Side Effects is a dark turn-based medical horror game where two test subjects play deadly roulette with experimental pills. Bluff, adapt, and outlast your opponent—because every dose could kill you.

Welcome to the Experiment

Two test subjects.
One twisted medical trial.
Only one leaves alive.

That’s the grim setup behind Side Effects, a tense turn-based horror experience that turns the concept of medical testing into a fight for survival. You’re part of a secret clinical experiment where each round could be your last—and your opponent is just as desperate to live as you are.

In this grim laboratory of needles, pills, and panic, survival isn’t about strength or speed. It’s about risk, timing, and luck.

Would you dare to take the next pill?

Gameplay Overview: Medical Roulette Meets Psychological Warfare

Side Effects is a turn-based medical roulette game that pits two patients against each other in a deadly trial.
Each round, both players are presented with a tray of mysterious pills—some helpful, some harmful, and others instantly lethal. You’ll never know what’s safe until you swallow it.

Your health and resistance are everything.
Each pill you take affects your body’s resistance level, and once it hits zero, you’re done. Dead. Game over.

Winning means outlasting your opponent—literally surviving longer than the poor soul across the table. But it’s not just about blind luck; there’s strategy, bluffing, and a creeping sense of dread as the side effects pile up.

The Art of Survival

Between rounds, you’ll get to choose from a bizarre array of experimental items and treatments—each capable of tipping the balance.
Some may help you recover; others might sabotage your opponent’s chances. Expect grotesque tools like mouth clamps, prototype vaccines, and untested devices that “enhance endurance.”

But there’s always a cost. Nothing in Side Effects is truly safe.

Your opponent will adapt to your moves, bluff their condition, and exploit your desperation. Every choice becomes a psychological standoff—one that feels less like a strategy game and more like a human experiment gone wrong.

Atmosphere: Cold, Clinical, and Completely Terrifying

Visually, Side Effects is as unsettling as its concept. The sterile lighting, surgical sounds, and quiet hum of hospital machinery create an atmosphere of pure dread.
Each match feels like sitting inside a nightmare lab—where the line between science and cruelty no longer exists.

Every pill you swallow has a sound, a vibration, a visual sting that makes you flinch. It’s not just about survival—it’s about enduring the psychological toll of being reduced to a lab rat.

Themes: The Horror of Human Experimentation

Beneath the dark humor and grotesque gameplay lies a disturbing reflection of medical ethics gone too far.
Side Effects forces players to question how far humanity is willing to go in the name of progress. It’s part survival game, part social commentary on trust, risk, and control.

The idea that you might be complicit in your own destruction is what makes this game’s tension so addictive—and so haunting.

Would You Volunteer?

At its core, Side Effects isn’t about winning. It’s about surviving just one more round.
Can you manage your resistance? Can you read your opponent’s bluffs? Can you handle the mounting side effects before your mind or body gives out?

One test subject will walk out alive.
The other will become another statistic in the lab report.

So, let’s ask again—
Would you like to participate?

Final Thoughts

Side Effects is a disturbing, clever, and refreshingly original horror experience. It blends the tension of a turn-based strategy game with the grim unpredictability of body horror.

For fans of twisted indie horror games that make you squirm as much as they make you think, this one’s worth keeping on your radar. Just don’t expect to walk away unscarred.