A mutilated man stares at you, his single piercing eye following as you move around the room. His filthy bandages hide a ruined face, raw lips circling disturbingly perfect teeth, and his moans echo through the halls. But that eye: it knows something you don’t. At least not yet.
Developed by Wrong Organ, Mouthwashing rightly earned a lot of praise when it was released in 2024; it’s an extraordinary first-person horror adventure game placing you among the five-strong crew of the Tulpar, a commercial space freighter part-way through its year-long mission to carry its unknown cargo across the stars. Moments into its dramatic opening scene – “0 days before the crash”, we’re told – things go dramatically awry, establishing a dire tone and a baseline of dread that only builds from there.
Mouthwashing isn’t a game laden with jumpscares; instead it is a masterfully crafted discomfort simulator, conjuring unease through its claustrophobic environmental design, strong audio work, disorientating structure and pacing, and a lo-fi visual style that creates spaces for your imagination to fill.
Slowly, for instance, the Tulpar’s already gloomy corridors constrict, shrunk by the crew’s increasingly desperate use of repair foam; this continuous degradation of the space around you mirroring the minds of its characters, as circumstances grow increasingly dire. For as enjoyable as Mouthwashing’s light puzzling is, you’re really here for its unexpectedly impactful story.
This is an intelligent game that trusts its audience, and that’s most obvious in its breathless, non-chronological narrative. It’s a story that doesn’t stay still, that offers no moment to breathe. Scenes transition into each other with a digital datamoshing effect, almost as if you’re watching system files recovered long after the fact. And each transition often signals a different, disorientating kind of switch, as it’s not always clear when – or even who – you are now.
I don’t want to spoil much, but there’s a surprising amount of subtlety to the way characters are portrayed and gradually evolve. One crew member, for instance, sleeps near a statue of the shipping company’s cartoon mascot, which emits voice lines whenever someone draws near. The reason why isn’t spelled out to you, but on a second playthrough, this small act of self-preservation becomes clear. And Mouthwashing only grows more rewarding with each subsequent return as you start to notice this attention to detail more and more.
Speaking of characters, one is particularly deplorable; a truly detestable creature up there with Shepherd from the original Modern Warfare trilogy and perhaps even Eric Sparrow if you’re a Tony Hawk’s Underground fan. Their narcissist journey, culminating in a spiral of delusion that really made my skin crawl, exemplifies what makes Mouthwashing work so well.
Its horror stems from the psychological disintegration of the Tulpar’s crew, and the way the resulting violence unfolds. Violence is sparse and unglorified here, but you’re often an active participant, much of the nastiest actions occurring when you’re in direct control. It absolutely made me wince a few times.
And then comes the closer; one of the most moving monologues I’ve heard in a video game. It’s a final message – not only to a member of the crew, but to you the player – on taking responsibility. By this point, what’s done is done, leaving one – perhaps futile – final decision to make. One last chance for a kind of salvation. For me, it’s a message that hit home.
Mouthwashing is powerful stuff, then; a different sort of horror this Halloween. It’s an easy recommendation, and has been wowing PC players for a while. As of today, though, it’s finally available for consoles – PS4, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X/S to be exact – and is out on Game Pass too. Additionally, there’s currently 40 percent off on Steam.
