Mouthwashing

Mouthwashing is a masterpiece of modern indie horror! A great spin on classic sci-fi horror: no aliens, no evil technology. It's almost a paradoxical kind of horror, with sci-fi as its setting, while the only horror is human. It is also an example of in medias res and nonlinear storytelling done well in gaming. It's not easy to make a nonlinear narrative, but Mouthwashing makes its back-and-forth storytelling feel deeply purposeful, serving both the gameplay and the narrative. We have a dual focalization, while also getting brief moments shown outside of anybody's POV, and a lot of information is deliberately obscured from us. The game, despite being so short, chooses a fairly narratologically complex mode of telling its story. I really hope to see more indie horror titles not shying away from interesting timelines, characters, and narrative perspectives. We play as two (bad) people. A major theme is that of taking responsibility, and the game deals with it remarkably well, especially considering how commonly taking responsibility is perceived as a retributive, or even a heroic act. The pain of taking responsibility can feel unbearable. Sometimes it feels like you have already doomed yourself to an abysmal eternity, and that nothing could possibly change that, yet you still have to go through it because your conscience won't allow you to do otherwise. The dealing with suicide, self-harm, and sexual assault is also done well. Not only does the game carry great emotional weight, but it does so while keeping emotional maturity, relying more on implication and the absence of things. As someone whose favourite genre of horror is "spatial horror," the gameplay and the interior, which are interconnected to the fullest, were such a delight to play through. An absolutely amazing work of spatial malformation. Both visually stunning and symbolically and narratively rich, these distortions also translate into gameplay smoothly and satisfyingly. I went in the eye-appearing-in-the-walls area the second time, and, as I was taking a sip of my drink, I was only using WASD and wasn't looking around, so I was going there backwards. The eyes, to my surprise, didn't appear; I was met with a blank wall. I was so pleasantly surprised at the amount of thought put into this game, as I actually had to be facing where I was going for them to appear. The part at the cemetery where we are supposed to shoot Swansea genuinely took my breath away. Such beautiful retro aesthetics, and the only part which takes us away from the sci-fi nightmare interior. It brings us back to Earth to face the death we caused: a visually beautiful expression of classical gothic melancholy. Silent Hill 2, for example, also uses spatial horror as a mirror for guilt, but in a much more atmospheric and ambiguously symbolic way. Mouthwashing starts with spatial horror that is similarly ambiguous in its meaning and purpose. But as we move beyond the first half of the game, when the spatial anomalies are most present, their meaning becomes much clearer. The interior takes shape into a fast-paced interactive collage of the ship and Polle the mascot, guilt, memories, guts and blood dripping from his hands onto the ship; distorting everything on the path of redemption.

This is a very good game about narcissistic personality disorder.

Solid psychological horror. Very weird. Play without guides and use dev console after for chapter select - when using console for chapter select, know that many achievements pop on game exit.