Warped perspective puzzler Superliminal somehow has multiplayer now

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Superliminal is a first-person "forced-perspective puzzle game" about escaping bizarre dream worlds by manipulating objects and perspective—kind of like how you can make a coin look larger than the moon by holding it close to your eye. We found it challenging and conceptually clever when we looked at it last year, although possessing neither the brain-teasing depth of Portal nor the surrealism of The Stanley Parable: "The price of changing directions and expectations quickly means it never really builds on any one particular puzzle system."

It's strictly a singleplayer experience, and so the free update released today to mark the one-year anniversary of Superliminal's release is probably not what you'd expect. Called Group Therapy, it adds a competitive multiplayer mode that pits up to 12 players against one another through a series of randomly generated rooms and, apparently, ducks. Developer Pillow Castle calls it a "Battle Royale" mode, but I'm pretty sure that's just a bit of fun irony: The goal here is simply to be the first one to the exit.

The studio warned that this new mode is "experimental," which means you may run into occasional oddities (beyond Superliminal's inherent oddity) while you play. Our man Chris managed to break the game in singleplayer mode once or twice "by experimenting a little too freely," and I suspect that turning a dozen people loose in a shared arena of weird angles and bent perspectives might lead to even more hiccups. But it might be fun, too! And hey, it's free.

Superliminal itself is not free, but it is on sale for half-price—$10—on Steam until November 12.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.