Mouthwashing Review

This review contains light spoilers for events that occur in Mouthwashing in the first few scenes of the game. If you’re curious about this one and looking for a TLDR: this game is very good. It’s atmospheric, beautifully authored and twisted as hell in spots. If you’re okay with horror, this game is a must-play. Full stop. There’s a demo on Steam, so you have no excuse not to try it.

What is Mouthwashing?

Mouthwashing is a first-person psychological horror game that shows what happens when the crew of the Tulpar, a five-person freighter, are stranded in space with little hope of survival. But this isn’t a story that is centred on space or some very strange cargo that is being transported. This is a story about the limits of the human psyche and how people interact when they feel discarded and are pushed to the brink.

Mouthwashing Setup

An unfortunate accident befalls the crew of the Tulpar. The ship, run by the near future freight company Pony Express, is rocked by space halfway through their nearly 400-day journey. You play out the days before and after the accident seeing what led to their predicament and how the members of the crew acted after the accident. Beyond damage to the ship, its Captain, Curly has been disfigured by the accident. You may have seen him in the trailers; he’s wrapped in bandages from head to toe with just a little flesh, his eyes and mouth exposed. Not only must you care for him, but also your crew and their rapidly deteriorating mental states. All of that while you figure out the full story and whether or not you can make it home alive.

Why is the game called Mouthwashing, you may ask? I’ll leave that one for you to figure out.

The game itself tells its story non-linearly. The jumps between the time before the accident and afterwards can happen at any time during the gameplay. In addition, the transitions are done with eerie and ominous morphing image cuts. Knowing that they can happen at any time creates consistent tension and does a great job of keeping you on the edge of your seat during the entirety of the game’s two to three-hour runtime.

A Living Maquette

Despite its brevity, each of the five characters has a personality of their own. That’s because the written dialogue even without being voiced is human and believable. From their dialogue, you’ll pick out the archetypes quickly: the timid medical practitioner Anya, the gruff mechanic with a dark past Swansea, the young inexperienced naive intern Daisuke, our brave and stoic leader Curly and his co-pilot Jimmy.

Beyond great writing for individual characters, I commend the team at Wrong Organ for writing such believable interactions between these characters. The game also has immaculate direction. There are few games in the independent scene that I have played that put as much emphasis on in-game camera work during gameplay cinematics and it pays off. When multiple characters are speaking to each other in a group or around a table the camera will start wide and then swing smoothly to the speaker and punch in for emphasis when needed. In times of conflict, extreme closeups for instance, help to convey the high tension very well.

In addition to really well-developed characters and great dialogue, the ship itself has a load of character to it as well. Despite really only having a handful of rooms that you will return to on multiple occasions connected by hallways combined with deliberately low-poly graphics, the ship feels like the sixth man having to fight for its life in space.

A Low-Poly Nightmare

Few games are as twisted and as tense as Mouthwashing and I think the deliberately low-quality PS1-style graphics help build a unique ambiance for this one. Characters’ chunky faces have just enough detail to help sell what they’re feeling and the low poly corridors on the Tulpar give you enough detail to make navigation a breeze. All this while also keeping your guard up as you wonder if something plans on jumping out at you at any moment.

The set dressing is also a masterclass in design. The team at Wrong Organ drew varied inspirations for the ship’s decor including vintage Las Vegas hotel rooms to ugly retro kitchens. Many of the characters in the game are also inspired by popular characters in horror and sci-fi media. Even some of the posters around the facility help to give you perspective on the world that our characters are caught up in. The late-stage capitalist retro-futurism that oppresses the characters here is nothing new, but the game does a lot with a little to set up the world.

Did I mention that the game has a cute corporate horsey mascot named Polle that helps maintain order… I mean make everyone feel like they belong?

It falls somewhere between Parasite Eve and Silent Hill on the OG PlayStation graphical spectrum. I just couldn’t image Mouthwashing with a more modern art style. I genuinely don’t think it would work as well without its graphical flair.

There Are Puzzles?

The game has a heavy focus on a very directed narrative experience but a few times, you’ll be asked to do some light puzzle solving. Puzzles involve finding an item and using it on the correct object in the game. Most of the puzzles are fine and serve their purpose of moving the narrative forward well. But my only complaint about the title that holds this game back is that some of the puzzles are a little obtuse. One in particular at around the two-thirds mark of the game kept me from progressing; my solve for it seemed a little random but maybe that was the point.

Audio in the Game

We have talked about graphics being a great fit for the aims of the game, but the sound design also positively contributes to the experience of Mouthwashing. Most of the audio in the game was captured by the team using a Zoom H1N recorder and sounded very realistic. Some of the more misophonia-inducing sounds add to the ambiance (when you hear it, you’ll know what I’m referring to).

There isn’t much music in the game, but what’s in the game is utilized well.

Final Thoughts

I left Mouthwashing in awe of its world-building, character writing and narrative twists. I kept spoilers light throughout my review but trust me when I say that this game goes places.

Mouthwashing is a must-play for psychological horror film and game fans. It puts itself into a category of rare authored game experiences that few others can touch. I hope that this game enters the pantheon of highly recommended and twisted sci-fi narrative experiences along with some of its contemporaries like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, SOMA and Virginia.

Final Score: 9.5/10

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The game’s publisher provided a copy of the game for this feature. Reviewed on PC (Steam Deck). Coming September 26, 2024.

Looking for more spooky games to play this October? Check out our 1.0 impressions of World of Horror.