The Nerdy Type

In recent months, a lot of multiplayer indie games have been released and caused utter chaos within the community. Games like R.E.P.O., PEAK, and Sledding Game have quickly gained a huge amount of popularity for being fun, wacky, and letting people socialize with friends through them. Now, another game is entering the fray that you should keep an eye on: S.E.M.I. – Side Effects May Include. 

S.E.M.I. is an undeniably bizarre and hilariously funny multiplayer co-op game by Two Horn Unicorn that throws you into an asylum as a completely unhinged patient. You and up to three friends can cause absolute chaos inside the weirdly adorable facility, and there’s a demo available to play right now.

Pill-popping mayhem

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not in the habit of picking up random pills I find laying around and immediately throwing them down my throat, but that’s precisely the opportunity that presents itself to you in S.E.M.I. There are a few different pills littered around the place, each of which has a different unexpected side effect, with some being more useful than others. 

Some of the pills make you shrink, while others give you a strange smoking fart power that lets you jump further. Another pill makes you periodically discharge an electric shock that affects not only the guards you’re trying to beat into submission to escape, but also your friends. Players caught in the shock wave then pee their pants unashamedly, leaving a puddle wherever they stood. 

Pill effects overlap, too. You could be a tiny, discharging pocket rocket, or a giant fart-boosted super jumper. It’s hard to keep track of what pill does what, but that’s half the fun: It adds to the feeling of insanity when you throw a bunch of pills back with no knowledge of what effect it’s going to have on your body. 

Look who’s talking

In S.E.M.I., each player has a cute (in a creepy way) little character to control, each of which has different accessories, such as a duck on their head or a horse hat, and of course, each player is wearing a straitjacket. The arms are undone, though, which is presumably how we’ve managed to launch this uncoordinated escape attempt and is really bad news for the guards. 

S.E.M.I. is designed to be a social game, so there is proximity chat within the game. Whenever you talk, your tooth-filled, smiling mouth moves along with whatever you’re saying. I know that’s nothing new, but every time I see that mechanic in a multiplayer game, it just makes me so happy, and I spend a good few minutes making random noises just to test the capability. 

In S.E.M.I., it’s pretty good. Lots of movement and tongue action, which is weirdly hilarious to me.

Pick your weapon

As you explore the asylum in S.E.M.I., you’ll find random objects littering the floors in various rooms. These range from a cucumber and a candy cane in the beginning room, to a ladle or a fish in other rooms. Each of these items can be picked up and weaponized against the staff trying to put you back in your cell, or against your friends. 

Now, I’m not condoning this type of friendly fire, but I have to admit that beating up your friends is quite fun to do in S.E.M.I.. If you hit them enough and knock enough screws loose (the equivalent of health), they turn into a human-shaped basketball and bounce around the room until they end up embedded headfirst in the floor until you pull them out again by their feet. The same doesn’t happen to the guards. 

S.E.M.I. is a hilarious multiplayer experience that I highly recommend if you enjoy games that are chaotically disorganized and weirdly funny. The full game is set to be released at some point in November 2025, and you can download the demo to try it out right now through Steam.