As a solo experience, The Test: Hypothesis Rising relies on personal questions and psychological tension rather than a broad action offering. At $1.99 from Steam, consider how much an atmospheric interrogation with horror elements appeals to you before committing.
The English-language presentation is a relevant buying detail, while full controller support is available. That makes personal interest and your budget the main considerations for this second chapter in the trilogy.At $1.99 from Steam, weigh the price against your budget for a single-player experience presented in English.
Set a target to receive an email when an eligible offer in your selected region is at or below that amount.
Price History
Past 36 months · Updated daily
Historical Low~ $1.192026-05Current Low Across Stores~ $1.99Steamvs. Historical Low+67%
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
01About The Test: Hypothesis Rising
The Test: Hypothesis Rising is the second chapter in a three-part series, blending an atmospheric psychological simulation with horror elements. You answer personal questions that probe hidden thoughts and invite reflection on possible changes in your life.Steam players rate it 97%% positive from 5,834 reviews.The Steam PC version offers single-player play and full controller support.Its interface, audio and subtitles are in English.Released April 27, 2020.
$1.192026-05-11 · SSteamBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.
Language support
Language
Interface
Subtitles
Audio
English
Yes
Yes
Yes
Steam PC edition data · 2026-11-04
02Before you buy
Mode and language
The Steam PC version is single-player and has full controller support. Its listed interface, audio and subtitles are in English.
Series context
This is the second chapter of a three-part series, with psychological questions and horror elements.
03Frequently asked questions
What do you do in the game?
You answer personal questions intended to reveal hidden thoughts and prompt reflection on possible changes in your life.
Is it part of a series?
It is the second chapter in the three-part Test series.
What kind of game is it?
The description calls it an atmospheric psychological simulation with horror elements.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviews
Selected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
The developers of this game and all the other games made by Randumb Studios found themselves a winning formula.
Not only that they managed to give players the feel of self importance all throughout their games by asking them random questions about the way they would do things in various theoretical situations (essentially asking players how they would run the world), but the developers also managed to make a positive review generator by encouraging the players to write in the store page their "secret word", which isn't unique to every single player but is unique enough to make most players feel special.
Some players won't post their secret word but those who do, those who "want to make their voice heard" (probably because the developers promised that the "secret word" would mean something later on) would obviously not give the game thumbs down while doing so.
Since the game is so cheap and the developers seem to care about their customers most people won't refund it either.
Now all the developers need to do is to just take this very successful formula and use it in another project, while changing things up a little bit to call it a 'new game' and make more money (WHICH THEY DID).
Honestly I didn't learn anything new about myself while playing this game, but I learned the developers are incredibly smart, and they deserve their earnings and their positive reviews. Good job!Show moreShow less
0.8 hours at review81 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Summary: Decently fun gag game that sadly enough takes itself too seriously and tries to be too many things. Dev team should stick with horror in the future. If you want to try one of their games I recommend horrorscope or the first test, in that order.
This is not a proper personality test, there is no properly developed underlying theory and the other reviews make me a bit sad as to the state of the world. It recognizes that it's not a personality test but then claims it has insights into human nature. To me, that's worse. As with all quiz games you learn more about yourself through the answers you give than the outcome you get. Some of the questions are good philosophical riddles. Props for those.
Tries to be several things. As a personality test (which it is; albeit a bad one) it gears itself towards the gullible and desperately looking for meaning, yet "freethinking" and distrusting of any authority that does not have the fun and friendly associations steam games do. As a horror game it yet again mostly gears itself towards the gullible and easily scared. Personally I do not believe in the supernatural and am not afraid of home invasion, so much of the horror is lost on me. It tries to be clever through "hidden messages" which are mostly just wordplay lost on people not neurotically counting the amount of letters in each sentence or things like that - this is not intelligence, it's doing something unexpected and then going "hah didn't expect that did you". At most it requires a basic understanding of common human habits.
As for the results, I disapprove of the message about how time is short. Everyone realizes this as they're growing up, when they need to. In combination with the personalized result I got (accomplish) this game actually does accomplish real horror in the form of being depression fuel. Given that the game gears itself towards gullible young people with enough time on their hands to pay for and play this I consider that to be irresponsible. Saving grace here is that the design of the game is cringy enough for the results not to be taken very seriously. The results also happened to be straight up false in my case.
