I feel like a lot of people found out about Hypnospace Outlaw through random clips on the internet, myself included. Stuff like the Granny Cream song, or the Zane Rocks page is very react-able and fun to watch, but it definitely gives the wrong impression about this game. I purchased Hypnospace Outlaw hoping for a short comedy game about 90s web pages. Instead, I ended up finding a masterfully written tragedy about art, obsession, and the dangers of the internet. This is probably the most real game I've ever played, and I loved every second of it

Set in an alternate universe's 1999, a company called Merchantsoft discovered a way for people to use the internet while they sleep. By wearing a special headband while you're asleep, you can now connect to Merchantsoft's Hypnospace network, replacing your dreams with the projection of a screen and allowing you to surf the web even while you're resting. Turns out that this is not the safest for people to be in, though, so to ensure the network is as family-friendly as possible, and to stop users from doing illegal stuff while connected, the company starts taking volunteers to help moderate their entire network. That's where you come in!

You play as a member of the Hypnospace Patrol Department, and your goal is to take the cases assigned to you by headquarters and shut down any illicit activity happening in Hypnospace. To do this you'll have to browse a huge fictional internet, scouting the pages made by the users and flagging all suspicious activity. Unfortunately, trying to keep everyone else safe involves taking a few risks yourself, so throughout your journey you'll have to solve multiple puzzles, download viruses into your system, and even search the underbelly of the network for hidden files.

While the game's technically a point-and-click adventure game, I've seen people describe it as a simulation game. And I don't blame them, Hypnospace Outlaw takes its 90s internet inspiration and goes so hard on it that you can't help but feel immersed in this world. It makes you want to browse all the zones, find new sites to visit, and see what everyone's page looks like.

Hypnospace Outlaw presents you with a very nostalgic take on what the internet used to look like 25 years ago, and it does a damn good job at it. Internet culture has evolved to a point where the same aesthetics are still used in an ironic fashion, so browsing these pages and seeing people using them sincerely is a lot of fun. Everything is just as terrible and cringe as you remember it, and you'll love looking back on it.

And that's how they get you!!! Because while the game may seem like a funny simulator where you get to make fun of old 3D gifs at first, the story slowly becomes more and more personal as you play. And sure, you have to browse the web to find the infractions, that's literally your job. But doing so will make you learn about the characters behind the screen, whether you want it or not.

Tendershoot's biggest accomplishment in this game was creating a living and breathing network of people. Dozens upon dozens of characters populate this space, and they all feel real. You get to know what they like and what their hobbies are. You get to learn about their personal life, what they believe in, and who their friends are. You see them help each other online, or even harass the people they don't like. You see them grow up and mature, or refuse to change their ways. Everyone is different, and you can truly get to know each one of them.

And then, in exchange for all that

The game gets to break your heart.

I guess it's because I've interacted with the internet all my life, in one way or another, but I think this is the most real game I've ever played. Not in a oh this happened to my buddy eric last week kinda way, but more like every single part of Hypnospace feels familiar to me. Of course I didn't live through Y2K wearing a retro-futuristic brainwave device everytime I went to bed, but seeing these characters, their webpages, and how they all parallel real life... It kinda feels like I did.

I absolutely love the themes of obsession in this game, and the lengths people will go to just to get some recognition. Dylan wants to leave Merchantsoft to pursue his own art. Erick wants to go back to his glory days when everyone liked him. Tim just wants Tiffany to pay attention to him. And in the end, the credits roll, and you're left in there wondering what happened to everyone. If anyone will get to have a happy ending.

Social media has made everyone believe they're the main character of the universe, and Hypnospace Outlaw does an incredible job at showing this same phenomenon in a 90s setting. You've seen these stories over and over again in your social media feed. You already know how it's all going to end. But you get so attached to these characters that, when it finally happens... it's heartbreaking. I cried a lot while playing.

Finally, I'd like to talk about the presentation because it's amazing as well. The game perfectly mimics the whole spectrum of what 90s webpages looked like, from serious pages like Bill Aldrin's "House of Sound" magazine, to the wackier caricatures of what people post online like BurninRubber50's homepage. The developers put so much effort not only in replicating this aesthetic, but also in making sure each page felt unique and true to what their editor really is like.

The game also has over 4 hours of music, which is absolutely insane for a game that takes around 10 hours to complete. So many artists came together to explore lots of fictional music genres, and the fact that almost every page has their own song playing in the background adds so much to the feeling of realism.

And just like everyone else who played Hypnospace, I gotta shoutout Hot Dad for playing the role of Erick Helman and writing all of his music. The role of a washed up 80s rockstar fits Hot Dad's style perfectly and he's literally the reason I found this game to begin with. Long live The Chowder Man.

Also Neil Cicierega did a couple sound effects for the game? Apparently? That's fun.

In conclusion:

I love Hypnospace Outlaw.

