“Qualia” Game Review — Scary Where It Counts

Are you tired of feeling emotionally stable? Content with your own existence? Unquestioning of reality? 

If that’s you, Qualia might be the medicine you need. If you’re not content, but you still like feeling shaken, the experience is also very recommended.

Qualia came to my attention when the dev, allsee, shared that it had been rejected from a horror sale on Steam. I know that is pretty common, it happened for example to Scarlet Hollow too.

While looking around the Steam page for the game, I was surprised by the aesthetics, which I’d call clean and even clinical. Appropriate for the lab environment that the game depicts. Intrigued by what I had seen, I decided to take the plunge and dive into Qualia.

It’s a short (and also free) experience for PC and Mac. You might be able to get an ending in around 10 to 15 minutes, but you’ll have one hell of a quarter-hour in the process, and there are several endings to see.

The game sits you as the supervisor of a test that has to decide if two participants are human or artificial intelligence. Easy enough, right? As you start trying to discern the truth looking at their answers, the true nature of what’s asked of you starts unraveling.

In a day and age where “artificial intelligence” is mostly a catch-all term for generative and diffusion models, it’s quite refreshing to see Qualia coming back to a much more philosophical, even existential bit of science fiction.

How do you define a human? Is this person human just because they’re right? People make mistakes, right? You can’t just go by that. Little by little, all common arguments start being stripped away and you are left with the classic philosophical uncertainty.

I think therefore I am, after all. But do you really think? That’s hard to prove.

Coming back to my reason for checking Qualia out, I absolutely would call the game a very scary experience. It might not have the classic “spooky” aesthetic, but it’s certainly more than able to leave you awake at night, thinking.

At least… it feels like you’re thinking, right? But is that even real?

You can download qualia for free on PC and Mac here.

You can see more of our games coverage here.

This game was played on a Linux system via Proton through Steam without any issues.

Author: Walker M

Aspiring game developer and hobbyist writer. Perpetually doing too much. Chronically burnt out.

Argentinian. Passionate. Unbearable?

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