I'm not often into horror games, despite having a fairly high tolerance for the genre in any other medium. I can watch horror because I don't have to be an active participant other than running out of my seat. I can read horror because it's not as visceral or tangible when it's just words on a page. But if I'm forced to actively engage with terror through my actions, the adrenaline drains away. I panic. I Forgot How To Breathe Some people might enjoy this, but not me.
However, at the recommendation of many writers at TheGamer, I played Mouthwashing. I had read praise for the game in many publications, it was only three hours long, and one of the publishers of Critical Reflex promised me that it did not have the game. that Many jumps in I decided to be brave and was rewarded with a harrowing tale of madness, abuse and the evils of capitalism.
There are solutions to some of the mouthwash puzzles. It only takes three hours, just play it and come back.
Mouthwash is a horrible experience
You might think that my criticism of the game is because I'm a big kid who can't handle horror, but you'd be wrong. While yes, I was scared, and yes, I temporarily forgot how to inhale and exhale like a normal person, the mouthwash horror is well executed.
Editor Stacey Henley wrote about her favorite sequence in the game, and I have to agree – there are a lot of incredible horror sequences in Mouthwashing. Many of its scariest moments are played out through dreamlike and surreal excursions into the depths of the Tulpar, the ship in which the characters are trapped.

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The sequence Stacey described is a long trip into the bowels of the ship to retrieve a bottle of mouthwash. Another level has you wandering through the hatches of a ship, driven by a very fast and impossibly large centipede-like creature. Another one of you is wandering around a graveyard being chased by your axe-wielding teammate.
Because these sequences are so tense and fraught with stakes—failing and dying, you're sent back to the beginning of the level forever—they're the most jaw-dropping moments of the mouthwash. However, at the same time, they are the most disappointing.
What all these levels have in common is that there is an element of puzzle solving in them, but the way through is never clear. To get the bottle of mouthwash, you have to crawl through the ship's cargo hold corridors so that your footsteps cannot be heard. If you are too loud, the blind monster in the barn will hear you and devour you. To successfully pass through the hatches, you have to run through the labyrinth and avoid the insect that rushes towards you as much as you can. To get away from your teammate, you have to stop him from jumping towards you and shoot him as he runs to hit you with the axe.
Fears of mouthwash give way to spiciness
These are terrible the first few times you try them, and it might take a few tries – again, it's never really clear what the solution is. These hallucinogenic sequences rely on dream logic, which is great for tension and atmosphere, but not so great when you're trying to solve a puzzle.
The problem with the cargo hold level is that it takes forever to crawl. I played it while barely pressing my thumb, crawling forward at a snail's pace as the beast screamed around me. It was scary for about thirty seconds, then it quickly got boring. I'd follow blood until I reached a dead end, then I'd have to backtrack and take a longer route, all the way at the brisk pace of an old man. I knew nothing would happen as long as I went slow, so the tension quickly dissipated.

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With the maze of insect hatches, the tension also disappeared, but more out of frustration than pacing. It's easy to get killed and have to start over – once you figure out the logic of the level through experimentation, it's no longer scary. The atmosphere is gone because you spent too much time noodling in it.
It was the same with the crew. As you walk through the graveyard, he will circle around you and try to come at you from behind so you don't have a chance to whip and shoot him. When I realized this, I had to go back to the corner and walk in the same spot and wait until it finally approached me. After the first few times it killed me, I was more annoyed than scared.
There is a fine line between stock and desperation
I appreciate these sequences for what they convey – each dream sequence was terrifying in its own way. And if it wasn't possible to beat the level, there was no reason to care. But at the same time, the way these puzzles were laid out meant that fear could easily give way to frustration within a minute or so, and that being able to beat them easily meant multiple attempts. It disrupts the pace of the story. It shuts down completely and disrupts the tension that has been carefully built throughout the game.
Mouthwash is still a great game. Since so much of the game is about trying to take responsibility for doing bad things, the interactivity of these surreal levels complements the narrative. As our dotagonist Jamie often says, you have to take things into your own hands to “deal with it.” I understand how these parts tie into the overall storytelling of the game. I just wish they weren't so messy, because it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I guess I can use mouthwash too, right?

Mouthwashing is a first-person horror game that follows the dying crew of a sunken space freighter.
Who knew what Captain Curly was capable of? Guess he thought his crew dying by his side was right. But some men can't even kill themselves properly. Crippled, limbless and unable to speak, but alive, Curly is now at the mercy of the crew, doomed to a slow death.
Descent into madness
Follow the life of the crew as they endure hunger, isolation and each other. People were never your strong suit anyway.
Zero chance of survival
This ship will be finished in six months. Food rations long before that.
Immersive storytelling
Pay attention to your surroundings.
Psychological fears
Your eyes lie
Unforgivable narrative
Hoping to die, or for God's sake, pray that everyone else did.