Side Effects casts you as a night-shift clinician supervising a hush-hush medication trial. Side Effects makes paperwork lethal; each chart describes jittery volunteers whose side effects spiral without steady hands.
The pills arrive unlabeled, the power grid flickers, and corporate observers nudge you toward aggressive dosages. From the opening checklist, Side Effects forces you to decide who sleeps peacefully and who risks another experimental capsule.
Rather than bombard you with doctors’ jargon, Side Effects blends tactile minigames with dialogue trees. Players juggle pill dispensers, IV drips, and monitor calibrations while interrogating volunteers about hallucinations. One mistimed response and Side Effects records a casualty—complete with a corporate report nudging you to “optimize throughput.”
Systems That Define Side Effects
- Vitals Dashboard – Side Effects tracks heart rate, blood pressure, and mood in real time, pulsing red whenever a volunteer nears collapse.
- Ethics Meters – Lying to superiors keeps Side Effects funding stable; telling the truth protects patients but dries up resources.
- Night Events – Randomized emergencies (power outages, panic attacks, supply shortages) ensure Side Effects never repeats word-for-word.
- Investigation Board – Pin clues about drug batches and hidden memos to reveal who profits from the trial’s darker motives.
Tips to Survive Side Effects Night Four
- Color-Code Capsules – Organize pills by suspected effect. Side Effects tips its hand when a hue repeats across incidents.
- Prioritize Sleep Schedules – Exhausted volunteers spiral faster. In Side Effects, managing rest is as vital as medication.
- Log Every Anomaly – Jot down hallucination descriptions; Side Effects later references them in ethics hearings.
- Keep Backup Generators Primed – When alarms fail, Side Effects forces you to navigate by emergency lighting.
- Chain Small Lies – Sometimes you must mislead your supervisor to buy time. Side Effects rewards subtlety over outright rebellion.
Why Side Effects Haunts Players
Side Effects excels at mixing spreadsheets with guilt. Between mechanical puzzles you bond with the volunteers: a jazz musician desperate to keep her hands steady, a programmer chasing a miracle cure, and a nervous paramedic who recognizes one of the “observers.”
Every success buys you another day; every failure reclassifies a patient as “noncompliant.” By the finale, Side Effects has you compiling whistleblower evidence and deciding whether to leak the study or cash out quietly.
Side Effects FAQs
Is Side Effects replayable?
Absolutely. Side Effects shuffles night events and exposes new memos during each attempt, encouraging multiple endings.
How long does one Side Effects campaign last?
A full run spans five in-game nights, taking about 90 minutes. Shorter survival runs are possible if Side Effects loses too many volunteers.
Does Side Effects include accessibility options?
Side Effects supports adjustable text speed, color-blind pill icons, and optional automation for timing-based minigames.