Inhuman Resources: A Literary Machination Review – A Job You Won’t Want to Keep (PC)

Inhuman Resources, developed by Finnegan Motors, isn’t your average visual novel—or even quite a visual novel at all. Instead, it unfolds like an interactive book, steeped in atmosphere, moral ambiguity, and corporate horror. Over the course of just a few hours, it delivers a tense and immersive experience that trades flashy visuals for psychological weight.

What’s your price? That’s the uncomfortable question Inhuman Resources quietly asks. This workplace is a mask for something much darker. It’s not just a job offer. It’s a trap. Congratulations… You’re hired.

Inhuman Resources is already available on Steam for $14.99 USD and on Android and iOS for $7.99 USD since April 16 2025.

Story – Welcome to the SMYRNACORP family!

The beginning of Inhuman Resources presents us with a question all too familiar to many: To what lengths would you go to get a paycheck after months of fruitless job hunting? What would you do—or hide—in order to survive?

When money is running low and the bills are piling up, you’re presented with what seems like a golden opportunity. A job offer from a company urgently looking to fill a position just weeks before a major deal.

The precursor to the “About Us” pages.

But is it really as good as it sounds? Something feels off from the moment you hang up after the call that landed you the interview. This narrative-driven game follows your journey through the hiring process and adaptation period. Learn the ropes at SMYRNACORP, a so-called cutting-edge giant in human resources.

Be careful—every decision counts, and the stakes are higher than you could ever imagine. This company’s definition of “human resources” doesn’t exactly align with the public’s. It’s up to you to uncover the company’s secrets without breaking your NDA, all while delivering outstanding results to your sadistic, ruthless supervisors and gathering as much information about the conspiracy as possible.

Say hello to some of the amazing people behind SMYRNACORP!

Do not forget, life is not black or white. Maybe there’s more in SMYRNACORP than a soulless bureaucracy; maybe what looks like a nightmare to some is freedom to others. Maybe what looks like the path to freedom and survival is your doom.

Inhuman Resources is, ultimately, a horror story. It’s short (around 4–5 hours), but deeply immersive and will keep you engaged for hours.

Gameplay – Puzzles, Decisions and Passive Aggression

Inhuman Resources is, as they say, a game you can read—a book you can play. Its strongest feature is the plot and narrative. You’ll do a lot of reading—both dialogues and descriptions—while solving puzzles and making choices.

The thorough descriptions almost make up for the lack of visuals.

The descriptions are well written, allowing you to vividly imagine the scenery, situations, emotions, and characters the authors envisioned while crafting the script. At many points, the story strongly resembles issues related to real-life office environments.

The interactive element feels somewhat limited compared to the volume of reading and the nature of the interactions. Your main interactions involve exploring environments through text-based descriptions, clicking on documents to read them, making choices, solving puzzles, and occasionally pressing a button multiple times to complete an action.

By “exploring the scenery,” I mean the game tells you which room you’re in and then presents several buttons. The text on these buttons collectively gives you a general description of the room, and selecting any of them brings up a new screen with a detailed written description of that specific part. You can also skip these entirely if you prefer.

This is your only way to get the full picture of the room you’re in.

The puzzles are not overly difficult but can be genuinely entertaining. They enhance the narrative whether you solve them correctly or not. Some puzzles offer only one attempt, so choose wisely and proceed with caution.

One of Inhuman Resources most thoughtful features is the decision-making mechanic. To confirm a choice, you must press and hold the option. This not only helps prevent accidental selections but also gives you a moment to reflect and possibly change your mind before committing.

You have to keep the card pressed until the gold image is fully revealed.

But make no mistake—this only applies before the decision is finalized. Once a decision is made, it’s permanent, just like in real life. This contrasts with most decision-based visual novels, where players often save before important choices to reload later if they dislike the outcome.

The decisions you make carry strong moral and ethical weight, no matter how small. They will affect future options, other characters’ lives, the skills you develop, and the personality traits you unlock.

The decisions you make unlock unique personality traits.

You’ll also have additional decision-making options depending not only on the situation but also on your traits, skills, and inventory items.

All of this shapes which of the multiple available endings you ultimately reach.

Graphics & Sound – Seeing Less, Feeling More

Why call it an interactive book and not a visual novel? Well, that’s because the visual element is minimal. The background is plain white with golden stripes that turn reddish whenever the situation becomes tense or threatening.

Oh, the dark background… It’s never a good sign.

You’ll encounter very few illustrations: mainly the cards where choices appear, two or three facial expressions for each character to match the atmosphere, and a single illustration for a handful of objects.

Aside from that, the only other visual feature is old, grainy, black-and-white footage—used sparingly during a few puzzles.

Solve the puzzle by selecting the correct frame.

It’s safe to say Inhuman Resources leans heavily on descriptions and your imagination. And that could seriously limit its audience—not just because there’s far more reading than playing, but also due to limited localization: the game is only available in English and French.

The sound design, however, is a strong point. It does a great job supporting immersion and imagination. The background music is subtle and non-intrusive, which paradoxically makes the silence and ambient sounds hit harder and draw you deeper into the experience.

There are two or three variations of the character images to align with the situation.

What I didn’t quite enjoy was how the game handles character voices. When someone “speaks,” you get a voice sample that, while it varies depending on the situation—just like the facial illustrations—doesn’t actually say anything relevant. It seems its only real purpose is to hint at what the character might sound like, once again leaving most of the work to your imagination.

Inhuman Resources was reviewed on PC with key provided by purpleisroyal.com.