I don't tend to play horror games often, although I have a pretty high tolerance for the genre in any other medium. I can watch horror movies because I don't have to be an active participant other than fleeing my seat. I can read horror because it's not as deep or tangible when it's just words on a page. But when I have to actively engage with the horror through my actions, my adrenaline levels go haywire. I panic. I forget how to breathe. Some people might like this, but I don't.
But at the recommendation of many writers at TheGamer, I played Mouthwashing. I've read praise for the game in many publications, it was only three hours long and I was promised by someone at publisher Critical Reflex that it didn't have time The lots of jump scares. I decided to be brave and was rewarded with a harrowing story of madness, abuse and the evils of capitalism.
There are solutions to some of the mysteries of mouthwashing. It's only three hours long, just play it and come back.
Mouthwash is a terrible experience
You might think that my criticism of the game is based on the fact that I'm a big baby who can't stand horror, but you'd be wrong. Yes, I was scared, and yes, I temporarily forgot how to breathe in and out like a normal person, but the horror of “Mouthwashing” is brilliantly realized.
Editor-in-Chief Stacey Henley wrote about her favorite sequence in the game, and I have to agree – there are a lot of incredible horror sequences in Mouthwashing. Many of the scariest moments are realized through dreamlike, surreal excursions into the depths of the Tulpar, the ship on which the characters are trapped.
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The sequence described by Stacey is a long journey into the bowels of the ship to retrieve a bottle of mouthwash. In another level, you wander through the ship's vents, pursued by an incredibly fast, incredibly large, centipede-like creature. In another, you're wandering through a cemetery, pursued by your axe-wielding teammate.
Because these sequences are so exciting and the stakes are so high – failing and dying, being sent back to the beginning of the level forever – these are Mouthwashing's most heartbreaking moments. At the same time, they are also the most frustrating.
What all of these levels have in common is that they contain an element of puzzle solving, but the way to get there is never clear. To get the bottle of mouthwash, you have to sneak through the halls of the ship's hold so that you don't hear your footsteps. If you are too loud, the blind animal in the hold will hear you and devour you. To successfully get through the vents, you must run through the maze while avoiding the insect rushing towards you as much as possible. To escape your comrade, you have to stop him from jumping at you and shoot him while he runs to hit you with the axe.
The fear of mouthwash gives way to boredom
These are frightening the first time, and it may take a few tries – again, it's never entirely clear how to get through them. These hallucinatory sequences are based on dream logic, which is good for tension and atmosphere, but not so good when you're trying to solve a mystery.
The problem with the cargo area height is that it takes forever to crawl through. I played it while barely pressing my thumb, crawling along at a snail's pace as the beast screamed around me. It was scary for about thirty seconds, then quickly became boring. I followed a trail of blood to a dead end, then had to turn around and take a much longer detour, all the while moving at an old man's limping pace. I knew nothing would happen as long as I went slowly, so the tension quickly faded.
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With the insect hatching maze, the tension also disappeared, but more out of frustration than speed. It's easy to get killed and have to start over – once you figure out the logic of the level through experimentation, it's no longer scary. The atmosphere is gone because you spent too much time noodling around in it.
It was similar with the crew member. He scurries around you as you walk through the graveyard, trying to attack you from behind so you don't have time to spin around and shoot him. Once I figured that out, I just had to go back to a corner and pace back and forth in the same spot while I waited for him to eventually come towards me. After the first few times he killed me, I was more annoyed than scared.
There is a fine line between commitment and frustration
I appreciate these sequences for what they conveyed – each dream sequence was frightening in its own way. And if it wasn't possible to fail the level, there would be no reason to bother. But at the same time, the way these puzzles were laid out meant that fear could easily turn to frustration within a minute or so, and the fact that they could fail so easily meant that the many attempts slowed the pace of the story completely disrupts the tension that has been so carefully created throughout the game.
Mouthwash is still an excellent game. Since much of the game is about admitting responsibility for bad things, the interactivity of these surreal levels adds to the narrative. You have to take matters into your own hands to “deal with it,” as our deuteragonist Jimmy often says. I understand how these sections tie into the overall plot of the game. I just wish they weren't so chunky because that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I guess I could use some mouthwash too, right?
Mouthwashing is a first-person horror game about the dying crew of a shipwrecked space freighter.
Who could have imagined what good old Captain Curly was capable of? I guess he thought it was only right that his crew died alongside him. But some men can't even kill themselves properly. Mutilated, limbless and unable to speak but alive, Curly is now at the mercy of the crew he has condemned to a slow death.
Descent into madness
Follow the lives of the crew as they survive hunger, isolation and each other. People were never your strength anyway.
No chance of rescue
The ship will run out of power within six months. Food rations long before that.
Immersive storytelling
Be aware of your surroundings.
Psychological fears
Your eyes lie.
Unforgivable story
I hope to die, or for heaven's sake pray that everyone else dies.
