Nothing I have read and nothing people have told me about Mouthwashing could have prepared me for what awaited me in those three hours I spent on the stranded Pony Express freighter. I knew that it was kind of inspired by the claustrophobia you feel when playing Iron Lung. I knew it had themes similar to other games I’ve played and enjoyed. But none of that prior knowledge could have possibly prepared me for this absolutely glorious descent into madness.
I love Mouthwashing, and in this review, I intend to tell you why you should check it out yourself.
Mouthwashing is a psychological horror game set in space on board of the Pony Express intergalactic freighter. It’s an atmospheric game that dives into the human psyche and the claustrophobic nature of long-distance shipment missions and human relationships.
Developer: Wrong Organ
Publisher: CRITICAL REFLEX
Genre: Indie, First-Person, Psychological/Atmospheric Horror, Walking Simulator
Release Date: September 26th, 2024
Reviewed on: PC
Available on: PC
Copy was provided by the publisher.
The game begins by placing you in the position of the pilot of this freighter right there in the cockpit, opening a locker to grab a key to then override the safety system and hit the big red button. After grabbing hold of the steering wheel, you cause a crash. Why did you do this? What happened on this ship, on this mission?
Questions upon questions are asked but not yet answered as you jump back and forth in the timeline, figuring out key details as to what transpired but not quite understanding it until the big twist near the end. The game’s timeline could be divided into the months leading up to the crash, and the aftermath, essentially, but it’s not all that simple either.
Now, after the crash, your ship is stranded with foam covering all the various breaches locking you out of important sections of the ship. Captain Curly? He’s incapacitated due to severe burns and injuries, lying fully bandaged in the medical station. So, as his right-hand man you’ll have to get to know the crew and somehow keep it together.
Swansea is a grumpy old fart and engineer trying to gain access to the foam-covered areas of the ship. Anya, the unqualified and nervous nurse, is taking care of Captain Curly but doesn’t manage to ever feed him his painkillers or take care of things when needed. Daisuke is just precious. He’s Swansea’s intern and has to deal with that ol’ dick’s barrage of insults while learning the ropes on a failed mission.
Trouble ensues.
Oxygen and food rations are getting increasingly scarce, morale is low, and being trapped in this cramped space, constantly having to worry about whether or not the foam will hold up and whether or not help will arrive… at all… it all wears down on everybody, not to mention other factors.
Hence, you’ll have to do whatever you have to do. Tasked with grabbing items and talking to people, you’ll soon enough familiarize yourself with the small section of the freighter that is currently accessible under these conditions, and your own worries, stress and problems start to emerge as you struggle to keep it together and fall prey to delusions and nightmares alike.
Mouthwashing’s biggest appeal is not so much the gameplay but rather the presentation and atmosphere. I guess it’s closer to a walking simulator than anything else. If you’re expecting choices or anything of the sort, you’re looking at the wrong spaceship.
With gritty retro-esque polygon-heavy aesthetics, the game further accentuates the ugly personalities that everyone brings here and the dark and heavy atmosphere that the sound design and the discussed themes create. What adds to this, in my opinion, is the abruptness and at times borderline broken transitions in the game.
In the beginning hour of the game, I never knew whether the game just broke or whether it was something intentional, and it only later dawned on me how the bleeding visuals and pixels, the stuttering noise and the weird-ass transitions that end one chapter or time-sequence and lead into another work together to create the impression that something here is amiss, to say the least.
Maybe I’m also thinking too much into this and the developer just wanted to create these broken transitions for funsies but I just found them to work quite well to describe how we as a character plagued by trauma and self-doubt as a character see and process these conflicts and problems.
What I find even more interesting (and obvious) is how the jumping back and forth between before and after the crash is not only signalled by the date/time shown but also by the environment that you’re in. Everything looks bright, colourful and pristine before the crash. It’s orderly. It’s working. Everyone is getting along… mostly.
But then certain events transpire that lead the crew to not just trash the place and focus on survival rather than hygiene but also to vent their frustrations on the said environment. The company mascot, Polle, will be smashed to pieces, an axe will pierce the sky-themed screen in the lounge, and cargo’s no longer be transported but rather used for everyone’s own needs.
Enough about the presentation, though, let’s talk about something else: The Horror.
Mouthwashing is eery but not scary, I would say. Yes, it has its rough moments, especially with some stealth/chase sequences later on but rather than being scary, I found those to be just taxing. I just have grown so accustomed to the atmospheric and psychedelic nature of Mouthwashing’s horror that I didn’t think these sections were needed at all. I just found them unfitting.
The game also does get a bit gore-y at times but it’s retro-themed flesh and blood and whatnot, so beware, I guess.
The atmosphere and the psychological horror in general are really well done, though. The dream sequences work well to highlight a descent into utter despair and madness, much to my surprise, and the spot-on sound design, the pacing in general, and the changes in the environment, as you walk through the same corridor over and over and over again, are noticeable and really enjoyable.
I don’t think the game needed the stealth and chase sequences that were present but luckily there are very few in the game and they’re not too lengthy, just a bit obtuse and uninteresting, in my opinion.
Besides that, though, even as a scaredy cat that doesn’t play much horror, I didn’t find it too “scary”. Yes, it got me to jump at times but much more than spooky, it was just eery with a lot of suspense and some rather absurd tasks at hand and funny things you can do to give you a bit of relief from the intensity of the game’s themes.
If you’re expecting incredibly terrifying scares and spooks and whatnot, you’ll probably find yourself disappointed. Even if you expect the most surreal and philosophical story in the world, you might find that the game lays it on a bit thick and in a clunky way. It’s very on the nose a lot of the time or it drags on and on for just a little too long.
In the grand scheme of things, though, the game is only three hours long and doesn’t overstay its welcome – but when I think about things to critique, the straightforward nature of its messaging and the few chase sections are definitely what comes to mind.
Personally, I absolutely loved Mouthwashing for what it is: A short and succinct exploration of human nature… or something like that. It’s a tale of madness and mouth hygiene. The way the plot is conveyed had me positively surprised and it’s definitely one of the games that I’ll remember for a long time. I highly recommend checking it out yourself!
This post was originally written by Dan Dicere from Indiecator.
If you see this article anywhere other than Indiecator.org then this article has been scraped. Please let me know about this via E-Mail.
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