Honestly, when it comes to VR, I never expected we would see a modern FMV game. They were all the rage back in the Mega CD era, but then died out for the longest time until they suddenly made a comeback (largely thanks to the great work done by Wales Interactive). They managed to recapture that silly cheesiness, but with added polish that made them feel like a modern release.

And now we have our first VR FMV game, courtesy of Signal Space Labs. Given that the story’s premise revolves around controlling technology from within a virtual headset, it seems like the perfect place to start. But how well does it work?

Let’s find out.

Many thanks to the publisher for the review code. Interested in Human Within? Get a discount using our affiliate link. It really helps the site out!

CHOICES MATTER
The story of Human Within focuses on two cyber engineers Nyla and Linh, who have developed a form of technology that boosts its power via the use of the human brain. Unfortunately, they also find themselves in a predicament where their financier has them trapped against their will until they complete their work – seemingly for nefarious means. To make matters worse, Linh is unconscious – perhaps even braindead – after testing the device for herself.

But there is a way out. Even though the headset fried her brain, there is still activity – and that activity could be enough to get out of here. Using the technology, you can obtain a new recruit for your cause and help him get to you – before it’s too late.

Image

The story itself is quite compelling even if I found that it took me a couple of scenes for me to really get invested. From a gameplay standpoint, it’s relatively minimal – although you won’t be sat around doing nothing. Sure, a lot of the time you will be watching videos play out like some kind of VR movie, but occasionally it’ll cut to you inside the headset where you’ll have to do something there. The headset sections are by far the most compelling part of the game, as you’ll be able to observe what’s going on around you via camera feeds. It works so well for both the genre and the platform that it’s a shame they didn’t make the whole story play out this way.

Occasionally, however, you’ll be expected to do a thing. Usually this involves a simple cube matching puzzle, or scanning locations, but sometimes you’ll be given a digitised version of the area for you to explore in order to find a way to proceed. There’s not much to it, but I like how you can manipulate time during these sections in order to make them more interactive. These interactive elements are mixed in just frequently enough to give you something to do in between all the videos, and ensures that the ninety playtime will go by in a flash.

In order to encourage you to go back for more, the game offers multiple endings that are encountered depending on choices made throughout the story. These sections can be tracked via a branching path in the extras menu, thus helping you to identify just what you are missing. The only problem is that I had absolutely no idea how to make choices. Every now and then something would appear on the screen indicating a choice, but no matter what button I pressed, I just couldn’t trigger anything other than the default choice.

Image

As such, it’s hard to tell whether or not my story (which has a rather abrupt ending) is the canon path, and how the rest of the story routes compare. Perhaps this is a bug affecting the review build, or it could be that the game doesn’t properly tell you how to make choices. Either way, I hope it gets addressed in the future as without being able to experience alternate story paths, there’s no real reason to go through the game again.

VERDICT
Human Within is a solid attempt at making an FMV game in VR. It does spend a little bit too much time out of the in-game headset and thus feels like watching a VR movie for the most part, but when the game puts you truly inside, it feels very satisfying. Hopefully we get to see more experiences like this in the future, as this game certainly shows off the potential the genre has in virtual reality.