A good horror game will scare you right then and there, but a great horror game will stick in the back of your mind long after the credits roll. We’ve been blessed with a plethora of excellent horror games in recent years, but with the arrival of October, even more spooky games are coming to get us excited and scared for Halloween. Mouthwash immediately gripped me with its shocking, unpleasant images, pinning me down under the weight of mounting fear.
Mouthwash is a three-hour narrative experience set on the Tulpar, a Pony Express courier ship, in the middle of a long journey through space to deliver cargo. It’s your typical sci-fi capitalist dystopia; Humanity moving among the stars has done nothing to facilitate corporate control over the lives of workers. Despite this, the crew is a tight-knit group: there’s the grumpy veteran Swansea, the anxious and avoidant nurse Anya, and the cheerful Himbo Daisuke. The crew is completed by the co-pilots, Captain Curly and Jimmy. The game begins with a horrific crash that leaves the ship stranded and off course.
The game jumps around the timeline, showing us the dynamics of the crew before the crash, and the increasing desperation after the disaster. Months after the crash, still lost in space, the crew is eager to find an alternative food source as their supplies dwindle. The captain was badly burned in the crash, leaving him dependent on a dwindling supply of painkillers. No one is coming to get them, they’re running low on supplies, and all they have in the cargo hold is crate after crate of mouthwash.
If Mouthwash continues, reality begins to fade and waver. Sometimes this happens diegetically; the Pony Express mascot is starting to make more frequent appearances, with motivational posters wallpapering the halls of the Tulpar. A crew member finds an old analog TV where you shouldn’t be, playing old corporate animations. Other times, these surreal transitions mimic a game freeze or a graphical glitch. A few times I thought the game had crashed, only for the broken visuals to fade into a new scene.
There isn’t much in the way of combat or survival mechanics; instead, the story is a grim march toward an inevitable conclusion. An ax, once used to tackle everyday emergencies, is being used for a darker purpose. Anya increasingly avoids her nursing duties, afraid to come near Curly in his burned and mutilated state. Jimmy collapses under the pressure. The only one who remains cheerful all the time is Daisuke, the absolute champion.
If this nightmare scenario has you even a little intrigued, I highly recommend you give it a try Mouthwash on Steam or Jeuk.io. The game begins with a short message stating the ship’s name, delivery status, and an ominous note: “I hope this hurts.” That is certainly true, and that is why my thoughts still remain far away on board the Tulpar.