“I hope this hurts”, reads on-screen text in the opening of Mouthwashing: a low-budget science-fiction horror video game, released last year to rave reviews.
Living up to its grim wish, the pain inflicted vicariously on the player by this game is multi-sided, but rooted in the corrosive effects of capitalist exploitation.
The non-linear narrative centres on the Tulpar, a space freighter chartered by the Pony Express company.
In the opening sequence, the player (in first-person) deliberately steers the ship into an asteroid, stranding the crew, and leaving Captain ‘Curly’ horribly maimed, needing to be force-fed painkillers.
Most of the time, players control ‘Jimmy’, Curly’s friend and co-pilot. Other crew members include the traumatised medic Anya; cynical, short-tempered mechanic Swansea; and relentlessly optimistic intern Daisuke.
The invisible hand of ‘corporate’ is ever-present in Tulpar’s cramped corridors.
In contrast to Pony Express’ cheerful colourful posters preaching workplace harmony, its employees are considered expendable, and have their already low pay docked for various infractions, like exceeding their allocated breaks.
When Anya suggests breaking company orders to raid their cargo for food and medicine, Swansea grimly states: “The only thing worse than dying slowly is not gettin’ paid.”
When the crew eventually opens the hold, it contains nothing but mouthwash, which they drink for the sugar and ethanol, hastening their descent into cabin fever.
Jimmy attempts to ‘prove himself’ by stepping into Curly’s shoes. But his incompetence and refusal to take responsibility for his failures result in even more suffering for his crewmates.
Developer Wrong Organ says the game was inspired by a previous project in which everything went wrong, and all attempts to “fix it” simply made things worse.
The game could be read as a meta-narrative for video game development ‘crunch’, where overworked and underpaid staff slog around the clock to get a project over the line under pressure from ‘upstairs’.
But Mouthwashing’s broader message concerns how exploitation and poverty poison human relations, bringing out the very worst in us.
In flashbacks, it is revealed that the company has folded, meaning the whole crew will be laid off – although Curly, alone, has been recommended for a better job.
Later, in a hallucinatory sequence, Jimmy taunts the now-mutilated captain, and from one ambitious petty bourgeois to another accuses Curly of leaving his subordinates in the dirt in exchange for a thicker sliver of privilege:
“A lot of people struggle to put food on their plates. But that wasn’t enough. Right, Captain? The lowest rung of your ladder is our highest… Life isn’t even worth living at the same level as us.”
Despite its brief runtime, and partly because of its retro-style graphics (which lend an uncanny effect to the experience), this game effectively evokes the dehumanising effects of low-paid, high-stress toil – leaving a familiar, bitter taste that no amount of mouthwash can remove.
‘Mouthwashing’ is available to download on Steam.
