Day 208 - Mouthwashing Part 1

Horror, Actually Sad, SPOOKY MONTH! · 24 Nov 2024

Skeeter’s Take:

At last, we arrive. Mouthwashing. From the developers that brought us How Fish is Made, Wrong Organ has once again, “cooked” with Mouthwashing. I have already played this, so my review perspective may be a little different than Sam’s. I will keep it spoiler free as far as the whole game goes, but this review will contain some spoilers as I will talk about what happens in the narrative, which the narrative is kind of the entire game. You get it. I recommend playing this blind before reading anything here. It’s more fun that way, in my opinion!

I’ll stop yapping and get to it.

Welcome to the Pony Express Long-Haul Freighter, the “Tulpar”!

Tulpar is carrying a crew of five and is hauling some sort of shipment. It’s part-way through a nearly one year journey (haha, wow relatable! Haha, wow).

There are two things the player will need to adjust to pretty quickly. The story is told non-linearly and the characters the player controls have their own will, desires, and motivations - sometimes contrary to what the player might want to do.

That latter point is made immediately obvious, however.

Welcome to the Cockpit! That red text that is warning about direct collision? Oh, yeah! The player is directly responsible for this by way of “there is no other way to progress or proceed without doing these actions”. Actions like using the big and scary captain’s key to unlock the glowing red button “please-don’t-press-me-but-I’m-oh-so-tempting” button that overrides the auto-pilot. Actions like proceeding to press said button and then manually making a right turn into the collision despite the ship warning a 1.4 degree left turn needed to be made to avoid collision and resulting in the message above.

In a desperate attempt, the ship’s computer makes an ominous threat:

4000 credits from the whole crew. Damnit, navigation! Thanks a lot!

You are crashing a ship. You don’t know why you are crashing a ship. The player will have to get used to the fact that the character they are controlling has their own will and motivations, and they are simply following along.

The computer may try to reprimand all it wants, but the crash is imminent. The player may try to fight against the will of the characters, but if the game is to progress, the crash must happen.

And boy does it happen. The crash will serve as the central reference point for all (most) scenes going forward - “4 Months After the Crash”, “6 Hours Before the Crash” etc. etc.

We now find ourselves in one of the ship’s “Freddy Krueger Dreamscape” hallways. There are what can be best described as “work propaganda” posters that are plastered all over the walls.

This was the first wobble I had with Mouthwashing. I’m not the biggest fan of “Mascot Horror”, especially when it leans on it’s child-friendly, plush-marketable, no-purpose monster.

Wait, what’s this?

I’m sure it will be great.

Anyway, despite what the intro sequence will lead you to believe, I can assure you that’s not what’s happening here.

Polle here is the Pony Express’s Mickey Mouse mascot that seems handcrafted and delivered straight from the corporate boardroom. While, yes, he’s featured in some of the “Uh-oh! This is supposed to be spooky and scary!” sections, he more serves as a symbolic specter of corporate values and workplace ideals, is the way I see it.

So, here we are two months after the crash. We have Diasuke, Swansea and Anya (from left to right) and the player, Jimmy. It’s been made clear that Jimmy has taken over as captain in the wake of the former captain’s actions. The crew are discussing whether or not they should open the cargo hold. You can gather that Daisuke is a newb with an innocence about him, Swansea is the old man who wants to stay loyal to the company - not for any sort of pride but rather from fear of being docked pay for breaking the rules. And Anya is the only one who seems responsible, but not very optimistic.

Ultimately, despite Swansea’s complaints they decide they will open the cargo hold as things are getting desperate. They only have around 4 months of food left, with around 8 months of travel left.

At least Daisuke is taking it in stride:

The ship has been sprayed with emergency foam to seal any cracks from the accident.

This foam has cut off certain areas of the ship. While the crew can try to chip through it to get to certain areas, there is always the looming insta-vacuum-death for everyone if they were to hit too deep.

We find Anya in the medical bay along with a friend.

On the table is an amputated man who is covered in bandages and seemingly uncovered in skin. Anya is struggling. She needs to give the man, who we quickly find out is the former captain, some painkillers to keep him alive.

She can’t handle the process - says it makes her nauseated and I cannot blame her.

She asks Jimmy (the player) if he will take over the duty. What follows is a horrific sequence of manually opening the captain’s squelchy jaw and dropping a few pills down his gullet. The game fades to black for these sequences, forcing the player to listen and imagine the captain’s face as he painfully chokes down the one thing keeping him in this hell-state, but also keeping him from feeling immense pain. What a catch-22! Not like he has a say in the matter.