It has a premise that's very close to my heart, and does an incredible job at developing this idea further than I expected, in a way that only a video game can. It manages to perfectly walk the line between being sad and funny, and knows exactly when and how to deliver its message. The writers made an amazing job at making every single character feel human. You want to see them grow up and get better... and it hurts when you aren't able to.

Simply put, this is one of the best games I've ever played. 10/10

...

Anyway I can't believe they put grouvee in hypnospace that's so crazy?!?!?!?

Hypnospace Outlaw mimics an alternate universe OS, with comedy, horror, and tragedy that makes this a truly memorable and immersive experience.

The player is an Enforcer of illegal content on an early version of the Internet called "Hypnospace" and is tasked with policing anything that violates five specific laws. Some of these range from the easy to spot (searching for a cartoon character's likeness and flagging content) to the obscenely difficult (uncovering a secret file sharing network, solving mysteries in unauthorized pages, etc). The game is much more robust than the Papers, Please style of heartlessly stamping down on users though, with the option to scroll pages, install applications (and virtual pets), and participate in a very demented game prototype.

As for the culture of Hypnospace, it seeks to be as close to 1999 Internet as you'd expect, with a "Coolpunk" music movement, extremely edgy or extremely saccharine pages, uncomfortably Christian or boomer-esque pages, and plenty of nerdiness abound. The game starts with a biting satire on your own conduct as an enforcer but morphs into something much more serious down the line (can't spoil it!) and while it's easy to laugh on the surface, there's honest and heartfelt tales at the core of all this kitschy presentation.

Graphically this game SHINES - with an extremely unique presentation the graphical effects definitely wow the player while seeming as garish as possible. The music can range to all sorts of MIDI-induced horrors, along with some insanely catchy bits (The Chowder Man). The writing is also top notch, involving genuinely naive/innocent depictions of characters as a source of comedy but also a sincerity that keeps it from being too tongue-in-cheek.

The only thing I would call a downside would be the sheer difficulty of some of these puzzles - with deliberately obtuse layouts and the game urging the player to blindly explore in some places it can be super easy to get lost. Thankfully there's a hint system handy for that purpose along with some other helpful bits here and there. If you don't mind a challenge (that would be best shared with friends), Hypnospace is a trip into a world you might never have lived but will definitely miss.

Originally I presumed that the devs were using the idea of being a cyber-cop in 1999 as a way to observe how the internet was back then through a humorous and exaggerated light, as a parody of sorts, but it turns out I was wrong. It’s actually a very earnest look into how awkward, honest and heartfelt it used to be, with an emphasis in the awkward. I should clarify that I started using the internet around 2007, so I can only assume that things were indeed like this back then.

As expected, technology back then was very clunky, something which is reflected in the gameplay. Your job of finding TOS violations becomes a lot harder when you lack basic stuff like the ability to quickly change between windows, to see your desktop without closing everything first, a more compressible bookmark system, browsing history, etc. All of this makes the game a lot more tedious than it needs to be. Yes, it is a reflection of what technology was like back then, but, at the same time, we are using a sci-fi headband mind-pc, so they could have ignored realism in favor of a better gameplay flow.

Along the game design, the puzzle design also gave me problems, but your mileage may vary. The game expects you to be somewhat lost and to explore this vast cyber-space, which it is pretty enjoyable on its own, but when you are trying to advance the plot, you might just ignore everything that isn’t immediately useful for you. I started to enjoy the game immensely more after using a hints guide, so I had a general idea of where to look, and to know when I’m going on a tangent on purpose. It also turns out that the game has its own hint system, you just need to search for the word “hint”. I didn’t find that out until after I finished. Fun.

Getting lost is an important part of the experience, since the game packs just so much content to see: personal pages, even more personal hidden pages, stores, religious pages, games, videos, music, comedy, tragedy. There’s a lot to see, and it can be overwhelming at times. Especially after playing long sessions, the loud colors and repetitive music will start to annoy you. That said, the music on its own it pretty good, and you can tell everything was put in place with a lot of care by someone who knew what they were doing.

Lastly, my only other complaint, after the intended clunkiness, would be the ending. Without going into spoilers, it feels incomplete, the game just ends, almost like it’s missing an epilogue. After spying on these users, you form a sort of one-sided friendship with them, and I was always interested in the next step of their lives. A “where are they now?” segment would have been great. More time exploring the “main bad guy” would have been nice too, or the many mysterious hackers that roam the Hypnospace.

That said, I really do enjoy the stuff that there is. The ending did leave me depressed and empty, but that might be just me and not a reaction the developers were looking for.

Overall it’s a great experience, attached to a not-as-great game, with an insane amount of content, most of it optional. I feel like this is one of those games I’m gonna have to replay eventually to form a final opinion, but right now I’m between 3 and 4 stars, leaning more to 4.