Entry #8: Mouthwashing: Things Are Not as They Seem

 

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    Nowadays, the video game horror genre is saturated with a mountain of indie titles — some with interesting stories and captivating visuals, others following common cliches and using cheap jumpscares for some easy entertainment. This large influx of games means that it takes a lot for a single one to stand out or be noticed by a greater amount of people, which is why I'd like to bring attention to a game that's grown in popularity lately due to its unique story and uncommon way of narrating it.

    Mouthwashing is a first-person indie psychological horror game developed by Wrong Organ and published by Critical Reflex on September 26th, 2024. The game features a nonlinear storytelling style, and its visual horror is almost surreal, like the developer's only other game, How Fish Is Made. It follows the five crew members stuck aboard the freighter spaceship "Tulpar" after a crash on what was meant to be a routine delivery, leaving them stranded against an asteroid out in space. Their resources are dwindling, and things look bleak as the months drag on. The crew, in the beginning, blames their Captain Curly for the accident, spending their days trying to figure out what to do with the time they have left.

    In the present, you play as the honorary Captain of the Tulpar, Jimmy, interacting with the others on the ship while you struggle to figure out how to run the crew. Giving Curly his medicine when the ship's nurse, Anya, can't stomach the noises he makes, trying to manage the mechanic, Swansea, and his underling, Daisuke, as they drink the mouthwash the ship was transporting to cope with the situation. Between scenes and time skips, you are shown glimpses into the past, allowing you to play as Captain Curly before the crash takes place and leaves him almost limbless. This is done to slowly give you an idea of what really happened that day on the Tulpar, up to the day it happened, and what the consequences were. The nonlinear style of the story may be confusing to some, but if you pay close attention to the times stated before each scene and the hints given in the dialogue, you should be able to piece things together. It gives the game an air of mystery up until the climax, where it shows what really happened, and makes the horrifying scenes that come after you learn so much more intense.

    The visuals are inspired by early games for the original PlayStation, being pixelated and low-poly, which compliments the glitchy transitions between scenes and the retro style of the environment. It also makes the much more graphic scenes that appear later on in the game a bit easier to swallow, although the simple nature of what's going on may still make some feel queasy when playing. This style has grown in popularity recently for indie games, but the way Mouthwashing utilizes it is something special and shows a great sense of art direction.

    If you are a lover of horror games or just love a good psychological horror story, I would highly encourage you to check out Mouthwashing — as long as you can handle a few eye-straining visuals, the low-graphic gore, and the disturbing nature of the later part of the game. Whether you buy it from Steam (only $12.99!) or watch a playthrough of it on YouTube, I would incentivize you to pay close attention, to really soak up all of the details this game has to offer and come up with your own theories and ideas about things. That's half the fun of psychological horror games, where you just have to sit and think to understand, and another reason why this game stands out among many.