SIDE EFFECTS

The rules are cruelly simple. A box of pills rattles down from the ceiling, and you and the other patients take turns eating whatever lands in front of you. A pink one might look like a vitamin and strip your resistance. A green one looks like poison, but maybe that is the bluff. Every pill chips at your resistance, and when resistance hits zero you lose a life. Lose all your lives and they unplug your machine. Six pill types, no labels, no mercy: it is Russian roulette with a pharmacy instead of a gun, and the tension comes from not knowing which dose is the last one.

Between rounds you pick from experimental treatments, and this is where the game gets clever. Over 15 items exist, from vaccines to mouth clamps that stop an opponent from spitting out a lethal dose. A hammer crushes suspicious pills. Pliers pull a tooth. There is a test tube you put your own eye into and then feed to someone else, which is exactly as pleasant as it sounds. Every item is a real, decisive advantage, so choosing two each round becomes a small strategy puzzle: wear down their resistance, force the poison on them, or protect yourself for one more dose.