Mouthwashing (video game)

Mouthwashing
Steam artwork
Developer(s)	Wrong Organ
Publisher(s)	Critical Reflex
Producer(s)	Kai Moore
Designer(s)	Jeffrey Tomec Johanna Kasurinen
Programmer(s)	Jeffrey Tomec
Artist(s)	Johanna Kasurinen
Engine	Unity
Platform(s)	Windows
Release	26 September 2024
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Mouthwashing is a 2024 psychological horror adventure game developed by Wrong Organ and published by Critical Reflex. Played from a first-person perspective, The game follows the five crew members of the freighter spaceship Tulpar after a mysterious crash leaves them stranded in space, trapped within as supplies dwindle. The captain, alive but severely maimed and unable to speak or move, is blamed by the remaining crew for deliberately crashing the ship for reasons unknown. The game uses a split, nonlinear narrative.

Gameplay

Mouthwashing is a single-player narrative-focused adventure game played from a first-person perspective with little in the way of survival or combat mechanics. It can also be described as a walking simulator. Gameplay primarily involves exploring the Tulpar, engaging in dialogue with the crew, and solving puzzles using items.

Presented as a nonlinear narrative, the game plays out across disjointed scenes taking place in the weeks and months before and following the crash. Jumps in the timeline are sometimes delineated by non-diegetic transitions that mimic glitches or crashes. Players experience captain Curly's perspective in the scenes before the crash, while scenes taking place after the crash are from the perspective of former co-pilot Jimmy, who takes on the role of captain in the aftermath of the disaster.

Plot

During a routine shipment, the freighter spaceship Tulpar is sabotaged into crashing into an asteroid. The crew – consisting of captain Curly, co-pilot Jimmy, medic Anya, mechanic Swansea, and last-minute intern Daisuke – survive. However, most of the ship's resources are blocked off by airbag-like foam, damage to which could potentially breach the ship's hull and trigger lethal decompression. Curly is also mutilated by the crash and cannot speak or move; he is kept alive via a dwindling supply of painkillers. Jimmy declares himself acting captain as a result, claiming that Curly caused the crash after going postal.

When food and medical supplies begin to run low after two months, the crew open their confidential shipment, discovering that it consists solely of mouthwash. The sugar and ethanol content result in them consuming it, and the ensuing drunkenness inflames tensions further. Eventually, Anya locks herself in the medical bay with Curly. After failing to convince Swansea to help him break in, Jimmy knocks him out using a mocktail roofied with the ship's sole bottle of rubbing alcohol and sneaks into the utility bay to find tools. After discovering that Swansea was guarding the ship's sole working cryopod, Jimmy coerces Daisuke into crawling through a damaged vent to reach Anya and Curly. However, Daisuke is severely injured in the process, and his wounds become infected when Jimmy uses the mouthwash as an impromptu antiseptic. Swansea, who had been treating Daisuke protectively and hoped to save the cryopod for him, reluctantly and crudely euthanizes him with a fire axe before violently turning on Jimmy.

Flashbacks to the days leading up to the crash reveal that the Tulpar crew were due to be laid off following their delivery; Curly breaks the news prematurely, distressing his crewmates as he is the only one who can financially support himself afterwards. Later, in a private conversation with Curly, Anya reveals that she is pregnant with Jimmy's child. Other interactions between Curly and Anya imply that Jimmy raped her. Curly attempts to ease tensions with Jimmy, only for Anya to reveal her pregnancy to Jimmy behind Curly's back. The stress of his impending layoff and the possibility of being held accountable for Anya's pregnancy ultimately drive Jimmy to crash the Tulpar in a failed murder-suicide bid.

Back in the present, Jimmy breaks into the medical bay, where Anya is revealed to have killed herself via an overdose, and uses the ship's emergency revolver to kill Swansea, who condemns Jimmy's cowardice and selfishness in his last moments. With his sanity rapidly declining, Jimmy holds a mock birthday party with the crew's corpses, where he cuts off and consumes part of Curly's leg; he also force-feeds the captain his own flesh in a surreal hallucination. After a series of additional visions where he is accosted for his actions throughout the game and for his inability to take responsibility for them, Jimmy concludes that he can redeem himself if he ensures Curly's survival, placing him in the cryopod. He then apologizes to Curly for hurting him before killing himself with the revolver, believing that he successfully "fixed" their situation. The game's credits roll as Curly is placed into a 20-year cryosleep, his fate left uncertain.

Development and release

The team behind Mouthwashing includes producer Kai Moore, audio designer Martin Halldin, art and narrative designer Johanna Kasurinen, designer and programmer Jeffrey Tomec, and technical designer Dave van Egdom. The developers took inspiration from films including Alien, Event Horizon, Sunshine, The Thing, and Pandorum. The game utilises a low poly, retro visual style inspired by titles released for the original PlayStation. Art designer Johanna Kasurinen credits indie developer Puppet Combo for introducing her to the style, stating that "we don’t need state-of-the-art graphics to make something impactful" in an interview with Rolling Stone.