I also played horrorscope and the first test, and enjoyed those more. The outcome of horrorscope is clearly bullocks, the outcome I got from the first test game was extremely general in scope and could apply to everyone, much like the result of this game, main difference being that one was far more uplifting and not anxiety inducing. As in, the results of those games took the predictive power of the questions much less seriously. I recommend the developers remember that even researchers with years of intense study under their belt do not succeed at making tests that accurately predict behavior unless the scope of the test is extremely narrow, and that they should not expect it of themselves. If random starry eyed people could we'd have a better world by now. It seems that the developers got a bit high on the positive reviews guessing at an underlying theory and forgot they didn't actually have one. It's a e1,5 gag game, most people aren't going to take the time to write a serious review unless they're equally weird or weirder than I am, so most feedback you get is hyped and is going to give a distorted image. Building your next installment of said hyped feedback is going to narrow your focus to an increasingly niche audience.
Also. For the love of god. Do not use a high design font for ordinary text. That's not how typography works.Show moreShow less
0.5 hours at review30 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Deserving.
The font was a bit hard to read. That's it.Show moreShow less
0.7 hours at review42 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
The most precious gift I have to offer to all you complete strangers is my time. The time it takes me to write this review. Hypothesis Rising is a waste of your time. The first instalment, The Test, was rather suspenseful and exciting. Hypothesis Rising had me rolling my eyes. A majority of the questions were absurdly juvenile, to the point where I didn't give a ♥♥♥♥ about even attempting to answer honestly. Questions about bestiality and incest and murdering strangers. Allow my waste of time to be a gift to save you from wasting your time. If you're unfortunate enough to play through this game, only then will you understand why I'm wording my review this way. But please, don't let my gift to you go to waste. You might enjoy this game if you're 12. And I say that sincerely.
My secret word, for all it matters, is Talented.Show moreShow less
0.6 hours at review29 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
My secret word is: Talented
"Be of service. Whether you make yourself available to a friend or co-worker, or you make time every month to do volunteer work, there is nothing that harvests more of a feeling of empowerment than being of service to someone in need."
– Gillian Anderson
... I want to believeShow moreShow less
1.8 hours at review26 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Secret word is STRANGER
The Test (1) was annoying, The Test: Hypothesis Rising was garbage. The only thing that can make these games worth anything is what they're amounting to, but until that's finished and released these are just ♥♥♥♥♥ on their own.
Seriously, devs, if you need help writing script that isn't terrible I would help. Why on earth are you trying to throw in comedy while also trying to take yourselves too seriously as a horror game? There was a TON of overlap with the first game concerning small talk and pointless questions. No, I'm not worried that this game can spawn something in the room I'm in, can be please move passed that? And why are you explaining the idea behind The Test: Hypothesis Rising when you already make SURE that the players have played The Test (1) previously? We already know what we're getting into.
The font- jesus ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ christ at least give us an option to change that eye gougingly awful font.
You tell the player over and over again how important it is to answer honestly and then in one section of the game you provide scenarios where we need to choose our response, not just a yes/no format. Of these available answers, you've already limited our responses. One answer is a joke, one is a meme, another is just obtuse, and the last is somewhat reasonable. I wonder which you're going to get an influx of responses with? "Answer honestly.... would you burn your house down if you found a large spider inside?" How honestly do you want people to answer? Why would you include that choice? It smashes whatever semblance of immersion in this game anyone is able to feel.
I get it, it's a game, I shouldn't be as annoyed as I am, but I am because you take yourself so painfully serious throughout the game, and you do it TERRIBLY.
What is the setting supposed to be? Does it matter? It seems like you're trying to set the mood with the background and how you've dressed the only character we see - and this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is cracking jokes that don't land in a font that makes you think their voice must be hoarse and strained. The dialogue dips into casual conversation like he can't believe he actually got a paying customer and then swings wildly back to "Have you seen the hidden messages? Do you feel like you're being watched? Does it bother you that I know you more than you know yourself?" etc.
This was absolute trash, I'm not sorry. Don't combine your projects, you'll end up with worse versions of both. Who ever is doing your comedy should be on another gig, whoever is trying to take this seriously needs to double down and do it better. I'm still unsure of whether the character asking questions was directing their questions to me, the player, or the unseen character I represent in the game. If I'm supposed to imagine this happening as though I am in that room, talking to this person, then that's one thing, that's good, make that obvious and DON'T BREAK THE 4TH WALL. No matter how many times you ask, I am not worried that this game in my computer, on my lap, which I can close, uninstall, walk away from at any time, can summon anything in my room.
I hate that I hate this as much as I do, because it's not enough of a game to reasonably illicit this much of a response from anyone, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It could be better.