Even with the fade to black, I found myself turning away from the screen desperate for any escape. It’s grody. I love/hate feeding the captain his pills.

“People have to be worth their titles” - Jimmy

We find Anya in the lounge and it’s discussed that it was a crew decision to keep Curly, the former captain, alive. We don’t know the reasoning, but it must be a pretty good reason given the absolutely tortuous state he’s being kept in, and the fact they are using precious medical resources to do so.

We find Swansea in front of the Utility Room. He’s being “sus”, as the patrician Among Us fans would say. He says that the utility room is filled with foam and he has been refusing to let people enter it. Swansea makes some sarcastic remarks that let us know he doesn’t really respect Jimmy as a Captain.

Jimmy heads out and retrieves the captain’s scanner that allows him to read cool secret captain codes to unlock things around the ship. One of those being the cargo hold!

Everyone gathers around for the big moment with hope to find medical supplies or food in the cargo hold. Well, everyone except Swansea who just sheds any responsibility for the action:

The big reveal comes - the crew is finally about to find out what they’ve been hauling for the past few months. The doors open and the screen freezes on a sea of boxes:

We jump back in time to just a week before the crash. We get to see how the crew functioned a bit prior to the captain-induced catastrophe.

The player is now controlling the former captain, Curly. The same man now being kept alive on painkillers.

Anya is giving Curly his psych evaluation. It seems casual - like they’ve done it a million times before. Anya says she’s having trouble with Jimmy, who isn’t taking the evals seriously.

Or maybe he is taking them seriously? Brony’s exist! There are dozens of them! DOZENS!”

Curly says he’ll do the evaluation since he’s known Jimmy for a while and can probably get through to him. Plus it’s a captain’s duty!

This is when we get our first look at Jimmy. Jimmy looks like a character who would be voiced by Troy Baker:

He says he’ll meet Curly in the cockpit to discuss the eval further. First, Curly needs to deal with an incident in the Utility Room:

Swansea is pissed off that he got a shitty intern. He’s not doing anything to help unless you count standing there and chastising Daisuke as “help”. He’s even more pissed off because the vent Daisuke was trying to fix was dangerous and could have gotten himself killed. What’s worse is he almost damaged the life-support pods. We also find out that Daisuke wasn’t planned for this trip, so the Tulpar is flying a five man crew with provisions for four.

Anyway, Curly uses his magic captain’s scanner to unlock the fire ax and frees Daisuke. He gives the ax over to Swansea to finish chisling up the foam. (Surprised they don’t have a chemical solution that removes it, but that’s beside the point).

Curly leaves the two to head down to the cockpit to join Jimmy. This is the first glimpse into the fact that maybe not everything is mentally alright with the good ol’ captain here.

Upon reaching the cockpit - Curly finds pipes leading down to a dark abyss instead of the regular chair.

He jumps into the abyss and lands in crimson water lit up by a beautiful night time skyscape.

The peace doesn’t last long and is soon interrupted by error signs and steel beams appearing. A siren blares as a sun grows over the horizon until it whites the screen out.

Then, in the empty white - Curly sees a door:

Which leads into the cockpit where we rejoin with Jimmy. They have a heart to heart discussion where Curly confides that he’s been feeling like stepping down. He feels like he’s reached the end of the rung on the corporate ladder and is starting to question if he’s happy there - if there might not be something else out there for him.

A message comes in from corporate. I love that it comes in on an old fax machine, that just seems so appropriate.

The screen freezes before we get to read what the memo said.

We find ourselves in the dark in the cargo room. A single TV sits in the middle of the room displaying static.

Oh, god. No. NOT AGAIN

The player cycles through different channels. One plays a loop for an educational video on the Atom. The other an old cartoon about a magical workforce elixir salesman conning the working folk. And then - a mouthwash commercial.

We join back up with our crew immediately where we left off after opening the cargo hold.

Mouthwash. It’s all fucking mouthwash. Holy fuck. I cannot explain how hard this moment hit for me. Here are four (well, five) crew members stranded in space by a crash their own captain caused. They are struggling to stay alive, only eating vending machine soup which is quickly running out. They are low on medical supplies, low on morales, and scratching for any sense of hope.

And then there’s just mouthwash.

Imagine yourself light-years away from your home, carrying a mysterious cargo for work. You are putting your life on the line, navigating space, sharing a cramped space with the same 5 people for a year working for a company that will dock you pay for any mistake or mishap. You are already taking a big risk opening the cargo hold, but you are desperate. Only to find out you’ve been carrying fucking mouthwash. God Damn, I would be crushed.

