Preview – No, I’m Not a Human

The whole “uncanny valley” horror antagonist is so pervasive that I nearly dismissed No, I’m Not a Human based on its Steam capsule art. Misproportioned limbs, stretched out visages; that sort of thing. But No, I’m Not a Human isn’t just streamer bait. I mean, if it is, it’s really depressing streamer bait. And not depressing as in, “Entertainment is being boiled down to people exaggerating emotion like clowns without the make-up,” but more, “Life is dreadful and bleak and people suck.”

My favourite kind of horror, really. Horror that isn’t horrifying, it just reflects the pain of existence in a more easily understandable way.

GUESTS, LIKE FISH

According to the news, an already record-setting summer has become deadlier as some sort of solar explosion has heated the days up to lethal levels. Thankfully, you’re a homeowner and can just stay inside.

To make matters worse, strange monsters called “Visitors” have crawled out from the ground. They look more-or-less like everyone else, but there’s something wrong with them. They’re not human, as the name implies.

So, you’re isolated to your home. The sun will kill you during the day, and the visitors might get you at night. Your neighbour arrives on the first night and explains the basics. You can’t be home alone, so you must let other people in. You have to be careful that they aren’t visitors, and you’re soon given the tools to try and identify them. Don’t trust anyone, but you have to trust someone.

DESPAIR GIVES COURAGE TO THE COWARD

No, I’m Not a Human is chopped neatly into two gameplay modes. At night, you peek out the windows to see what’s going on in the world around your house. However, the main intention of being up at night is that people will come knocking at your door, and you have to decide if you let them in, or leave them to figure things out on their own. You only have a brief conversation to decide whether or not they’re trustworthy.

During the day, you walk your house and talk to the people you let inside. You can listen to their story, but the best ways to identify a Visitor are provided one test at a time. First, you can look at their teeth. Visitors have neat, white teeth. Next, if they have dirt under their fingernails, it’s possible that they just dug their way out from underground. Later, you can check their eyes. If they’re red, then they’re not human. Finally, you can check their armpits. Hairless means hazardous.

If you identify a visitor (or if you’re just a sociopath), you can shoot them in the face. You won’t be told if you were correct, so I hope you can live with that blood on your hands.

If you let in a visitor and don’t deal with them, I’m actually not sure what the repercussions are. I think they might kill other people in the house. On one playthrough, the only people who died already spoke like they were going to die soon, anyway, so that wasn’t a good test. In the next, healthy people did die, but I was almost certain I’d weeded out the visitors. However, I had let new people in the previous night and hadn’t yet had a chance to test them, so it might be they kill upon arrival to signify a problem. Not entirely sure.

PALE AS DEATH ITSELF

During the day, you only have enough energy to perform a few tests before you have to sleep until night. How the tests are supposed to work is a bit vague. Somebody might pass one test, but not another. Combined with the fact that there is no big reveal after you crack them open is a great way to leave a moral question mark. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter whether or not a person is a Visitor, what matters is you fed them buckshot and have to live with your decision.

You can’t test people at the door by, say, having them show their teeth to the peephole. Bit odd, but I get it for gameplay reasons. We kind of threw away reality a while ago, so I’m not sure why I’m even bringing up an odd abstraction.

There is some randomization in the demo in terms of who shows up at your door, but it seems like the tests with them always resolve the same. At least in my two playthroughs, they did. I wonder what the level of randomization will be in the final version, but subtle is always better, I suppose.

More importantly, I wonder how things will progress long-term. The demo only gives you five or six nights, which isn’t enough to answer questions like, “What if I just let everyone in? As long as I maintain a net positive of humans, doesn’t that mean I’ll win?” I’m also not sure how this is going to build to a conclusion, but being left in suspense about the execution of the climax is never a bad thing.

TRUST SOMEONE

I really enjoyed the demo for No, I’m Not a Human. It’s thematically dense, hauntingly understated, and executes its aesthetic really well, even though – or perhaps because – it’s an uncomfortable mishmash.

It makes a great setting from an undefinable end of the world. No one really knows what’s going on or how it’s going to end. They don’t know who to trust, and are each coping in whatever way they can. Denial, anger, disassociation, despair. It’s pretty bleak. It’s like The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, but instead of helping people with their problems, you shoot people with perfect teeth in the face.

I’m looking forward to seeing what it all builds into. There are some things I’d like to see, but I think it’s on the right track already. The end teaser shows off some unusual scenes, and I wonder how they tie in. Maybe just stay inside, lock your doors, and try the No, I’m Not a Human demo for yourself.

The public demo has been recently updated and is now available. No, I’m Not a Human is targeting a release in Fall 2025.

This preview was performed using a public demo.