Mouthwashing

*Mouthwashing* is a 2024 psychological horror game developed by Wrong Organ and published by Critical Reflex. Released for Windows on September 26, it takes place aboard the Tulpar, a Pony Express cargo ship stranded in space after a deliberate crash. The five-person crew has limited supplies, no apparent way to call for help, and a shipment they are forbidden to open. The game begins after the disaster, then moves between the days before and after it, gradually changing what the player understands about the crew.

Captain Curly survives the collision but is severely burned and disfigured. Unable to speak or care for himself, he depends on the others for pain medication and basic attention. His co-pilot, Jimmy, assumes command and tells the crew that Curly caused the crash. The remaining members are Anya, the ship’s nurse; Swansea, its mechanic; and Daisuke, a young intern. Their strained conversations make the Tulpar feel less like a puzzle to escape than a workplace whose failures have become impossible to hide.

Before the crash, Pony Express informed Curly that the company was shutting down. This delivery would be the crew’s last. Anya also told Curly that Jimmy had sexually assaulted her and that she was pregnant. Jimmy’s account of the crash is false: he steered the Tulpar into danger himself. The shifting timeline lets players see how his fear of accountability shapes his treatment of the others, especially Curly, whom he can blame precisely because Curly can no longer answer him.

The sealed cargo eventually turns out to be mouthwash. Its contents offer a bitter joke about what the company valued enough to ship while its employees faced catastrophe. Swansea, who has struggled with alcoholism, understands the danger of the mouthwash’s alcohol content. As conditions aboard the Tulpar worsen, the crew’s attempts to survive produce further injuries and deaths. The game’s first-person exploration is interrupted by distorted, surreal sequences that reflect Jimmy’s increasingly unstable view of events.

*Mouthwashing* does not end with a rescue or a restoration of order. Jimmy places Curly in the ship’s single working cryopod, leaving him a chance of survival, then kills himself. Whether anyone will find Curly remains unknown. That ending keeps the focus on a question the game has raised from the start: what happens when someone insists on seeing himself as responsible for everyone, while refusing to take responsibility for what he has done?