Human Within Review: Diving Into a Sci-Fi FMV Adventure!
**Reviewed by SilentSigns on Meta Quest 3**
Artificial Intelligence is here to stay, and it's becoming more and more intertwined with our everyday life. What once seemed like an impossibility is now available at the click of a button. The expanding intelligence of AI is a concept that either excites or terrifies you. But what would happen if we combined the seemingly limitless power of artificial intelligence with the creativity and logic of human intelligence by transferring human consciousness onto the digital plane? That is a question that developers Signal Space Lab explore with their latest VR release, Human Within. This concept is a fruit ripe for the picking in 2025, but does Human Within tap this limitless potential, or does it fry my brain like an experimental technology not yet fit for public use?
As it turns out, Human Within is not Signal Space Lab's first foray into the VR scene. Interestingly, 2019's Afterlife was similar in design to Human Within as it places the player as a silent spectator while events of the game unfold around you. However, Human Within goes a bit deeper, implementing more varied gameplay elements, which we will deconstruct more a bit later.
First, let's set the scene. The game opens up on Nyla, a cyber-engineer in an unfamiliar lab, seated next to her sister and partner Linh, who is unconscious, yet alive. They're accompanied by a mysterious man named Blake, who seems to have kept both parties here against their will. Linh and Nyla are the creators of Pasithea, a wearable technology that looks suspiciously similar to my Meta headset, which connects the human brain to the digital space. Blake, who has the capital to back their project, plans to use this creation for all the wrong reasons.
With Nyla trapped in a room and Linh incapacitated and unable to help her escape, the sisters use the power of their device to harness all of the resources around them. Through the power of Pasithea, we perceive the game through Linh's mind, assisting Nyla in finding someone on the outside who can get them out of these dire circumstances.
The gameplay in Human Within can be separated into a few neat compartments. First, there are the FMV scenes, which you sometimes experience as a silent, unperceived spectator in the room while a 360-video story unfolds around you. Every so often, you can interact in these story segments by selecting from a few available responses, which can impact the outcome of the story. You make these selections by moving your head in the direction of the desired response. For me, these scenes were the most immersive and interesting offerings Human Within had on display. However, the entire story does not unfold from this perspective. Most of the plot development occurs on a flat screen hanging in a Matrix-Esque futuristic backdrop, while other camera angles and information hover to the right or left. These flat scenes are not nearly as immersive and end up feeling like watching a movie on a web browser with a few too many tabs open and a couple of pop-up ads that I have actively trained my brain to avoid perceiving.
The next gameplay element involves cube puzzles. These puzzles are exactly what they look and sound like. You have a set of cubes, each with touch points that must align with one another in order to piece together "corrupted" data.
Last, and decidedly least, are the room composite segments. These segments involve navigating around a rough concept of a room compiled from archived security footage into what I can only describe as TV static meets magic eye image. In these scenes, you can freely explore using either snap-to movement or free movement. I can tell you that, as a victim of motion sickness, I leaned heavily on the snap movements. While this still somehow left me feeling a twinge of queasiness, it was nothing compared to my normal first-person gameplay experience, so I'll count that as a win. Unfortunately, I think that is the only redeeming feature of these sections. To be blunt, I hated these scenes. Your objective in these scenes is typically to interact with the right object that will advance the story. Sometimes, this will be something like a facial scan of an individual in the room, easy enough. However, as the game progresses, they become more and more abstract with what they are looking for. Find the hidden door? Brother, it's hidden! That's not exactly giving me a lot to go off of. Often, I would find myself aimlessly wandering, running my cursor across every surface of the room, trying to figure out exactly what I could and could not interact with. I didn't feel challenged; I felt frustrated, bored, and moderately nauseated, only wanting these scenes to end so I could advance the story.
As a VR experience, Human Within does a decent job of utilizing the VR headset, but there are areas that could be improved. I'm sure this has a good deal to do with budget, but the 360 video is so much more immersive than the floating flat screen—I just wish more of the story took place in the 3D world. I know FMV is not for everyone, but I do think it's an interesting and under-appreciated video game medium that has a lot of potential in the VR space.
I'd also sacrifice the room composite scenes entirely, which unfortunately is where it feels like most of the VR implementation lies. These scenes often broke my immersion in the story and felt cheaply made compared to the production value of the rest of the game. It was a mismatch that just felt off to me.
Being that the majority of Human Within is a full motion video game, you don't just get voice acting but actual, human acting. For the most part, I really enjoyed these performances. Protagonist Nyla and antagonist Blake were the standouts, effectively making you root for or against them respectively. One thing I did notice was that there were quite a few prolonged pauses in dialogue. It almost felt like the developers intended to add more player choices during these scenes but ran out of time or budget. I'm not sure if this is the case or not, but I got the vibe that they were told to draw out these moments of silence that are otherwise unexplained.
Apart from the 3D graphic, composite scenes, I did enjoy the presentation of Human Within. From neat menus to visually appealing overlays and high-quality video, it was mostly quite sharp and performed well with my Meta Quest 3 in an optimal environment set up for VR. It's a relatively short experience that only lasts the span of a feature-length film, but there are multiple endings which can be found by making different choices, so you'll have a reason to play through the game again. These choices also reveal different scenes with each playthrough, keeping things fresh on your second or third attempt. There are five endings to achieve in total.
Human Within feels like the natural progression for FMV games, but I'm not sure if it is something that will capture the interest of the typical VR enthusiast. That said, I respect the vision here and I'm curious to see what other kinds of interesting stories can be told in this format. While still imperfect, it feels like a step up from the developer's previous VR release, and a general step in the right direction for VR storytelling.
I am awarding Human Within the bronze genie lamp for approval. I'd recommend this title to folks that enjoy both FMV and VR in equal doses, and those that are dipping their toes into the VR space and looking for a title that focuses more on story than gameplay.
**GOOD**
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