Anya, thankfully still focused on the crew’s survival, checks the label and determines it’s too sugary to be useful as a disinfectant.

Swansea on the other hand notices the ethanol content and realizes he can use this endless supply of mouthwash to break his 15 years of sobriety.

Worse is he is even encouraging Daisuke to drink it. I can’t say I blame him. Things seem hopeless, may as well numb the pain a bit.

We jump back in time and take control of Curly again. Surprise!

Or should I say “congratulations?”

The crew is celebrating their annual company-allowed Birthday party! That’s correct! The Pony Express only allows one celebration per trip.

One communal birthday. It’s a year long trip. I love the ever creeping corporate bullshit that keeps revealing itself. With every new information given to us about the Pony Express, the more I want to yell “Yeah, that’s bullshit!”. This is very important to the core of what I think Mouthwashing is about.

Anyway, this trip it was time to celebrate Curly. He has to make his own cake though, because he’s the only one with the captain’s scanner and only the captain has access to the sweetener. (More corporate mandated bullshit. MMM, slop me up, you corporate slime!)

Anya makes a self-aware meta joke about overusing the scanner, which I appreciated. It was getting kind of tedious at that point.

Daisuke asks if you can sneak an extra bag of sweetener in the mix. For you, Daisuke? Anything.

Well, Curly decides to use his big birthday speech to let the crew know that the Pony Express will be shutting down and they will all lose their jobs upon their return. They don’t take it well. Jimmy accuses Curly of wanting this, almost like it’s his fault they are getting canned. He uses Curly confiding in him about wanting out as proof of this.

With everyone’s spirits down in the dumps and worrying about life after they return, Curly cuts the cake to end the worst birthday party I’ve ever seen. This was way worse than the time a cat farted at a party.

We find ourselves three months after the crash (for those following at home, that’s one month after the cargo hold was opened). We are told to check on Curly. This is the game’s way of letting us know we are playing Jimmy.

Jimmy goes and finds Anya to ask if Curly had been given his meds. The whole time you can hear him wailing - pretty sure she didn’t, Jimmy!

You walk in on her and Swansea having a private discussion. The topic quickly changes as Jimmy enters.

Anya hasn’t given him his meds. Really tough one to figure out there, Jimmy! I suppose it’s better to air on the side of caution since supplies are limited… Jimmy goes through the disgusting process of feeding Curly his pills. It’s still gross.

We wake up and find Curly sitting in front of his birthday cake.

Jimmy complains about the cake and Curly gives him some choice words about how you need to enjoy the mediocre things in life to even have something to compare to the good things. He just wants to eat some fucking Cake, Jimmy. Jesus.

Jimmy goes to find a knife, only to grab the ax from the back of the seat in the cockpit.

Upon returning to the lounge, we find Curly spread out on the table.

Ax. Curly. Ax? Curly?

Ax + Curly.

The game freezes as Jimmy winds up the ax aimed at Curly.

We are back 4 months after the crash. Jimmy sees the boxes of mouthwash broken into and used. We make our way to the lounge to find…

SWANSEA ABSOLUTELY BOOGY-ING DOWN AND GETTING IT. HOMIE IS FUCKED ON MOUTHWASH AND IS DANCING UP A STORM. GET IT SWANSEA! GET IT!

My enthusiasm is undercut when I notice he’s dancing with the fire ax.

I also notice the state of Polle:

Can’t say I blame Swansea for this one. This fucking thing would vomit out a coporate bullshit slogan everytime someone came near it.

We find Anya contemplating drinking the Mouthwash, but ultimately she knows it’s just an escape and not a solution.

Oh, Anya, you have been my rock through this. She asks if Jimmy can break into the medical cabinet in the hallway. She thinks there are supplies there and that they could chip away at just enough of the foam without breaking through. Plus, it’d be a good excuse to take the ax from Swansea.

Jimmy asks Swansea for the ax - he obliges happily:

Jimmy breaks through and gets the medicine from the cabinet. A bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol and some more painkillers. Curly will be so excited!

Anya asks Jimmy to give Curly his pills again, and Jimmy has a Jimmy BioShock moment. He snaps at Anya for the list of tasks she’s given him. The tasks flash on the screen just like they were given to the player. This moment turns the typical “Here’s quest, go do what quest says” into a Jimmy character moment. He’s breaking under the weight of responsibility.

He goes in to do the Curly painkiller ritual, this time sympathizing with Curly. Finally understand the true weight and pressure he was under. Curly chokes down his pills.

