Mouthwashing’s biggest triumph is putting you on the scene. The primary being the obvious crime: a captain steering their area freighter into hurt’s manner, completely on function. You are there, staring by the eyes of the individual within the cockpit. You open the locker and seize the important thing and insert it into the security override panel with a satisfying click on. You see the plastic casing spring open and the crimson button emerge. You press it and hearken to the sirens whirr. You seize the steering wheel and yank it.
Proper from the beginning, you need to know why that is simply occurred and the place, maybe, did your character present indicators of extra plaque and a disregard for flossing. However the scene’s modified! And also you’re Jimmy, a bloke on an area freighter nonetheless many months earlier than the crash. You study that you simply had been in the course of hauling 1000’s of bottles of mouthwash for a corporation referred to as Pony Specific. After the captain’s actions, you are now shipwrecked with little or no hope of survival. And the mouthwash? Yeah, it is clogged up 90% of the ship, so just a few tunnels and areas are accessible.
Nonetheless, you meet your crewmates who aren’t overly proud of the state of affairs however surviving nonetheless. Swansea is a grumpy veteran and engineer, Daisuke is his surf bro intern, there’s the ever anxious nurse Anya, and… Captain Curly who lies on a stretcher within the medical room. Basked within the orange glow of a sundown scene projected over his bandaged shoulder, Curly is a horribly disfigured sufferer of the crash, and a brilliantly upsetting flash of blood-soaked bandages and crimson scar tissue: a beacon and a intelligent reminder that, sure, it would appear kind of superb at that very second, but it surely’s solely going to get a complete lot darker.
To say any extra in regards to the story can be to spoil a horror recreation that solely takes perhaps a few hours to complete (maybe a tad kind of). Nonetheless, it is the way it presents you with scenes that grants the sport a compelling cinematic form. The place different video games hit you with pure closing sequences, like bosses or fades to black, Mouthwashing is abrupt. You may latch a door closed and the sport will freeze and the PSX visuals will bleed, a chugging noise within the background paying homage to a tape spooling to a detailed. It is actually fairly one thing.
Not solely is it a intelligent visible, although, it is a manner of converging timelines that allow you to piece collectively vital context. Early on you bear witness to the crew’s first foray into survival and the way they address the crash. The Pony Specific mascot within the lounge is pristine and other people have provisions subsequent to their sleeping luggage. Then the scene may change and it is weeks out from the crash. Right here, you get an perception right into a freighter earlier than stress and stress and despair filtered into everybody’s psyche. As one timeline strikes forwards, the opposite stays shut behind. You may change to that scene, the place you are latching a door closed in a panic – however you do not know why. Oh don’t fret, you may study, as the primary flashback may begin you within the lounge, the place the Pony Specific mascot lies splintered aside.
And like I mentioned earlier, you reside by all of it, and it actually helps plant you within the ship as you each piece collectively how the story ends and everybody’s inevitable descent into insanity. Not solely is it a brilliantly realised area, with the ship’s slender tunnels perpetually feeling a bit too quiet and twisty, or wall screens projecting calming evening or day scenes – it is a pleasure (nightmare) on the ears. The hole clunk of your steps, the sound of Curly’s jaw creaking open as you plop a painkiller into his mouth, and the hum of your scanner actually do envelop you within the ship’s more and more oppressive ambiance.
Sounds? Spot on. Stuff you do along with your palms? Additionally nice. The make-up of what you really do on the ship is easy, however splendidly tactile. Goals are sometimes curt and generally weird, the place Curly may request a cake, so that you flip to the retro-futurist food-making machine and have interaction in some immerse simmery. You flick by directions pinned to a wall, then discover the sachets and plop them into the machine within the right order, the machine depositing the completed article with a ping. I like how Mouthwashing all the time entails you in all the pieces, the place even the best actions have this air of, “I guess this’ll have an effect on the longer term timeline in some horrible manner”. You by no means really feel comfy.
I would not say, although, that Mouthwashing is all that scary; coming from an enormous wimp like me. And I perceive that scariness is subjective, however simply know that this is not an enormous, huge jumpscare kind of expertise. I would say it is extra upsetting and grisly, with solely a few surreal sequences which can be really scary from a risk standpoint (somebody or one thing is out to get you). In any other case, there’s lots of weirdness or yikes-ness, as you endure psychotic breaks spliced into scenes, the place the ship contorts and eyes may spring from the partitions.
Generally I would say it suffers from a little bit of surrealist tunnel meandering that drags on for somewhat too lengthy, or surrealist interpretations of your character’s psyche that appear a bit too on the nostril. Some scenes additionally undergo from an absence of course, the place it is like, “Go right here”, and also you may run across the ship for ages bumping your nostril into each interactable factor, hoping it is the interactable factor that’ll assist you progress. On a few events, I really turned to a walkthrough as a result of I used to be genuinely a bit stumped. One answer I could have found out if I actually put my two mind cells to work, however one different? Nah, not an opportunity.
Mouthwashing’s a tough one to assessment, particularly as a result of I’ve to bop across the story in concern of spoiling it for you. I hope I’ve not less than obtained throughout the way it tells the story and the way it actually is a well-told, succinct descent right into a crew’s deepest darkest secrets and techniques and struggles. Belief me, you may need to play it in a single or two sittings, primarily since you will not have the ability to peel your self away from it. The one occasions you may, are when it would not signpost these options properly sufficient. Go forth and swill your mouth out with this one, I say.
