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The RPS Advent Calendar 2024, December 24thThe final door! Spit when you’re done
The final door! Spit when you’re done
Image credit:RPS
Image credit:RPS
Here we are, the final voyage of 2024. This is the last advent calendar entry of PC gaming website Rock Paper Shotgun. Days elapsed: 24. Writers employed: 8.
I hope this hurts.
It’s short and unsettling sci-fi horror gameMouthwashing.
Brendy:At the beginning of Mouthwashing, you click buttons in the cockpit of a spacecraft and intentionally steer it on a terrible collision course. Everything that happens afterwards to the five crew members aboard this long-haul cargo ship is your fault. It’s a short game, only 2-3 hours of walking around spaceship corridors and chatting to the various misfortunates who’ve survived the crash. A troubled medical officer, a disgruntled engineer, a naive intern. The food is running out and everyone is constantly bickering. None of this will end well.
But at least there is a cargo hold full of mouthwash! The jolly advertising that punctuates the game adds a lot of dark humor to what is, ultimately, a truly grim space tale about complacency, entitlement, and resentment. As some members of the crew get drunk on the alcohol-high content of the menthol mouth cleanser, others try simply to come to terms with the heinous events that have unfolded. And, as it turns out, some of those events happened before the ship even crashed.
This is one neat trick of the game. It flips back and forth in time, pre-crash and post-crash, filling in details of the crew’s relationships and their lives. Before the crash, the captain (your character) seems under pressure, but ultimately optimistic. It’s hard to see why he would crash the ship on purpose. After the crash, you play as co-pilot Jimmy, who now has to keep the crew alive.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Critical Reflex
That includes feeding the injured and incapacitated captain his painkillers. Because, ah, the captain was in the cockpit during the impact and is now missing all his limbs. He is burned beyond recognition and covered in bandages - his monocular face the striking visual mascot of the entire game. If there’s one thing that consistently unsettles me about life aboard the Tulpar (and there isn’t just one thing) it’s the groans and sobs of the captain as he lies there unable even to speak.
I’ll take care of it.
Ed:I like the idea that throughout this horrifying tale, there is only one guarantee: everyone on board has minty fresh breath. Every waft of mouth air? Like the smell of a local Subway, if Subway replaced their southwest chipotle sauce with Colgate Total, and their hearty italian bread with some footlong synthetic fibers.
Nic:Turns out, the actualSilent Hill 2remake was only the second best torchbearer for Silent Hill 2’s legacy this year. That’s all I’ll say!
Headback to the advent calendarto open another door!
