MIMESIS is a new survival horror co-op game where mimics of yourself and your squad are your worst enemies. Read our review of its early-access build to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Everything We Know About MIMESIS
MIMESIS Story Plot
Like most games of its genre, MIMESIS doesn’t have a steadily moving plot that drives the game, and instead presents a straightforward premise. The world has succumbed to the cursed rain, a mysterious phenomenon that is able to bring forth hostile entities called Mimesis. These enemies have the uncanny ability to fully imitate a real person, making it difficult to distinguish between who’s real and who’s not.
Players are among the Survivors, who escape away to a tram, hoping to reach some sort of safe place. However, the journey is long and hard…will you be able to stay safe or will you be fooled by these beings?
MIMESIS Gameplay
In a squad of up to four players, players explore several different maps and scavenge for items scattered throughout, which are then brought back to the tram to sell in service stations for money. A full run from the starting service station or base to the next takes three in-game days. At least one survivor must survive up until arriving at the service station for the run to be successful.
The real danger lies when hunting for resources—Mimesis will appear randomly throughout the playthrough, imitating players from their behavior, movement, down to the exact voice and expressions, and will try to blend in with the crew, swiping in for the kill at the most unexpected times.
As the game’s gameplay and concept revolves around the enemy Mimesis imitating players, a microphone is required to play, and it’s recommended to use a headset or earphones for better immersion.
MIMESIS Release Date
Released on October 27, 2025, MIMESIS is now available to be purchased in Early Access on Steam for $9.99. The game is projected to be in Early Access for about 10 months, going through several updates and tweaks as recommended by player feedback.
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 Steam |
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| $9.99 |
MIMESIS Review [Early Access]
The Next Friendship Ending Game
Quirky and fun co-op games like Lethal Company, Content Warning, R.E.P.O, and PEAK have taken the world by storm. These co-op games with simple premises and simple gameplay are colloquially coined as "friendslop" games. Sounds derogatory, I know, but personally, I love these types of games…and about more than half of the entire population of gamers (don’t quote me on that though.)
Another one comes clamoring into the fray—introducing MIMESIS, a co-op survival horror game where players’ worst enemies…are themselves. Well, clones of themselves, anyway.
Monkey See, Monkey Do
MIMESIS’ gameplay revolves around exploring, scavenging for items in creepy procedurally generated maps, and trying not to die to enemies, traps, or the Mimesis, the main enemies of the game. These strange beings are able to perfectly replicate any player—voice, behavior, and memories. You might be wondering, memories? How the hell?
Over the duration of one lobby (take note, lobby, not playthrough), the Mimesis will remember everything you said and take bits and pieces of those memories to use in later runs as well. It’s quite effective, and the longer you play, the more these mimics will feel and talk so much more like your friends. Creepy (in a good way!)
Screaming—Just A Lot Of Screaming
The overall concept of the game is interesting, and boy, does it make for insane fun on both sides—equal parts hilarious (with the right people) and terrifying. From the outside, it seems like a pretty easy game. It shouldn’t be too hard to differentiate humans from computer-controlled clones, right? Yet…it’s harder than it seems.
The game does a pretty good job most of the time in creating believable mimics. They don’t immediately lunge for you when they see you like a normal enemy would—it’s like they actually take some time to blend right in, staring into your soul with those glowing yellow eyes and sounding exactly like your friend. It seems to me that it purposefully picks up sentences like expressions and exclamations so that it doesn’t seem as off. I was easily fooled by a mimic who picked up my sister’s "What the hell!?", making me think that she found something of note—only to be brutally strangled to death while I was trying to think if she was real or not. Smooth move there, Mimesis sir. Er, ma’am.
Adding to that, it’s not only the Mimesis you’ll be facing, but there are also a bunch of other obstacles on the map, such as enemies that can eliminate you in a few hits (including a cute squirrel that latches onto and turns out to be a poisonous creature), and traps like proximity bombs and toxic gas that can quickly raise your toxicity levels.
Although, one of my favorite traps is actually pretty harmless—some rooms will unleash a dark purple smoke, a gas that changes the affected players’ voices. You can either be insanely high-pitched like you’ve inhaled helium gas, or ridiculously low that you can make the floor rumble with just your voice. It fades away after a while, but oh boy, those moments are hilarious as hell. It kind of makes you forget for a moment that you’re in a dangerous place and that enemies are lurking in every shadowy corner.
