Review: Mouthwashing Is a Master Class in Horror

Mouthwashing is a harrowing game with a surreal method of delivery that transcends the whole experience into something more akin to an art form. Through unfolding delusions and self-soothing hallucinations, the story delves into humanity’s darkness in a setting that inspires a deep, primordial fear. It’s hard to recommend this to everyone, but if you’re the type who enjoys artsy walking simulators with a tinge of body and psychological horror, then this would be right up your alley.

At only about two hours long, give or take, Mouthwashing is not a long game at all. However, Wrong Organ manages to tell the story with surprising efficiency. It takes place on the Tulpar, a freighter spaceship. Its crew consists of five people: Captain Curly, co-pilot Jimmy, nurse Anya, mechanic Swansea, and intern Daisuke. Almost a hundred and fifty days into the year-long journey, Curly shockingly disengages the autopilot and crashes the spaceship into a massive asteroid, leaving them stranded in space. The story jumps around when it comes to time and perspectives, drip feeding you more information about the crew’s predicament. When we get to see what happened prior to the crash, we play as Curly. Then, when it jumps to after the crash, we take control of Jimmy.

As you can imagine, being trapped in space for months while your horribly disfigured captain is moaning in agony in the medical bay doesn’t do wonders for morale. The crew starts to unravel, their flaws becoming more apparent as tensions run high. Jimmy has taken Curly’s place as the captain, and he is not great at boosting anyone’s spirits. In fact, he’s kind of a condescending jerk when it comes to the way he treats the crew, especially Anya and Curly. While I won’t reveal the twist that occurs about halfway through the game as to what in the world happened to the Tulpar in the first place, the game is a master class in how you can push video game writing to its limits.

I’m amazed at how Mouthwashing feels like a short story that I would’ve read and studied in my university literature classes. Yet Wrong Organ presents the story in a way that could only work in a visual medium. It runs a really tight ship with the storytelling, and no scene feels unnecessary, no matter how trippy or bizarre it is in the moment. The way it presents the characters’ psyches and how they start to devolve is so atmospheric and gripping. It instantly pulls you into the story.

Despite relatively short game time, there are so many memorable scenes in Mouthwashing. This is true both with context, framing, and sheer levels of “What in the world am I looking at?” value. To be honest, I decided to play and review it after I saw my friend talk about the title on social media. She said, and I quote, “I can’t get Mouthwashing out of my mind.” And you know what? My mind is still there in the foam-filled, bloody corridors of the Tulpar as well.

Outside of the disgusting and claustrophobic visuals, the game occupies a really interesting time space. It’s futuristic enough that there’s an entire company hauling cargo across space. However, there’s a retro filter over everything, the characters look like they migrated from the PS1, and the TVs that appear in Jimmy’s delusions all show old-timey cartoons or video. Most of the game consists of walking around based on what the crew needs you to do, or what Jimmy or Curly need to do in the moment.

The game’s objectives are fairly clear, but what’s really cool about Mouthwashing is how it uses objectives to heighten tension. A memorable one was “Find the gun,” which was a surprise considering in all of my journeys through the Tulpar, I didn’t see anything resembling a gun. Why would I need a gun anyway? Did something happen? Will something happen? Showing your objective first and forcing you to uncover the context later is an interesting way to raise anticipation. Since the majority of the game jumps around the timeline, it can take some time to reorient yourself in the current situation. So having to do something while also trying to figure out why you’re doing something really adds to the general sense of confusion and discombobulation until the truth of the Tulpar crash comes out.

Because the crash caused the crew to use foam to patch up the ship and prevent certain death from the vacuum of space, the Tulpar from Jimmy’s perspective differs from Curly’s. I don’t believe that Wrong Organ intended this, but between the oppressive atmosphere and my own terrible sense of direction, I thought I was legitimately losing my mind while playing this. I’d go into a room, walk out, and the corridor looks different from what I remembered. Thankfully, I figured out that this was due to my shoddy short-term memory and unfamiliarity with the ship. This feeling went away after I became accustomed to navigating the Tulpar. Granted, there are some times when the game uses hallucinations or metaphors to shake up the ship’s layout. So you can’t blame me for thinking this was happening in more mundane moments!

If there’s one thing that kind of takes away from the experience, it’s the combat and stealth segments. They felt unnecessary and clunky, and it really messes up the pacing in a game that’s otherwise so good with that. The stealth segment in particular feels like it goes on for way too long. I understand that there’s a metaphorical meaning behind it all, and I have my own theories for what it represents. But man, it really could’ve been a lot shorter. I’m not sure if Wrong Organ added these gameplay change-ups to avoid the walking simulator stigma or what. But it’s the one dead pixel in an otherwise perfect experience.

It’s hard to talk about Mouthwashing without giving away some of its more disturbing revelations and scenes. Yet those are the ones that stayed with me the most. The refrain in the game—that a person’s worst moments don’t define them or make them a monster—is something to keep in mind as the truth of what happened, along with the frayed mental states of the Tulpar crew, unravel over the course of the story.

Mouthwashing is readily available on PCs.