Mouthwashing was first announced as part of a free update (inspired by Katamari Damacy) to developer Wrong Organ's debut title How Fish is Made. A demo for the game released during Steam Next Fest in February 2024 to positive reception, with the full game releasing for Windows via on Steam on 26 September, 2024. Mouthwashing was well-received by audiences on release, achieving an "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating on Steam within the first two weeks, the highest possible rating on the platform.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	83/100
OpenCritic	92% recommend

Review scores

Publication	Score
Eurogamer	4/5
Hardcore Gamer	3/5
Bloody Disgusting	4/5
Paste	8.7/10

The game's narrative structure received praise from critics. The opening, which puts the player in control while the viewpoint character crashes the Tulpar, was praised by critics for Bloody Disgusting and Rock Paper Shotgun for creating an immediate sense of tension and prompting curiosity about what has just happened. Writing for Paste, Elijah Gonzalez felt that the game's nonlinear narrative enhanced the sense of intrigue by driving speculation on preceding events. Leon Hurley of GamesRadar+ felt that the use of a nonlinear narrative and unreliable narrator created an air of mystery and kept the player uncertain about the true nature of events. The nonlinear narrative was also praised for adding depth to the cast of characters by revealing different aspects of their personalities, and for immersing the player in the setting of the Tulpar.

The graphics and visual style were also received well. Aaron Boehm of Bloody Disgusting labelled the low-poly graphics as "beautiful", and Elijah Gonzalez of Paste said they "invite us to imagine the finer details for ourselves". Leon Hurley of GamesRadar+ wrote that "[Mouthwashing's] low poly horror stylings hide a triple A art direction". Writing for Hardcore Gamer, Kyle LeClair likened the graphics to fifth generation video game consoles, arguing that they complement the Tulpar's retro style. This comparison to fifth generation titles was echoed by Harold Goldberg of The New York Times, Azario Lopez of Noisy Pixel, and Oisin Kuhnke of VG247. A number of outlets, including GamesRadar+, Rock Paper Shotgun, and Bloody Disgusting, called aspects of the game "cinematic", including its framing of shots and the glitchy transitions between scenes. However, Katy Hanson of Rely on Horror felt the transitions disrupted the flow of the game.

The setting was generally well received. Ed Thorn of Rock Paper Shotgun called the Tulpar a "brilliantly realised space", citing the game's use of twisting, narrow corridors, but argued that certain scenes tended towards "surrealist tunnel meandering". In contrast, critics for Bloody Disgusting and Rely on Horror felt that the small, cramped setting at the beginning of the game set up the transition to hallucinatory shifting hallways well. Ted Litchfield of PC Gamer called the Tulpar a "fantastic setting" and noted the inclusion of "great character details" left throughout the ship such as notes, pamphlets, and half-finished boardgames. Not all critics agreed, however, with Kyle LeClair of Hardcore Gamer arguing that the limited number of locations made the game unpleasantly repetitive.

Critics enjoyed the cast of characters. Kyle LeClair of Hardcore Gamer felt the characters had "nice and colorful personalities" and Katy Hanson of Rely on Horror though they were "charming and memorable". Writing for PC Gamer, Ted Litchfield considered the horror to be built upon human drama, featuring themes of "failed ambitions, resentments, and regrets of people forced to work a dead-end job". Critics for Paste and VG247 similarly identified satire and black comedy in the game's treatment of corporate greed, which enhanced the horror and gave depth to the characters' motivations, although Elijah Gonzalez of Paste felt that Anya was less well-developed as a character, which he thought "squares awkwardly with the fact she's constantly catching verbal abuse from her male co-workers".

Critics were more mixed on the game's puzzles. Ed Thorn of Rock Paper Shotgun described the gameplay as "simple, but wonderfully tactile" and Ted Litchfield of PC Gamer felt that the tactile nature of the minigames and their juxtaposition of food and human flesh made for compelling body horror. However, Katy Hanson of Rely on Horror thought they were too simple, which made them "feel like busywork", and Kyle LeClair of Hardcore Gamer felt the "annoying chase bits" and "non-challenging puzzles" were not enough to justify Mouthwashing being a videogame rather than a visual novel. Aaron Boehm, writing for Bloody Disgusting, argued to the contrary, claiming that the gameplay "always complements the narrative and mood of the game in a way that justifies it being an interactive piece of media". Reviews in Bloody Disgusting and Rely on Horror praised the game's subversion of traditional video game mechanics, such as its use of onscreen objectives to build suspense.

External links

• Official website