HUMAN

About HUMAN

HUMAN is a free Windows game released on Game Jolt in 2016 by SpektraulStudios, a one-person team who programmed, modelled, textured, animated and scored it. Its maker calls it a short psychological horror game about inherent, earthly and otherworldly evils and the forces that drive them. A sequel, HUMAN CONDITION, is in development.

You arrive at a research station in Alaska that studies the aurora, and nobody is there. The corridors are dim, lit by flickering strip lights and your flashlight. Tablets left on desks hold the staff's research notes: an interference that seems to come from below the earth, and colleagues who complain of a high ringing inside their minds rather than their ears. Something becomes aware of you, and once it knows you are there, it seems glad to have you.

Play is first-person exploration with light environmental puzzles. You look closely, zoom in on screens and papers to read them, and find what you need to go further. The maker writes that every idea is explained at its simplest, with more symbolism underneath for players who want to dig.

It is best played alone in the dark with headphones, as its maker suggests, and suits players who like slow, eerie facility horror such as SOMA or Penumbra in a much shorter form.

How to play HUMAN

1. Download the free Windows build from its Game Jolt page and run it.
2. Move with WASD, run with Shift, and switch on the flashlight with F.
3. Search the facility with E, and zoom in with the right mouse button to read tablets and papers.
4. Use what the notes and rooms tell you to solve the small environmental puzzles and open the way on.

Tips

• Read every tablet; the notes carry the story and point to what to do next.
• Play with headphones; the sound tells you more than the dim rooms do.
• Look for the symbolism on a second play; the maker hid layers of meaning under the surface.

Questions