"Where did your true self go? You are now nothing but an empty vessel pretending to be human. "

There's a pounding in my head it hurts its screaming its crying my heart is beating too fast way too fast it's gonna burst my hands are cold my skin is cold my skin is hot its too hot too hot too hot too hot too-

The Delmeter finally kicks in, and the splitting headache fades. The world stops spinning and I can finally feel my own two feet. There's a corpse by feet, it's face a gnarled mess barely recognizable as human. There's blood pooling beneath my shoes, and I can feel the Delmeter fading already.

Galerians is a 2000's survival horror game about Rion, a young boy who wakes up in a hospital, with no memories of his past and a sudden batch of psychic powers, who's only motivation is to locate the girl who's been contacting him telepathically. In doing so, he unravels a conspiracy surrounding the sentient supercomputer running the city that wants to replace humanity with a race of psychic superhumans known as the Galerians, and how the girl he's looking for is the key to stopping the AI's ascension to godhood.

As Rion, you have to manage your limited psychic powers via the multiple types of drugs you will inject and ingest over the course of your adventure. Rion can switch between different types of psychic attacks by injecting himself with three different types of drugs, and each attack used will slowly drain your drug meter until you need your next fix. Compounding your limited usage of Rion's psychic powers is the AP meter. By attacking, taking damage, or even simply running around, the AP Meter will fill, and if it hits max and Rion tries to use a psychic attack, he will Short, making him a walking death trap that will instantly kill all enemies that come near, but will slowly drain Rion's HP until he either dies or takes another drug called Delmeter (of which there is only a finite amount of in the whole game) to reset the gauge to 0. The limited resources, alongside the ticking time bomb that is the AP Meter heavily discourages combat in Galerians. Outside of a few forced encounters, combat is completely optional and provides no tangible benefits for Rion, meaning that in true survival horror fashion, hoofing it is usually your best option in any given situation.

The puzzle solving is fairly simple, usually consisting of key hunting and very basic fact recollection. Rion can use his psychic powers to gain hints for item locations and puzzle solutions, which means that it's very hard to get truly stumped. While the puzzle solving is basic, the moment-to-moment gameplay is mind-numbing and the combat is rather clunky when you're forced into it, Galerians' aesthetic is what really makes it stand out. The story is a wild ride full of insane plot twists and heady themes that aren't really tackled in a very deep or clever manner, but this alongside the sparse moments of Scanners-esque ultraviolence and beautifully rendered early 2000's CGI cyberpunk landscapes full of alien architecture and that glorious Y2K technological aesthetic elevate Galerians from a mediocre Resident Evil clone to an absolute standout hidden gem of the survival horror genre.