Life’s too short to be second-guessing yourself. Go ahead, indulge in the cake, another box set, and of course, that selection of pills in front of you. Whoa there, Nelly! Let’s not condone pill-popping, fools – this silly talk is about Free Lives’ Side Effects.
A psychological game of Russian roulette with pharmaceuticals, this is a cheap and cheerful – ahem – game of chance, risk, and stupidity. Taking place in a medical centre (one assumes), you head into a test environment to go up against another guinea pig and see who’s the last one standing, and consequently, off their tits on drugs.
The only skill required in Side Effects is foresight, or strategy, if you will. At the beginning of each round, you can select from some tools to aid in your survival. This might be to sabotage your opponent by pulling a tooth out, swapping your stuff for theirs, or having the option to inject yourself with a serum to counter the effects of the pill you’re about to swallow.
You have two gauges to keep an eye on: your health and resistance. Health serves as your game-type life; run out of them and it’s game over. While resistance is essentially your armour, and also represented by a shield icon, when that disappears, you’ll also die, so the odds aren’t great.
What happens in Side Effects is this: a concoction of pills is presented, with one of them being harmful to your health; the others will chip away at your resistance. Each round is effectively over when one of you loses a heart, and will continue until one of you goes out in a body bag. Naturally, the odds change per round, and new pills are introduced with more deadly results or more damage to your resistance.
It’s mostly chance, but if you plan it right, you can play the bluff game and use the tools to your advantage. For example, you can scan a pill and it will tell you if it’s harmful enough. Most people would take it if it passes, but if you’re playing with other human players (up to four), not consuming it and putting it back in the pile might actually turn things around. Alternatively, you can use a hammer to destroy a pill. Yes, there’s a strategy there, too, but it’s a big risk.
Side Effects is a huge game of risk, and because of that, the odds are even for all. Is this a casual game? Well, the context would say otherwise, but like a good game of poker, you can get those with an enviable face that can’t be read by those reckless types who you just can’t weigh up whether they’re good or an absolute idiot. Because of this, along with the game’s pick-up-and-play element, Side Effects has a lot of replayability. While it’s perfectly good fun as a one-player and not without tension, playing with your friends is the way to go.
