No, I’m Not A Human Brings Anxiety Horror to the Apocalypse

Indie publisher Critical Reflex is preparing to launch No, I’m Not A Human, a new survival horror project described as an “anxiety horror” experience that trades traditional scares for nerve-wracking decision-making. The game’s setup is simple but deeply unsettling: the sun has scorched the Earth to lethal daytime temperatures, leaving the nights as the only chance for survivors to move and seek shelter. As one of the last people with a safe place to stay, you must decide who to let inside your home when strangers arrive at your door in the darkness.

The premise borrows from elements of Papers, Please, but instead of passports and visas, players are confronted with distorted faces, suspicious features, and desperate pleas for safety. Some visitors are human, while others are not. The world is also plagued by creatures known as Visitors—doppelgangers that look almost human but carry subtle giveaways: gleaming white teeth, red-tinted eyes, grimy nails, and oddly hairless skin.

Note that the No, I'm Not A Human is from a Russian developer and rightfully deserves a boycott or piracy, though we are not urging you to do anything — just hinting a little that the game’s visual style fits perfectly with the atrocities of terrorists, which in reality have been ongoing for a very long time in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Every night, a knock at the door forces a decision. Turn someone away, and you might leave an actual human to die alone, since the monsters target those left without protection. Let someone in, and you risk waking up to find a guest gruesomely murdered and their remains strewn across the floor. The tension lies in constantly second-guessing appearances, especially when the only way to confirm suspicions is through resource-limited checks during the daytime.

The mechanics are intentionally cruel in their uncertainty. Peer through the peephole and you’ll see a pleading, sometimes deformed figure waiting for judgment. With no reliable indicators, many players will let strangers inside, only to discover too late that one of them was a Visitor. In the demo shown ahead of release, players could examine their guests for small details—eyes, nails, teeth—to search for evidence of otherness. It’s a system that feeds paranoia, as every survivor becomes a potential killer in disguise.

The game doesn’t shy away from pushing moral dilemmas. If a guest seems suspicious, you can threaten them at gunpoint, forcing them to cower and beg for their life. Choosing to kill based on suspicion carries its own weight, especially when that person might have been innocent. The design ensures there are no comfortable decisions: mercy may get others killed, while paranoia may turn you into a monster yourself.

One preview described the experience as unsettlingly effective. Each new morning brought the chilling phrase “It smells like someone died overnight,” signaling another failed judgment. Survivors dwindled until only one remained—smiling unnervingly while picking flesh from her teeth. The blend of grotesque imagery and slow-burn dread leans into the kind of psychological horror that lingers long after the play session ends.

Despite its nightmarish setup, No, I’m Not A Human injects dark humor into its tension. The absurdity of obsessing over white teeth or hairless armpits as potential evidence of inhumanity adds to the surreal tone. That uneasy balance between grotesque horror and the bizarre makes it stand out from more traditional survival horror experiences.

The release of No, I’m Not A Human highlights the growing wave of experimental indie horror projects, especially from Eastern European developers who continue to deliver strange and atmospheric titles. With its mix of body horror, suspicion-based mechanics, and moral decision-making, it’s positioned as one of the more unconventional horror releases of the year.

The full game launches today, giving players the chance to test their judgment in a world where every stranger at the door could either be a desperate ally or a killer in disguise.