We love to be in control of the story. It’s difficult to pinpoint what exactly makes branching stories so exciting, but there’s definitely something inherently thrilling about them. It’s strange to be happy about this, but it is the best way to understand how and why these games work. Yes, it’s weird to be happy about this, yet those mistakes are the perfect way to understand why and how these kinds of games work.
So, let’s break it down, shall we? Naturally, this means there are major spoilers across this entire article.
Branches Need To Make SenseNow, a story like this has to branch in a way that makes sense. This is about finding the right flow in which choice and consequences are linked. It’s important to make an informed choice, but also, in the event of a twist, it is still possible to understand why that decision led you to this outcome. This gives the story more weight. It adds weight. The story is intercut by Nyla, who is trying to free her sisters from the grasp of an unethical CEO. Linh switches between reconstructing memories and helping the current situation. The problem is that most choices have no clear bearing on the situation. The problem is how most choices hold no clear bearing on the situation.You probably wouldn’t wonder, “If I use a blender right now, will the sound bother a cat in the alley behind my house?” However, that’s the sort of logic some choices operate under for Human Within.
For instance: If Linh takes to Blake’s charm, she might learn that our “nefarious” CEO is actually just desperate to try and save his mother from dementia. So far so good, right? Blake’s honesty is only revealed at the very end when Linh has still cheated him.
You’re In Control, Not The Character
What’s more, this highlights one of the biggest struggles with telling stories using defined protagonists. If the character doesn’t respond the way you do, it can create a lot more friction. It doesn’t even matter that Nyla is the protagonist of the story and the “moral person”. Blake’s appeals for mercy are enough to sway her. Linh chooses, out of spite… to corrupt the project and delete herself. Fear? The game is not very clear or makes no sense. This leads to every play-through feeling like throwing darts against a wall. It’s harder for Linh to be immersed in
as
you because other decisions that seem significant are made for you. You aren’t playing Linh, you’re just an underpaid editor to her life’s story’s subplots.
There is something to be said about character agency in stories – easily enough to warrant its own article. Simply put, character agency must still be aligned with the player. My character must be generous and nice if I am. If I’m a jerk, then so is my character.
Yet Human Within structures itself opaquely around what it’s already decided Linh is like as a person. You don’t know how to change Linh’s viewpoint or how your decisions will affect the world. It’s as if you are unmoored and not empowered. It’s difficult to convince people to choose. Even in virtual reality, we want to be liked and it is statistically difficult to make us act differently. So if we are being reminded of how we and our player character aren’t aligned, then we’re likely to be even more paranoid.
Telltale’s famous first season of The Walking Dead might be a messy, assembled on the fly series of stories, but it gets under your skin. Even if it’s just for a short time, you can make decisions in a hurry that will surprise you. It’s important to lure the player into the game by getting them in sync with the hero. It’s why we become so attached to heroes that can at times be little more than ciphers by comparison to everyone around them.Intelligence And Observational Skills Should Be RewardedWhich is what brings us to the greatest flaw in Human Within’s storytelling – you’re supposed to be playing the smartest person in this story, yet you never feel like it. Nyla tells you everything. The “present” section is a completely different story. You can’t influence the outcome. It’s funny because the interstitial puzzles are laced with “No”, sometimes in an unavoidable way, before the solution is revealed. It’s true that the plot considers every decision that leads Linh to agree with Blake a poor choice. But I don’t mean that. You can’t get caught until the designated time. In the “story tree” of the Extras Menu, you can see that some scenes do not have alternate versions. These are fixed puzzles that have fixed solutions. This is true to a certain extent. However, not having even a small fail state to increase the tension of the situation robs it of its power. A horror game relies heavily on tension, even if it does not have a branching story. The mistake of By Grit Alone was to break the tension too often by killing off the player. You can’t get scared that way. It’s important to have a certain amount of failure but not excessively. You need just enough failure to make you snap back like a rubberband. As an audience, we need to be aware that the consequences of our decisions could have a disastrous outcome. However, there must also be enough certainty and information to make a decision. The infamous ending of Mass Effect 2, the “Suicide Mission”, is what makes it so popular. You can theoretically kill your squad as well as yourself. This is extremely difficult to achieve. It’s almost as if you are trying to achieve that horrible ending. The possibility of a bad ending gnaws you. You’ll overthink your decisions during the first game. Human Within would have been a great game. This entire tale is about a hostage crisis. There is tension. On paper, it looks great. You never really feel the reward of being clever. Between decisions made in the past, and little agency today, there’s no incentive to try. It’s strange because we have secondary information feeds that are available to us, but they can still be used as b-roll. Imagine how these secondary info feeds could alter the scene. The context is most important in scenes that move the story forward. It’s like two bitterly divorced people sharing a car together. In my first playthrough there was less context to some of the narrative flourishes. For example, the song that plays at the end is Nyla’s favourite and she loves it. This is the reason I call it one of the worst stories I have heard for a long time. The linear sequence of events is not impossible, but how about if it was presented as a “choose your own adventure”? The adventure is not mine, I have no clear choices, and I feel I cannot contribute. Also, how about the fact that you make decisions based on which way your eyes are pointing at certain key moments instead of pressing a button? This is not ideal without eye-tracking. At times, this meant Human Within decided I made a choice based on what aspect of a room I was staring at before I could turn my head the right way.
The Medium Matters
Despite all these issues, there is one crucial scapegoat for Human Within’s stumbling blocks that explains at least some design decisions made: this is an FMV game. Full Motion Video is a 90s CD-based genre that was a flop and has recently made a comeback. This style of gameplay allows you to create a television quality story with a small budget. Human Within demonstrates a few hiccups you can make with this as well. Human Within shows you how to make mistakes with it. The effect is short-lived. I get that it was meant to show how Linh feels out of her body, but this doesn’t work. You start to notice that the 360-degree view is difficult to keep centered, especially when you’re moving. It was a very costly shoot and it’s hard to argue that the different set designs used for the flashbacks were more expensive than having scenes in a single location with branching options. It’s no accident that the average Wales Interactive title has three main locations. It’s more unsettling to be in cyberspace and not be able move around or interact. The puzzles are also fully CGI, but they are still functionally point and click. Again, the priorities are a little unorthodox.
Had Human Within relied on flat FMV feeds and an otherwise more traditional computer-generated presentation, they could’ve used the freedom of VR to throw more information at the player at once. Make us really feel as though we are in cyberspace, as a digital awareness. This could have been amazing. I’m not blaming the Human Within team for this. This was clearly someone’s passion, as creating a branching narrative is a difficult task even in the best circumstances. The idea was good, but the execution wasn’t. We can still appreciate the choices made by other games. If that is the result of the choices you made in creating the game, then it will be a positive outcome.