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Mouthwashing review - brilliantly refreshing and unflinching horror

Mouthwashing is a taut, time-hopping horror game that playfully subverts expectations at every step, and is all the more refreshing for it.

It's not so much a scary game as one that simultaneously delights in pulling the rug out from beneath your feet while also extending an eager hand to haul you back up so you can see what's coming next, leaving you utterly in thrall to its dark and absurdist humour as you're whisked through time from one vignette to the next. As the colour palette drifts from cool and measured blues to manic, searing reds, sleeping bags become messier, food cans start to mount in the lounge, and yes, I think I know exactly what caused that enormous dent in the now flickering wall-to-ceiling TV screen there, too. Just when you think you've got the measure of the cantankerous Swansea, green and gullible Daisuke, Jimmy's disgruntled sense of entitlement, nervous and anxious Anya, and the clearly not right Curly, its taut and confident plotting throws yet another curveball your way that sheds fresh light on everything that's come before it.

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