First Hand Experience
There is no tutorial to speak of—usually, that’s fine, because that’s how every friendslop game starts off anyway. You’re thrown into the middle of everything without as much as a background as to what’s happening in the world or what you’re supposed to do. However, MIMESIS isn’t as quickly understood as other games like Lethal Company and R.E.P.O—and that’s one of its challenges, at least in the beginning.
There’s a bit of a confusing period to go through first, where you and your party members will inevitably fumble all over the place, trying to make sense of what to do. There aren’t notes or a lot of diagrams in the game to help you at least get a semblance of what to do. It can be frustrating, but it can also be a pretty good challenge.
The Looter’s Life is Hard
Aside from that, right now, the game’s economy feels pretty skewed, with there barely being any items to acquire. One of your objectives is to pilfer items to sell. Each player has a total of four slots (or three, if they’re holding a weapon or a tool like a compass) to fill up with goodies, which are then taken back and dropped into the tram for safekeeping. If you’re used to games like R.E.P.O that are pretty generous with its loot, MIMESIS…well, is on the extreme opposite end of that spectrum. Most rooms on the map will not have a shiny item for you to take, and you’d often need to delve deep into its labyrinth-like paths to find something even worth taking back.
Given that you’re given three days to scrounge up things to sell, I see why they had to limit it a little bit so you’re not rolling in dough so easily, adding a bit of a challenge. However, most of the items are priced at measly one digit values. Like an entire guitar…is only $6. I wish that was true for real life, but in an apocalyptic wasteland where you’d need some money to live…it’s not looking too well. Looting feels unrewarding and tedious if you’re just making literal scraps.
Aside from making sure you’re well-equipped to take on the Mimesis and the other monsters lurking about, you need at least $190 to keep your tram repaired and maintained. Fail to get $190 by the end of three days to fix the tram, and your run ends right there. Maybe it’s a skill issue too by my squad and I, but reaching that amount of money without dying and losing everything is proving to be quite difficult.
A Lot of Frame Rate Issues
Frame rate drops everywhere, for every player. Even with a decent rig and decently fast internet speeds, the game was randomly dropping to what felt like 10FPS before going back up again. My friends reported the same issues, suddenly having their game slow down or what not—and they were playing on decent streamer gaming rigs that run more resource-intensive games without issue. It did make for some fun moments though, especially because the affected players would start screaming that they can’t see anyone or that they weren’t sure if the person in front of them was a mimic or not.
Funny as it was, it means the game isn’t as optimized as it should be. The game’s in Early Access, so I’m hoping this would be better ironed out as more updates come.
Not A Lot of Maps Right Now
Maybe our runs were just terribly unlucky, but we’ve only ever had three maps come up on our playthroughs. Either it’s the Factory, the Hazardous Factory, or the Contaminated Factory maps that come out as our choices. Maps are procedurally generated, yes, but these three maps all felt the same on the inside anyway since they were all…you guessed it, factories.
Judging from their promotional material, there seems to be more maps, even one that looks like it’s out in the city proper. They have even stated on the page that there are "different maps" — although they didn’t specify what those maps are. Perhaps RNG just didn’t favor us then, or they’re not available as of writing—hopefully in a future update, or a better stroke of luck.
Overall Conclusion
MIMESIS has the makings of what is potentially another good game of its genre. If the developers keep at it and improve on its already solid foundations with more content, more maps, more everything—then it might just be the next big "friendslop" game to look out for.
Nevertheless, it’s still rather fun to play with a crew of friends (especially the talkative ones—the Mimesis love them), some getting scared of the enemies while the others try to screw you over by imitating the mimics (mimiception?). It’s also decently priced for a multiplayer game, but you can also wait for more content to release before purchasing.
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MIMESIS Product Information
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| Title | MIMESIS |
|---|---|
| Release Date | October 27, 2025 (Early Access) |
| Developer | ReLU Games, Inc. |
| Publisher | ReLU Games, Inc., KRAFTON, Inc. |
| Supported Platforms | Steam |
| Genre | Action, Adventure, Casual, Indie, Early Access |
| Number of Players | 1-4 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | MIMESIS Official Website |
