So, last week we were sent a code for Human Delusion, a recently released walking simulator type game that had quite the lofty description over on Steam…

“Human Delusion is a short but impactful experience about a transformation from being restrained inside the human experience to being free and present. Human Delusion is an exploration of one’s emotions, consciousness, mind and their perception of reality. Are you ready to choose true Freedom?”

The Human Delusion Steam description

This was definitely enough to pique my interest. I love games that tackle deep themes and endeavour to break outside the box. Alas, this was not to be.

You see, this is primarily a VR game, but according to the Steam description and the various posted reviews, it can be run sans VR (though it is worth noting that the line isn’t in the description anymore, but the reviews were still up).

As you might know if you listen to our wonderful podcast, I’m halfway to legally blind and have coke-bottle glasses, so using a VR headset is somewhat tricky. But no matter! Non VR it is, or at least I’d hoped.

I tried this game out on two separate computers; my trusty little thing which runs The Sims 3 relatively well (and if it can handle that, it can handle anything), and my flatmate’s top of the line gaming PC. Both of these had the correct specs, and both were solid i7 machines. So it was rather disappointing when I couldn’t even get past the first scene.

On both machines, the scene opened with a beautiful hillside and river, the water rippling enticingly in front of me. There was a lot of stuttering and flickering with the water animation, but nonetheless I persevered, thinking this would be a minor issue I could ignore. But when I tried to move, I got…

Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

So I had a look at the Steam reviews, and someone mentioned you had to turn around to get the cut-scene to activate.

Now, before you all say “Viki, you’re just terrible at games,” I tried literally everything I could think of. I tried plugging my Xbox controller in, using the thumbsticks and D-Pad. I tried my laptop’s arrow keys, num lock, WASD, even picking the computer up and moving it in a wide circle to see if it was some weird interactive thing.

Nothing.

So I tried my flatmate’s higher spec computer, and apart from a infinitesimally slightly smoother frame rate for the water animation, there was no change. Upon rebooting the game, it promptly crashed before getting to the title screen.

What went wrong? I have no idea. It’s also very much a pity as I was looking forward to giving this a try, and it unfortunately leaves a poor first impression if I can’t even get the game to run correctly.

I had wondered if we were accidentally sent a VR version of the game as opposed to the non VR one, but we’ve had no response from the developers with regards to this. But, if there is something blindingly obvious I’ve missed or a bug that’s now been fixed, I do urge Spectre Studios and JoaAM Productions to reach out and let us know – I’m happy to give it another whirl.

(Editor’s Note: we did reach out to the developer prior to receiving a code as they advised reviewers to contact them for help with the non-VR version of the game, but we were ignored and this footnote has now been removed by the developer.

We’re always eager to show our own experience as gamers and, unfortunately, if that’s a negative one, we still want that to reflect in our reviews, so you can have an idea of what you’re walking into before you spend your hard-earned money on a title.)