SIDE EFFECTS
Fair · Strategy · 2025
Steam Deck VerifiedThe verdict
NO RUSH.
Fair at $4.99. Buy it if you want it.
- Cost per hour▼
- $4.99/hr
- Reviews▼
- 84% of 1,057
- Genre rank
- Top 16% Strategy
Holding it back: Cost per hour, Refunds
Watch this gameOne alert at a price you pick.
Time and effort
- Main story
- 1h
Price and sales
- Sales
- 8 on record
- Typical cut
- 30% off
- Steam low
- $2.99 August 2026
- Sale every
- 45d last October 2026
Players and genre
- Online
- 9 now
- Cheaper than
- 59% of its genre
- Better reviewed
- 86% of its genre
Price and player charts
The value story
The value story
8 discounts in the 12 months on record, a median of 30 percent off across all of them, roughly 6 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended 12 days ago.
Its score puts it in the top 16 percent of the games it competes with. It is better reviewed than 86 percent of its genre. On the same math IXION ($34.99, scores 51) and Unity of Command II ($29.99, scores 51) are the better buys, and they are the games it most resembles.
More about SIDE EFFECTS
This site sampled 445 of its Steam-purchase reviews; 31 were written by buyers who refunded it, sampled from reviews written November 2025 to September 2026. That is more refunded reviewers than 9 in 10 paid games this site has sampled to the same depth, and among the 2,604 games in its genre sampled this deeply, 49 have a larger share. The typical game sits near 5 in 1,000, so the score docks it. 2 of the 31 refunded reviewers were past Valve's two-hour window when they wrote the review. Inside the two-hour refund window, 77 percent of the 390 reviews written there were positive, against 84 percent overall, and those are 45 percent of everything written about it.
At 1 hour it is a handheld-sized game, and Valve rates it Deck Verified.
Buy now or wait
Buy now or wait
Last discount ended 12 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
Grades: S best, D weakest
S is the best grade and D the weakest, judged as a buyer. ▲ raises the score, ▼ lowers it, ? is an input we do not have, • is a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
About the game
A twisted trial of pill roulette for up to 4 players (solo or online). Pick your poison. Use experimental items to shift the odds. And remember: only one of you can survive.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 2 GB of memory, Relatively modern dedicted graphics card (Vulkan support required), 502 MB of storage. Windows only.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic), achievement curve (Steam global achievements).
Cite this score
SIDE EFFECTS scores 50/100 on the BANG Score (fair value) as of Nov 8, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/3799100/side-effectsReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Nov 1, price as of Nov 7. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.