Techmash

Tag: #Survivor

  • The Trial is Open: Stepping into the Twisted World of Side Effects

    The Trial is Open: Stepping into the Twisted World of Side Effects

    Free Lives, the South African studio known for the explosive patriotism of Broforce, the ludicrous VR combat of GORN, and the beautiful restoration of Terra Nil, has a knack for surprising players. Their latest venture, Side Effects (published by Free Lives, developed by hirohun, Mr.Pootsley, Jaybooty, and Lofar42), is a sharp turn into psychological strategy and nerve-wracking chance, delivering an experience that is equal parts dark, compelling, and utterly ruthless.

    This is not a game about healing. This is a game about outlasting.

    A Game of Medical Roulette

    Side Effects is a tense, turn-based strategy game built around the high-stakes concept of “pill roulette,” drawing clear inspiration from the success of games like Buckshot Roulette. The premise is simple but chilling: you are a test subject in a grim medical trial, and only one patient will walk away.

    The core gameplay loop is a brutal dance of deduction and luck:

    1. The Dose: Each round, you and your opponent(s) face a selection of pills. These come in different colors, but their effects are masked. You must choose a pill to consume, knowing one of them might mean instant death.
    2. Resistance is Key: You start with a limited Resistance (your health bar). Pills can be helpful (restoring resistance), harmful (lowering it), or, most terrifyingly, instantly fatal. Zero resistance means you lose the trial.
    3. The Bluff: Since the pills are shuffled and their effects unknown to the opponent, the game becomes a psychological battle. Does your opponent’s confident choice mean they know it’s a safe pill, or are they bluffing to push you into taking a fatal dose?

    Experimental Items: Shifting the Odds

    What prevents Side Effects from being a purely random coin flip is the introduction of Experimental Items. Between rounds, players can strategically select items that offer temporary advantages or allow for powerful manipulation of the pill pool.

    These items are where the real strategy—and betrayal—comes into play:

    • Vaccines to protect yourself from a harmful effect.
    • Mouth Clamps to restrict an opponent’s pill choice.
    • Hammers to destroy a pill, letting you eliminate a known threat or, more often, a known safe pill to raise the stakes for your opponent.
    • Syringes to reverse or reveal effects.

    Mastering these tools is essential. A well-timed use of an item can completely flip the odds and turn a doomed round into a decisive victory, putting it on par with the strategic depth of card games.

    Dark Aesthetics and Psychological Horror

    True to Free Lives’ history of edgy and provocative titles, Side Effects leans heavily into a dark, surreal aesthetic. The environment is a cold, sterile, and unsettling hospital room, and the first-person perspective keeps the tension squarely on your choices and the reaction of the patient across the table.

    The psychological horror doesn’t just come from the risk of death, but from the realization that to survive, you must actively plot to make your opponent take the deadly pill. It’s a clean, clinical setting for a dirty, cutthroat game.

    Final Verdict: A Tense Must-Play

    Side Effects is a fantastic addition to the emerging “roulette-style” genre. It takes the terrifying luck of the draw and wraps it in a strategic layer of item management, bluffing, and deduction.

    If you enjoy fast-paced strategy games, the tension of a high-risk gamble, and a dark sense of humor, this is a prescription you should definitely fill. It’s a testament to the developers’ ability to take a simple mechanic and build a deeply compelling, anxiety-inducing experience.

    Platform: PC (Steam) Genre: Indie, Strategy, Psychological Horror Mode: Single Player and Online Multiplayer (up to 4 players)

    Side Effects – https://www.freelives.net

    #SideEffects #FreeLives #pcgames #steam #horror #roulette #medicalroulette #survivor #games #gaming #gamers #videogames

  • Deceive, Bluff, and Explode: Why You Need to Play Cut That Wire

    Deceive, Bluff, and Explode: Why You Need to Play Cut That Wire

    Gather your most trustworthy—and most suspicious—friends, because the latest social deduction game, Cut That Wire, is here to test your friendships with a literal ticking time bomb. This isn’t your average party game; it’s a high-stakes, first-person multiplayer experience where one wrong snip means instant, comedic, and explosive doom.

    If you love the tense backstabbing of games like Among Us or Werewolf but wish they had more bomb-defusal pressure, this is the game for you.

    Strapped to a Chair, Four Wires, One Imposter

    The premise is as dark as it is hilarious: you and three other players are strapped to chairs, each with a ticking time bomb strapped to your chest by a psychopath. There are four wires attached to your bomb, but only one is the dead wire that leads to instant detonation.

    Among the four of you, one player is secretly the Imposter, whose goal is not to cut the bomb, but to trick everyone else into cutting the wrong wire or simply letting the clock run out.

    The Gameplay Loop: Bluffing and Bombs

    The core of Cut That Wire revolves around two critical phases: the Big Bluff Mini-Games and the Deadly Vote & Cut.

    1. The Big Bluff Games

    Each round kicks off with a mini-game designed to gather “clues” and provide a perfect opportunity for the Imposter to sow chaos. These games test quick thinking and deception:

    • Big Bluff Drawing: Players sketch from a prompt, but the Imposter has a completely different prompt and must bluff their way through their mismatched art.
    • Big Bluff Picture: Everyone views an image and answers questions about it, but the Imposter sees a different picture, forcing them to lie and manipulate details to stay convincing.

