Mimesis pits you and your friends… and your friends friends… and the imitations of your friends and the hollow empty voices of your friends… against each other in an incremental survival and retrieval scenario where you must venture into various locations, recover items and sell them for profit while keeping your sanity and avoiding deadly enemies, traps and figuring out who’s who at the same time.
I think the first thing to mention is that the technology that is used to mimic you and your friends is pretty good, after the first few versions of yourself start cropping up you’ll quickly begin to find ways to identify each other, whether it be through interpretive dance or a password but boy oh boy does this catch you out down the line.
The enemies of Mimesis study you as much as you study them, if you start using emotes to identify each other, they will start doing it too, if you use certain catchphrases, you will be copied, it is a genuinely terrifying experience while remaining thrilling and funny – all balanced around raising enough money to reach the next stop on your train journey.
The copies are not the only enemies in Mimesis, with a whole host of animalistic creatures such as a rhino doing the Dr. Livesey walk with a boombox or a gazelle ballerina who hits you with a ferocious spin attack, there is not a dull moment in Mimesis and every run is vastly different. There are also a number of environmental hazards, such as a door that swallows you and spits you out somewhere random, or a gambling machine that has a tendency to blow up if you don’t get the right results. It’s pure chaos and I love it.
One of the more memorable moments for me was when I left the main building with some of my loot, my companions had all died (which I didn’t know) and I found someone wandering outside by the entrance. I said hello, they responded, I was relieved to hear a friendly voice. Moments later as I turned around they pulled an explosive out and followed behind me, someone possessed the copy to try and warn me but it was too late, the explosion had claimed me and our run was over. Honestly nothing but laughs all round.
Speaking of possession, it’s actually a really interesting mechanic. If you are dead then you can choose to possess a copy as you spectate your friends, it is only for a moment but it allows you to speak through the copy. Warn your friends, betray them or pretend to be you; anything is on the table as you roll the dice and see what happens. Just be sure to remember that what you say will very likely be repeated over and over again so you will be hearing yourself and others a lot, even on payphones dotted around the outside of the areas.
Mimesis also allows you to buy items in the various shops available at the stops on your journey, a small annoying barking dog, a bat to whack enemies with or even a gun. You can also upgrade these items at the stops as well for a lot of money creating even stronger combinations and creations but be aware that sometimes your copies may have these items as well so if you have an electric handheld shock device, what goes around really comes around.
The maps of Mimesis are all very varied, from haunted houses and worn down factories to offices and metro stations, the world of Mimesis remains interesting no matter which location you are in. There are also some unique creatures and enemies that seem to only spawn on certain maps such as the dual pistol wielding goat thing that blasted my entire group in the haunted house leaving some surprises for when you visit these locations.
If, like pretty much all of our runs, you happen to fail and don’t quite reach your quota there is one final test between yourselves and some copies, a fight to the death to see who gets to keep a cool hat into the next run. You’ll reach the end of the line and will be flung from your train and must fight with crowbars until one person is left standing whilst being cheered on by the crowd around you of copies. I decided to blend into the crowd and start emoting to catch the last person out, I felt the Arnie in Predator with the mud smeared across his face blending in.
Overall Mimesis is a lot of fun, chaos at every corner, traps and danger around all the rest and with the mix of weather events, enemies, copies and whatever this experience can throw at you, you’ll be sure to have a great time trying to survive and sell your loot at the safe spots.
Mimesis is available on PC.
