“WARNING. Stay inside. Lock your doors. Close the blinds. Only let humans in. Eliminate all Visitors. An anxiety horror about paranoia in the End of Times.” – Steam Synopsis
Okay so initially I was going to hold off on reviewing this game until I did more play-troughs and at least got all the endings, but seeing as the devs have gone back to add more content and endings, and I haven’t had the time to go back this game before the new year, I’ll review what I’ve played so far which is weird, haunting, but ultimately really thought provoking and interesting.
This world is super interesting. Visuals aside for now, this post-Soviet Russian town gives off the exact opposite vibes of cozy. Even before everything goes to hell, just the deteriorating buildings, the gloomy or disheveled appearance of all the characters, and the surrounding areas are. This looks like an area that’s been left behind, which makes everything so much creepier. Every day, new people are visiting the house, and you have to make the decision to trust them and let them in or not. Every day, there’s a new news report giving updates on what’s happening and new guidelines that FEMA is laying out. But some of them are so vague and such normal things that it’s hard to trust. The more information you get as the days go on and as you meet new characters in different runs, it makes it hard to trust anyone, but you have to to survive. Also this game might not be for the faint of heart. Outside of its eerie presentation, it is gruesome, and does tackle some very dark and serious things. All of which I think is done in a really well and thought provoking way, but still.
It makes every run unique when you have so many characters, and a certain amount will always be mysterious (and deadly) visitors, a certain amount will always he human, and then the rest can be either on any given run. And beyond just testing them, as you play, you’ll notice slight dialogue and character differences if the 50/50s are visitors or humans. It can be so subtle, and it’s always so well done. This game has so many characters, and I found every single one of them interesting. I want to know everything about every one of them. The dialogue is top-notch, mixed with the photo realistic surrealist character models that breathe so much life into them. I’ve refrained from watching a video or reading up on all of them cause I still want to play this game some more and find out for myself. Especially when it comes to the main character.
The Protagonist is one of the most mysterious characters ever. There are so many little tidbits of his lore and personality littered around the house, and how he talks to people and perceives things. The most interesting mysteries of this game (which there are a lot) revolve around him.
My other favorite mysteries revolve around what visitors are and why they’re here, and especially what’s up with The Grey Man. Talk about a creepy but interesting character. In a game full of weirdos and weirdness, he stands above the rest as just this anomaly that’s constantly intermittently taunting you and speaking in riddles. Sometimes almost friendly, but there’s always that air of danger. And are there two of him? I swear the one you can see out the window in one of the earlier days looks different than the one that knocks at the door. I don’t know, but I loved dude and everything he brought to an already harrowing game.
Then we got the soundtrack and visuals, which disturbed me to my core. I already talked about how the visuals are this surrealistic photo-realism. There was a Reddit post that actually side-by-side the potential (and probable) inspiration for each character and the photos that inspired them. That opens up this whole other can of worms about what the game is trying to say, cause it definitely parodies some real-life personalities, characters, and politicians. Then the music is so creepy and bleak. Until you get something like the Mushroom ending, and that song is a psychedelic bop. Everything in this game is just so meticulously crafted to fit together so well.
So yeah, one thing I haven’t touched on in this review is the potential meaning of this game. One reason for that is that I haven’t completed everything, so I don’t think I’ve fully grasped it. But also, this game has over 50 characters, almost a dozen endings, and every run has the potential to be so different from the other, and the endings I have had are so different from each other. This game is about a lot. It’s about trust, it’s about self-hate and self-love. Every path you take and interaction will lead you to a different interpretation of this game, and I think that is a beautiful thing, and it handles the challenge of that well. This is a game I won’t ever forget.
No I’m Not Human – 10/10
Notes – The fan art and memes that have come out of this game have been amazing.