Also, the end really gave one piece of advice/insight this time. The ending of the first was great by comparison, the ending here was "time is precious, time is finite, spend it wisely" rehashed about 9 different times. Woo. Worth.
Do better. If the third instalment - you know, what this is all supposed to amount to - doesn't save this series then great job on getting people to spend full price for a terrible game released in 3 parts.Show moreShow less
0.7 hours at review27 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
My secret word was "Talented"
I feel like this was a bit more depth-filled than The Test since it was longer and offered a more variety of questions to answer and also offered more than just "yes" and "no" questions. However I didn't like the attempts at jump-scare they decided to put in the game this time because they just felt out of place and weren't scary, terrifying, or disturbing.
I feel like this is more of an "experience" than a game. All of the games this studio has made appear to be more of the "experience" instead of actual games. There's no reason really to replay any of their stuff unless you want a friend to play it to see what their word is, but I think the low price is worth what you get out of this. You get the pep talk and you would pay much more to hear what the game says in it's intro and at the end from an actual therapist or life-coach.Show moreShow less
0.7 hours at review23 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
The Test: Hypothesis Rising is the second release in a soon-to-be trilogy of games under the same umbrella. The first installment, simply titled The Test, was a fast and simple half-hour quiz that players got the most out of by being entirely honest, and searching within themselves for some of the more difficult answers. This follow-up title sets to raise the bar a bit, by taking in previous feedback. Though not all of the ultimate questions are answered here yet, developer Randumb Studios promises that all will be revealed soon, when the third and final release is birthed into the world.
Until then though, we have The Test: Hypothesis Rising. It's an unfortunate regression from its predecessor in nearly every way, despite being more graphically advanced and having a slightly longer campaign with more engaging questions. Rather than delivering a barrage of yes or no questions, the quiz branches off into four subsections, with only the first being yes or no inspired, and the remainder having multiple pre-rendered choices. It's commendable that the developer decided to take the questions a step further, but they ended up reusing a large portion of the questions that were featured in the first game. Additionally, a lot of the newer probes, along with a lot of the aesthetic choices, just make this follow-up feel... childish. More specifically, it just comes across like something an edgy teenager going through their Hot Topic years would play, because a ton of the newer questions are cringe-filled attempts at being "weird" or "random".
It's regrettable, but The Test: Hypothesis Rising doesn't have the same impact that its predecessor had. The questions are too edgy and cringe-laden to make anyone care about looking within themselves and asking themselves the things that are difficult to answer. Obscure scenarios that have absolutely no possibility of happening in this reality make up the latter 2/3rds of the campaign, and those over the age of 17 will just roll their eyes and move on. That said, there is some good selfcare advice given at the start and end of the game, a couple nuggets of wisdom that everyone should hear at least once in their life.
Rating: 2.0/5.0 - It's not awful, but it's not great.
The Horror Network Curator | Group Click for GoreShow moreShow less
0.6 hours at review17 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
test 1 secret word: love
test 2 secret word: discover
Two hours before writing this review, I wrote my review for the first game. I got practically the same speech in both games. It a speech I had heard a million times. Every time it rings more and more hollow, especially because half the time the speaker believes what their saying. They believe in me. Regardless of my belief that their faith is wasted, it is still nice to hear. although it usually just makes me feel worse, like I'm lying to everyone all the time simply by continuing to exist, thank you for kind words. Even if it is just a algorithmic message from some random game, it is still nice to hear (or read) something positive, detached from my own self-destructive thoughts. I'm a bit late to the party so it is unlikey anyone will read this, but I am mostly writing this for myself anyway. Less a review and more a reflection.Show moreShow less
0.5 hours at review22 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Having now done The Test and Hypothesis Ruling, I don't think I'm going to continue. This is akin to calling a psychic- but instead of being charged for a whole reading or by the minute on the phone, it's a few dollars for the game. You answer tons of questions, you get creepy Blair Witch stuff popping up as if it's somehow relevant, and you get the hook of 'you wonder what we're doing with all of this information'. It's gonna be like Lost. Whatever they give you won't have any meaning because it relies on vagueries. Sounds great and is self-affirming in some way while picking out a common shortcoming most folks have.
I can't see giving more money after this. I went to the well twice, and I can't say I feel enlightened, entertained, or amused. It feels like I'm being dangled forward with a vague promise it'll mean something- and, it's time to step away from the empty promise.Show moreShow less
0.6 hours at review17 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.
