A good horror game scares you in the moment, but a great horror game stays in your mind long past the end credits. We've been blessed over the past few years with a lot of great horror games, but with the arrival of October comes even creepier games that will scare us before Halloween. mouthwash It immediately gripped me with its jarring, unpleasant images, keeping me immobilized under the weight of mounting fear.
mouthwash is a three-hour narrative experience that takes place on the Tulpar, a Pony Express courier ship in the middle of a long journey through space to deliver cargo. It is the typical sci-fi capitalist dystopia; The humanity that walks among the stars has done nothing to alleviate corporate control over the lives of workers. Despite this, the team is a close-knit group: there's the grumpy veteran Swansea, the anxious and evasive nurse Anya, and the cheerful himbo Daisuke. The co-pilots, Captain Curly and Jimmy, complete the crew. The game begins with a horrific crash, which leaves the ship stranded and off course.
The game jumps around the timeline, showing us the crew dynamics before the accident and the growing desperation after the disaster. Months after the accident, still lost in space, the crew is eager to find an alternative source of food as their supplies dwindle. The captain suffered severe burns in the accident, leaving him dependent on a dwindling supply of painkillers. No one is coming to get them, they are running out of supplies, and the only thing they have in the cargo compartment is box after box of mouthwash.
As mouthwash It continues, reality begins to smear and falter. Sometimes this happens diegetically; The Pony Express mascot begins to appear more frequently, with motivational posters wallpapering the hallways of the Tulpar. A team member finds an old analog TV where it shouldn't be, playing old company animations. Other times, these surreal transitions mimic a game crash or a graphical issue. A couple of times I thought the game had crashed, only for broken images to give way to a new cutscene.
There aren't many combat or survival mechanics; instead, the narrative is a grim march toward an inevitable conclusion. An axe, once used to handle mundane emergencies, is used for a darker purpose. Anya increasingly avoids her nursing duties and fears approaching Curly in his burned and mutilated state. Jimmy is cracking under the pressure. The only one who remains cheerful at all times is Daisuke, the absolute champion.
If this nightmare scenario has you even a little bit intrigued, I wholeheartedly recommend you take a look mouthwash on Steam or Itch.io. The game begins with a short message with the ship's name, delivery status, and an ominous note: “I hope this hurts.” It certainly was, and that's why my mind is still trapped in deep space aboard the Tulpar.