    These games are your chance to spot the Imposter’s suspicious behaviour—or, if you are the Imposter, to expertly feed the group false information.

    2. The Deadly Vote & Cut

    After the mini-game, the real tension begins. The group must vote on who they believe is the Imposter.

    • The chosen player then faces a crucial choice: they must cut a wire.
    • They flip a coin to determine if they are cutting a wire on their own bomb or forcing someone else to cut one of theirs.

    There is one crucial role: the Engineer. This victim can see one safe wire on a bomb. They must try to steer the group towards the correct wire, but convincing a room full of people facing their own imminent explosion is easier said than done! The Imposter, of course, knows which wires are lethal and will manipulate the group into making a fatal mistake.

    With the master timer counting down the entire time, every decision is a race against the clock.

    Why You Should Cut That Wire

    Cut That Wire is a perfect fit for anyone looking to crank up the stakes in their social deduction sessions. It’s a riot of dark humour, cartoonish violence, and heart-pounding tension that makes every round feel like a frantic escape room.

    If you’re ready to test how much you truly trust your friends when their life is in your hands—and vice-versa—then it’s time to take a seat, grab the cutters, and try to survive.

    Cut That Wire: 4 Hostages in a Room and Boom! is out now and ready to detonate your next game night.

    Cut That Wire https://wakastudio.co/

    #CutThatWire #WakaStudio #games #gaming #gamers #puzzle #escaperoom #ctw #steam #bluff #bomb #survivor #escape #cats #gametrailer

  • Asgard’s Fall enters Early Access on Steam

    Asgard’s Fall enters Early Access on Steam

    Vikings and Norse mythology are what you can expect from the Asgard’s Fall game. Players will embark on a quest where they will encounter all kinds of dangers, from creatures to enemies and there is no time to stop, as this is a fast-moving game where speed is most important. The Asgard’s Fall game is available now on Early Access.

    To find out more about the Asgard’s Fall game, go to the official game website here https://www.soulpotion.games/ or go to the games page on Steam here https://shorturl.at/b8TG4

    #AsgardsFall #vikings #norse #games #gaming #newgames #steam #earlyaccess #AssembleEntertainment #Soulpotion #indiegame #bulletheaven #Survivor #Roguelite #mythology

  • KONG Survivor Instinct Tiamat is near

    KONG Survivor Instinct Tiamat is near

    Following the events of Godzilla vs. Kong things are moving on fast and now we are entering the age of Kong: Survivor Instinct where a new enemy has emerged and has begun to attack the city where a father is searching for his daughter as the city collapses around them, the players will use the titan abilities to their own advantage and yet even with this colossal power things are not as easy as they might seem. The Kong: Survivor Instinct game will be launching on PC, PlayStation and Xbox on the 22nd of October.

    To find out more about the Kong: Survivor Instinct game head on over to the official game website here https://www.7lvls.com/kong-survivor-instinct/ or go to the game page on Steam here https://store.steampowered.com/app/2769080/Kong_Survivor_Instinct/

    #KONG #Survivor #Instinct #Tiamat #KONGSurvivorInstinct #7LEVELS #PC #Steam #PlayStation #Xbox #Monsterverse #Titans #LegendaryEntertainment

  • Survivor On Castaway Island

    Survivor On Castaway Island

    For some being stranded on a tropical island sounds like a piece of heaven, while for others it could be a nightmare. However, this is not an ordinary island as there are other survivors, but working together is not the priority as it is a competition to become the last survivor on the island, play the game and survive the island.

    This is a bit like those TV series that put a group of people together and see what happens, normally you find that they split off in groups or just go it alone, but at the end of the day, it is better to keep your head down and get on with the job of surviving on the island, otherwise you might end up being voted off the island forever.

    Find out more about the Survivor Castaway Island game here; https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/survivor-castaway-island-16f672#

    #SurvivorCastawayIsland #Survivor #CastawayIsland #Castaway #SoleSurvivor #EpicGames #Island #TribalCouncil #Survival

  • Risk of Rain Returns Drifter Survivor

    The Risk of Rain Returns is a great retro-looking game, but that is where the similarities end, this is a game that offers all of the fun of a classic game coupled with the latest technology to ensure that there are no bugs, slip-ups or lagging, somehow does that take all of the fun out it?

    The game continues on from the first edition and right from the start you are under pressure as each run that you make is going to be different, so there is no point in trying to remember where the pitfuls are because each game will hit you with a different scenario, sounds like a challenge doesn’t it?

    Find out more about the Risk of Rain Returns Drifter Survivor here; https://store.steampowered.com/app/1337520/Risk_of_Rain_Returns/

    #RiskofRainReturnsDrifterSurvivor #RiskofRainReturns #DrifterSurvivor #RiskofRain #Drifter #Survivor #Steam #NintendoSwitch

  • Star Wars Jedi The Survivor

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  • Risk of Rain 2: Survivors of the Void

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  • Risk of Rain! Survivors of the Void! Railgunner Survivor!

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