality prisons. Without their moral compasses, humanity is making decisions at random, leading to global chaos.

The Role of the Angel and Devil Characters

In 'Shouldermen', players' objective is to hack into these VR prisons and help the trapped angel and devil escape. This is achieved by engaging in real-time spoken conversations with these AI-powered characters. The angel and the devil are the central figures you interact with throughout the game. They are not characters to be selected or upgraded, but rather the entities you must communicate with to progress.

Gameplay: Interacting with Shouldermen

The core gameplay loop revolves around dialog-driven puzzles. Each level presents a conversation puzzle where your goal is to subtly steer the conversation so that the angel or devil character says a secret password out loud, without them realizing it. When the character utters the password, their cell door opens, and they are freed, restoring balance to humanity. The game utilizes cutting-edge AI, powered by GPT-5, to generate dynamic and contextual responses, making every conversation unique. Deepgram speech recognition captures your words instantly, facilitating natural interaction. For those who prefer, there is also a text input alternative.

Are there 'Best Characters' in Shouldermen?

Based on available information, 'Shouldermen' does not feature a traditional roster of playable characters, nor does it have 'best characters' in the sense of a tier list or different character builds to optimize. The game focuses on the player's interaction with the two core AI entities: the angel and the devil. Therefore, the concept of 'best characters' as typically found in RPGs or fighting games does not apply to 'Shouldermen'. Success in the game relies on the player's conversational skills, ability to understand the AI's responses, and strategic use of dialogue to elicit the password for each puzzle.