An enflamed, gory eyeball. A crew stranded after a crash. God is not watching. Mouthwash isn’t what would come to mind when you ask me what I’d imagine with those prompts. However, now that I’ve played Mouthwashing, I can’t imagine anything else.

Mouthwashing is a gruesome story about five people forced into a position no one ever wanted. At the edge of their rope. On the ledge of a cliff. Overlooking a precipice that there is no returning from. And someone gave them a shove.

Game Name: Mouthwashing
Genre: Adventure, Horror, Indie
Developer: Wrong Organ
Publisher: CRITICAL REFLEX
Platform: PC, Upcoming in 2025 for Switch, PS 5, XBox Series S/X
Age Rating: No Rating, Reviewer suggests M (17+)
Price: $12.99 (Steam)

Extreme violence, gore, mutilation and worse on PSX-style characters. This game covers topics some may find uncomfortable or troubling. Please consider your health and wellbeing when engaging.

game trailer

It has layers like cake

I’m someone that likes to go into games without a clue. At some point I looked up a game and thought, “Yeah, this seems like something I’m into.” Maybe I read reviews about it to see if it has things I enjoy, or maybe the company caught me with a single line. Whatever the case, I usually long forget what it is a game is even about before I play.

game synopsis

Mouthwashing is a first-person horror game following the dying crew of a shipwrecked space freighter.

Who could have known what good ol’ Captain Curly was capable of? Guess he thought his crew dying alongside him was only right. But some men can’t even kill themselves properly. Maimed, limbless and unable to speak, but alive, Curly is now at the mercy of the crew he has doomed to a slow death.

— Steam Store Page

In Mouthwashing’s case, it was the game everyone was talking about. I didn’t have a clue what the game was about, but it was making a huge splash. So when Doki Doki Digest’s Scumberly announced she would be playing it on her streaming channel, I jumped at the chance to watch the game that I’ve heard repeated over and over.

“It’s a game about a shipwrecked crew.” – Scumberly

“It’s a game about a shipwrecked crew.” That was what I was told as she started the game and we watched the opening scene unfold. The crash that caused it all. From a first person perspective, our character races through hallways that seem to never end as sirens blare, fires erupt around them, and horse propaganda grows more dense until finally they blackout.

While the start of the game drew me in immediately, I was still left wondering, “Why is it called ‘Mouthwashing’?” A question that was left unanswered until the rest of the story came to light in a disjointed narrative with multiple changing POVs that swing from time before the start of the game, to time after the crash.

Mouthwashing’s story has layers on top of layers, like a multi-tiered cake, and it’s only by cutting through that pixel-crafted cake that we find the true depth developers Wrong Organ hid amongst the horrific scenery and symbolic storytelling that Mouthwashing has been praised for.

not for the squeamish

Mouthwashing doesn’t hold back on the aspects that make it a horror game. The story is dark enough that it didn’t need to pad the game with gory visuals, however, the developers, Wrong Organ, seem to disagree. We’re exposed to scenes and situations that go beyond grotesque, but only long enough to be deeply disturbed by them and unable to find fault and humor with them.

At first I thought that the addition of such imagery was unneeded and provided only for shock value, but precisely because it was so shocking is the reason it has stayed with me.

One moment we’re in a minimalist space freighter, the next we’re witnessing horrors beyond comprehension– but only briefly! A point, I think, Wrong Organ intended to make so as to not desensitize us to the impact of such violence and horror interspersed through the story.

Is this a win or a loss? I can’t fully say. I know that there are aspects of Mouthwashing that will haunt me long after I finish this article, but I find if a piece of media can manage to stick with me then it is something I found profound.

The scenes we’re forced to interact with, and the scenes we’re only to bear witness to are expertly chosen and crafted to provide the ultimate discomfort while presenting a reasonable need to complete them and move the story along. As the tension builds to a the final conflict, so does the ghastly imagery, creating a fitting end to the story of the crew on the Tulpar.

tell, not show

My usual gaming is in the visual novel medium. These are games where you read the story in a novel form, with music, pictures, and sometimes voice acting to accompany the text. In this type of game, there is a lot of subjective criticism on how a good story is told, but one thing that is constant is you’re meant to show the reader, not tell the reader what is going on.

This can happen through descriptive text, or an event or action that takes place. It is never meant to happen by having a character monologue unnaturally or bring up important information in conversation that is meant only to give the reader that info and nothing else. Real people don’t talk like that. Real people don’t remind others of corporate rules they’ve followed for 20 years.

Mouthwashing decided this consensus was flawed and the best way they provide us with information is through monologues that are climatic and impactful and play out like scenes in a movie. Surprisingly, everything they left unsaid speaks volumes as well and can be cut apart, bit by bit, to reveal character motivations, nuance, and depth beyond what I would have expected from a short horror game.

My favorite part about how Mouthwashing presents its story is that a viewer can walk away with their own interpretations of the game depending on what parts really spoke to them.

One viewer from the stream focused on a specific character’s morality, while another considered the overall message to be about corporate greed. As for myself? I saw many correlations to my time in the military and imagined Mouthwashing to be about the horrors of war and what it does to ones psyche.

Whatever take you take away from Mouthwashing, it’s likely going to be deeply personal. The narrative is beautifully done to create characters that feel deeply real and despite the cinematic way that information was given, I couldn’t help but look for more under the tragic tale of a shipwrecked crew.

a lasting impression

Mouthwashing is a game I may never have come across if it wasn’t for Scum. Yes, I heard about it from all over the internet, but I tend to miss out on the popular titles while my laser-focus is set on romance and otome games. I was fortunate enough that Scumberly had just started streaming and happened to be into this genre. It also afforded me the opportunity to write my first horror game review!

That being said, it is also a game I wish to never have to sit through again. It was unsettling, uncomfortable, perfectly grotesque, and hauntingly unhinged.

I profess I haven’t played or viewed many horror games, and perhaps my ignorance on the genre has made Mouthwashing a more standout story than a horror game veteran would view it.

It is my belief, however, that both new and old horror fans will find Mouthwashing beautifully crafted. There is a lot of care and detail in the game, and that certainly stands out to me despite my untrained eye on horror tropes.