We find ourselves “6 hours before judgment”. We are in the cockpit, Swansea is trying to break in. We take the escape rope from the emergency closet and the pipe from the wall to bar the door. Swansea breaks in as the game freeze-frames again:

2 days before the crash - we are back in the role of Curly. Curly joins Anya in the lounge in front of a beautiful simulated night sky.

She’s just getting away from everything - a little escape. Even in the tranquility, Anya can’t help but ignore the little imperfections.

A dead pixel that she will never be able to ignore. It will always be there, reminding her of the simulated artificial nature of the scene in front of her.

Anya asks how long they still have in the trip - around 8 months is the estimated trip time.

Damn, I love this scene. Something really melancholic about it.

We leave Anya and Curly in the lounge. We are back, now five months after the crash.

Daisuke runs in and exclaims that he needs help.

And that’s where we will leave it for now.

Playing through again, I’m really appreciating this a lot more than I thought I would. I thought the element of surprise no longer being a factor might cheapen the experience, but if anything, I’m noticing just how well everything is set-up and foreshadowed. I love the very specific circumstances the crew are finding themselves in. A corporate freighter stranded in the middle of space only carrying Mouthwash and enough supplies for the trip. An extra person putting strain on the already limited supplies. The use of precious medical resources being used just to keep Curly alive. And damn, the different and clashing personalities of each person being faced with their imminent death, and given their survival, immediate loss of employment. What is there even to live for at that point?

This shit is so good, and we haven’t even finished.

Recommend: Yes

Replay Percentage Chance: 100%

Time Played: 1.5 ish hours today.

Sam’s Take:

Skeeter only played half of this game partially so that I wouldn’t have to play the whole thing in one day… but I kinda played the whole thing in one day anyway. I won’t spoil anything past what Skeeter talked about (and A LOT happens after that), I just wanted to be clear with what I have experienced.

Since Skeeter explained the entire plot, I’ll cut right to the chase and say Mouthwashing is probably the best game we’ve reviewed for this project. Now keep in Mind that Pathologic 1, 2, and Deus Ex do not count since Skeeter did not review those. Let’s not be hasty! Other than those though, Mouthwashing has the clearest vision and by far the most polish of anything we’ve played, which is good because it is also one of the few that costs actually money (twelve whole dollars!).

If I may quote my very own Slide in the Woods review: “Maybe I’m being mean, but I’m pretty done with PS1 throwback horror games”. You may now take this time to laugh at me. It’s true, I said that. In my defense, while this is certainly a horror game, it’s so far from the “ohhh, isn’t this SPOOKY?!” style of most early 3D itch.io titles, that I think it’s time we draw a line in the sand. Slide in the Woods is a spooky game. It wants you to be spooked while playing the game, then never think about it again. It’s a thrill ride. Mouthwashing has so much going on outside of the horror, that calling it spooky feels reductive. It’d be like calling Deus Ex a shooter. Technically you’re right but like… I feel like we’re missing the point.

Mouthwashing has got fully fleshed out characters, with lives and stories both inside and outside the spaceship. It’s got a nonlinear story, which not only effectively builds the mystery of the narrative from both sides, but also helps the player line up their thoughts with a protagonist descending into madness. It’s got pacing beyond just “start normal, end creepy”. It’s got things to say about ego, power, and what it means to live a “normal” life. Mothwashing, like many great horror games, explores the dark side of empathy, where we are capable of evil despite an instinctive want for everyone to be okay. How that guilt can eat away at us. How maybe we are worse than neutral, because we have the magic power to feel what others feel, yet we still act selfishly.

I’ll get into more specifics in our follow-up review, but the difference is Slide in the Woods uses a game to make you feel spooked, Mouthwashing uses Spooky tactics to enhance the game. Mouthwashing has a strong focus on its narrative, and everything around it, from its structure, to its music, is barreling towards that vision. It’s rare for something this disparate and sprawling to feel this focused. This could have easily been a “bring your own interpretation” type art piece, where nothing really adds up cleanly. Those obviously can work, but everything in Mouthwashing supports a structured, simple core story, and it’s very slick to see this kind of experimental structure and visual language used to just… tell a story.

I think that’s why this game caught on like it did. It has the artistic ambitions of some more oblique museum-piece, but with something tangible to hold onto. I’m not saying that’s a better or worse choice, I’m just saying it’s a combination we don’t see super often, and it’s clear people are hungry for it. Weirdo art-fucks (me) aren’t the only ones who can apricate thematic visuals. It’s nice to see a game that understands that the people who want a creepy space mystery can also want character depth and more interpretive sequences that function as internal monologue.

I’m very glad Mouthwashing caught on like it did. The people have deserved better for a long time. Also like, they know right?