Developer: Wrong Organ
Platform: PC (Reviewed)
Genre: Adventure, Horror, Sci-fi
Publisher: CRITICAL REFLEX
The team that brought us 2022’s short and sour How Fish Is Made, is back at it once again with another grimy horror experience: Mouthwashing, a single-player, first-person narrative adventure game published by CRITICAL REFLEX. This new release should be fairly appealing to those who have grown enamored with the modern retro indie horror boom unleashed by the likes of Puppet Combo and the HauntedPS1 community collaborations.
Mouthwashing’s premise is decidedly more grounded (at least by the standards of the sci-fi genre) than its piscine predecessor: the five-person crew of an interstellar cargo ship is left stranded far away from Earth after a collision with a meteor. Tensions mount as they try to make use of their limited time and resources waiting for rescue efforts from their oppressive corporate employer (whatever slim chance that may be). As you might expect, dark themes, violence and plenty of gore are to be found on this trip, so those with a poor tolerance for these elements will likely want to sit this one out.
The scenario and characters might be a little tropey, but that doesn’t stop the whole ordeal from unfurling, on a whim, into very distinctive surreal sequences. Coupled with the fact that events in the story are told partially out of order, this gives the game a dream-like (perhaps nightmare-like?) feel that puts you in the shoes of the ship’s occupants as their hopes diminish and their minds slip further into existential disarray.
Gameplay’s not much to write home about: Mouthwashing might be best described as a “walking simulator”. You move with the keyboard and look around with the mouse, clicking to interact with specific objects or otherwise inspect them. You have an inventory to stash away certain items for later use. One of these items is what can be considered the game’s “main gimmick”: a scanner whose light reveals hidden codes (and occasionally other, less savory things).
Alongside that, your exploration of the limited, cramped spaces of the Tulpar is interspersed with minimal puzzles, fetch quests and, most importantly, reading what characters have to say. The game does make an effort at having more unique little playable interludes that break up the monotonous exploration with some action or out-of-the-box thinking, but some are less stellar than others.
The real standout is instead the visual presentation, with much of the same very well-executed “heightened lo-fi” of sorts that How Fish Is Made sported: low resolution, lower-polygon models and pixelated textures, which, of course, call back to the first PlayStation, but without restricting itself from breaking away from its limitations. In addition, the video glitch-like effects that usually crop up in scene transitions are a creative way to put the player on edge.
This care and attention also extend to the cutscenes and set pieces, which make excellent use of cinematography and eerie employment of mixed media using public domain archive footage.
As is a given for any psychological horror game worth its salt, Mouthwashing knows the importance of soundtrack and audio ambience, appropriately reminiscent of a documentary about outer space, with a dash of unnerving metallic screeching in the more tense moments.
While indie horror fans might not be stripped of choice in today’s gaming landscape, they can certainly do much worse than giving Mouthwashing a shot, going through its engrossing and miserable world in about 2 hours.
Overall: 8/10
Game maker giving writing a shot. You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!
