Escaping an Unusual Clinic
S.E.M.I. is a third-person action platformer where you play as a patient trying to break out of a special clinic. You fight the staff and other patients using close combat, physics, and abilities you gain from taking experimental pills. The levels are built from rooms that are randomly generated, so each run presents a different layout with changing gravity, traps, moving walls, and other surprises. Along the way you will hit obstacles, puzzles, and deadly traps, including rooms where one wrong move can knock out the whole squad. After a successful escape, you receive a medical report that comments on how the run went, and you can unlock new costumes and decorations for your character.
Playing Together Online
The game supports online co-op for you and up to three friends, four players in total. Everyone plays as a patient, and the group has to work together to get out. Teamwork matters because the rooms are full of hazards that can catch players in traps or send them flying. Voice chat is the tool for coordinating: call out what you see, arrange who does what, and step in to help a friend out of a trap or through a tough room. The game also lets you interfere with each other, so a friend can be as much of a hazard as the enemies. Combat against guards and other patients is shared work, and the physics-based fights mean positioning and timing count.
Side Effects and Unpredictable Abilities
The pills are the core mechanic. Each one gives you an ability with a side effect that changes how you play. Bipolar force turns you into an invulnerable monster, then drops you into a helpless rag. Laser astigmatism gives you two sights but one laser, so you have to judge where it will actually fire. Stendhal syndrome triggers when you look at a painting, sending you into a hysterical state where you destroy everything around you. Alice's syndrome makes you tiny or gigantic, and you have to adjust quickly to the new size. Abilities can also run out of control when you and your friends go crazy, sending everyone running, jumping, and fighting without order. Taking pills is how you get your abilities back under control.
Before You Start
Expect chaos. The rooms are built to trip you up, and the abilities are deliberately unreliable, so a plan can fall apart the moment a pill kicks in. Communication is the difference between a clean escape and a squad wipe, so a voice channel with your group is worth setting up before the first run. The game works single-player as well, but the co-op mode is where the interference and sabotage between friends comes through. Randomized rooms mean no two escapes play out the same, and the unlocks give you something to work toward across runs.