by Gray Bunch
Indie games are starting to take social media by storm, and with fandoms creating a wild craze over games such as Mouthwashing, surely it’s bound to be a great game due to how quickly the popularity of the game rose. Indie developers Wrong Organ released Mouthwashing on September 26th. It’s a 2 ½ hour game, so it can be played within a day. If you’re a big fan of indie games, specifically psychological horror games, this is the game for you.
I’ll try to keep this relatively spoiler-free, but it may contain some sensitive content. I’ll do my best to avoid discussing those topics!
Pre-Gameplay
When I initially heard about the game, I watched some big name YouTube channels play it, such as Jacksepticeye and Markiplier, and I’d seen a lot of fan art and meme material on social media. I didn’t understand the game to be “dark and twisty,” although now I know that’s the content of the game.
Some of the videos of Mouthwashing I saw seemed to completely misrepresent a character, but I later realized that wasn’t the case. As I tried to avoid spoilers online, I unfortunately got spoiler-ed with a lot of details and ended up just buying the game to figure out how to finish it because I wasn’t going to let spoilers ruin my fun. I bought it for $12.99 on Steam, and once I finished downloading it, I loaded it up and started the adventure of it all.
Gameplay
I started the game by myself and got through the first half before taking a break for a day. My initial reaction was that despite the graphics looking wildly different than your average indie game, it kept on that PS1 Character Model style. More specifically, the details within the game had some recognizable features of certain characters: Curly, the captain; Jimmy, the co-pilot; Anya, the medic; Daisuke, the young optimistic crew member; Swansea, the older engineer crew member. Personally, my favorite of all the characters is Anya, and although she didn’t get much in the storyline, she deserved a lot more. In retrospect, she sort of reminds me of Shelly Duval because of the sunken dark circles underneath her eyes and the pale tone of her skin.
Daisuke and other characters play an important role in the story, no matter how small. I feel like both Anya and Daisuke are often shown as side characters as the beginning and end focus primarily on the main character, but also primarily focuses on the smaller instances and troubles of the main character. Along with focusing on different instances of the story, there are moments that jump around the timeline which can make it quite confusing for a newer player. As for me, I had to repeat certain parts because I was confused. I even had to use online how-to guides to get through certain parts because it was so confusing. The game doesn’t really tell you much about what to do, but more so have you rely on the character’s dialogues to tell you what to do. I’m not much of a dialogue person, but this game really changed my perspective on it.
The beginning of the game really draws in the player, starting off with an imminent situation where the player causes a spaceship to crash, travels the hallways, and gets cornered by random horse statues. Then the game jumps back in time. In my opinion, from a gamer standpoint, a story that draws you in by what happens later in the story makes the player either not like the game and immediately uninstall it, or continue playing with anticipation. I continued to play because I’ve heard such great things and read the reviews on the game.
As I continued through the game, it got really intense. It went from 0 to 100 every time there was a jump to the storyline, and it kept my attention 100%. It also made me really upset at certain parts to where I had to take short breaks because it was written to play with a player’s emotions. The ending was more unfortunate than I would have likes, although many people said they saw it coming. I, however, thought something else was going to happen and then it startled me by how sudden it was.
Post-Gameplay
As I finished the game, and I’m not kidding when I say this, I took a deep breath when it said “The End.” It truly was such a beautiful yet terrifying game, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes indie horror games, specifically psychological horror. I’m going to play it again to continue getting the achievements because I realized there are some that I forgot to grab. They have a total of 18 unlockable achievements for players who like to do achievement hunting.
With the fandom and popularity, this game figures to continue garnering great praise and possibly awards for how well it was made. I truly loved the game, and I find the content in it beautifully written. If I were to give it a grade, I’d give it a B+. There are some things that would have to improve, and I’m sure the developers will later once there’s a demand for more content. However, the design is part of what drew me to the game. The color, designs of characters, and the music choices were all perfectly created. This is a game I definitely recommend!
