The next three months are becoming more and more horror-stacked by the day. What started with just theSilent Hill 2remake has expanded to other potential heavy hitters likeSlitterheadand The Casting of Frank Stone. Several exciting smaller titles have appeared too, chiefly Hollowbody and now Mouthwashing. This last onejust got a September 26 release date for PC,and, with its demo already proving to be intriguing, could very well turn out to be something PC-based horror fans won’t want to miss.
Mouthwashing puts players aboard the Tulpar, a small interplanetary freighter ship for the Pony Express. It has, unfortunately for its crew, managed to go off course and is now stranded in deep space with no hope of rescue. Its five-man crew is now faced with the prospect of living out their last few months staring down both starvation and the isolation of deep space, all of them facing the same question: How do they want to die?
The Tulpar’s crew is in the worst possible situation, and it might have been intentional.
Whereasgames like Signalismixed psychological horror with Resident Evil-style shooting gameplay and exploration, Mouthwashing appears to be focused almost exclusively on its characters and how they’re dealing with their predicament. Players can (and must) explore the Tulpar, but it seems to be more for the sake of getting to know the crew members better and uncovering the truth about them, the ship and the captain who might have gotten them all into this mess in the first place.
Not everything players uncover will be trustworthy, however. Isolation, slow starvation and the fear of death all do terrible things to the mind, so dealing with the ever-looming threat of madness is also a major component of Mouthwashing. Players will have to do their best to distinguish hallucination from reality and will likely have to come to their own conclusions once they reach the end.
Not everything players uncover will be trustworthy.
Mouthwashing launches for PC via Steam on September 26. The demo is still available onthe Steam pageright now, and it provides a decent selection of sections from the opening chapter. Feedback onthe community pageindicates that it’s already doing a good job of telling Mouthwashing’s story, so it’s probably a good idea to jump in and get a taste before the full launch.
Review: Signalis
Those in the mood for a quick yet quality-filled horror game should check out Signalis, as it delivers welcome sci-fi scares.
