Content Warning: The author would like to warn his readers that "Mouthwashing" contains visual depictions of extreme violence, gore, mutilation, torture and suicide, features audible choking and gagging and discusses themes of abuse and sexual assault on PSX-style characters. This review will not directly feature any of these themes. Please keep this in mind if you choose to play “Mouthwashing” after reading this review.
When you refuse to take responsibility for your actions, you steer everything into disaster.
“Mouthwashing,” developed by Wrong Organ, is a short, first-person psychological horror game released on Sep. 26, 2024, onto the online game platform Steam. Set in a non-specific future, the story follows the motley, five-person crew of a freighter spaceship in their last, tragic days after the ship crashes and is left adrift in deep space. The game jumps between several points on the timeline of the Tulpar’s final journey with several nightmarish, mind-bending sequences scattered in-between, challenging you to piece together what truly happened on the ship. With hope for salvation quickly dwindling with their captain left flayed and in a vegetative state of half-death, you watch as the crew descends into madness. Since its release, Mouthwashing has seen incredible critical success, attaining an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on Steam and even being nominated for the Steam Awards in the “Outstanding Story-Rich Game” category.
This nomination comes as no surprise to me. Mouthwashing is a rare gem of a game packed with so many different narrative layers and with such well-crafted characters that I have been trying to fully unpack it since I first finished it on Dec. 25 of last year. Scarcely does a game challenge you to understand its themes as Mouthwashing does, let alone attempt to be as narratively complex as it. Even within its own genre, Mouthwashing has carved out a league of its own as a masterclass of condensed, interactive storytelling. Each element, from the PSX-style visuals, to the chilling audio, to the simple yet effective gameplay, is utilised with such elegant purpose that I cannot help but adore it - even as I peek at my monitor from behind my chair.
“Our worst moments don’t make us monsters.”
Mouthwashing wastes no time in setting its tone and begins with a mysterious and haunting prologue. The player, controlling an unknown individual, finds themself in the cockpit of the Tulpar as the autopilot warns them of incoming danger. Instead of steering left as it suggests, the game forces you to steer the ship right and override the auto pilot's emergency maneuvers. What follows is you clambering through the twisting and turning hallways of the Tulpar as you quickly realize the ship’s geometry is nothing short of impossible. Paths loop back on themself, dead ends where there shouldn’t be any, doors appearing where there previously were none - something is wrong with the Tulpar. Soon you come across foam beginning to coat the walls and block pathways, fires and burst pipes. A tremor rumbles through the “ship” and you black out, waking up in the first chapter.
There are several angles you can approach an analysis of Mouthwashing from, thanks to its multifaceted message and layered themes. Wrong Organ has expertly managed these themes to form a chilling cohesive whole that leaves its players reeling after each chapter. I hesitate to go into too much detail in this review - this is a game best experienced by yourself (it’s only QAR 30.99 on Steam!) The more you sit with the game, the more the petals unravel and give way to a putrid bloom.
“Polle the Pony says…”
The stench of late-stage capitalism, for instance, is quick to arise in Mouthwashing. The doomed crew are employed by the Pony Express, an interstellar revival of the horse-mounted courier company. There are minimal security measures on the ship; the door to the medical bay, for instance, has a lock while the crew's sleeping quarters do not. When the ship is incorrectly maneuvered towards danger in the prologue, the emergency autopilot engages only after informing the individual you’re playing as if their pay has been docked. The hallways of the Tulpar are littered with posters featuring Polle the Pony, the company mascot, featuring corporate messages of encouragement. The crew do not even know what cargo they are hauling and they are barred from finding out. It is only after they crash and begin to run low on resources that they are forced to open the cargo hold in search of food or medicine. Instead, they find crates upon crates of mouthwash. There is no mention of emergency contacts when the Tulpar crashes - their only hope for survival is to be found drifting through deep space.
“We need to be worthy of our titles. Isn’t that right, nurse Anya?”
Yet more pertinent than the anti-capitalist messaging present in Mouthwashing is its deeply character-focused narrative surrounding the five-person crew. After the Tulpar’s fateful crash its captain, Curly, is left in a horrific state of half-death, practically mummified after sustaining severe burns and wounds in the crash. He is unable to communicate beyond groaning and looking around with his one surviving eye. The ship’s nurse, Anya, is left with the task of keeping Curly alive, something that feels more and more futile as the days pass. By the time the first chapter of the game begins, a few months after the crash, she can barely stomach the sight and sound of Curly. Meanwhile, Swansea, the ship’s engineer, is irreverent and already resigned to a doomed fate. His young protege Daisuke maintains a blinding, childish optimism in the face of certain doom. Co-pilot Jimmy, who you play as for a majority of the game, takes over the responsibilities of captain and tries to keep everything together. He is not doing a very good job.
“I hope this hurts.”
All is not well between the crew members on the Tulpar. Each member of the crew has their own set of baggage they brought with them onto the ship. Bad blood, complicated histories, failures, trauma - the crew are hardly what you would call stable and healthy. In particular, Jimmy and Curly share a tight-knit history that becomes the emotional core for the game. Though they appear to have been close friends since even before their time with Pony Express, they have a fraught relationship by the time the Tulpar begins its twilight voyage. After the crash, the resentment between Jimmy and Curly quickly makes itself apparent. When Anya cannot bear to give Curly his painkillers, Jimmy begrudgingly force-feeds the captain his pills, all while disparaging him. It doesn’t take long before, as with the rest of the crew, this devolves into violence and mania. The only thing Curly can do is lay and watch as the Tulpar drifts into ruin.
“TAKE RESPONSIBILITY”
The failure of the Tulpar ultimately comes down to responsibility and the crew’s reactions to it being thrust upon them. Mouthwashing makes this very clear, with the phrase “take responsibility” appearing throughout the game. For some members of the crew, responsibility is unwillingly forced onto them. For others, responsibility is earned but not wanted. Some yearn for it, some regret ever having it. I shy away from revealing much more but as you play Mouthwashing, keep that in mind.
“Kills 99.9% of germs.”
Mouthwashing is not a game for the faint of heart. Yet, should you choose to embark on the final journey of the Tulpar along with Curly, Jimmy, Anya, Swansea and Daisuke, it will be an experience that you will scarcely forget. Though this review has focused mainly on the narrative, I cannot understate the visual and audio mastery Mouthwashing displays. Though PSX-style gameplay is fairly common among the indie psychological horror genre, Mouthwashing does not simply use it as an aesthetic, it pushes it to its limits to produce both the most chilling, quiet moments to the most frantic and blood-curdling.
I sincerely hope this brief review has convinced you to at least have a look at Mouthwashing.
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