This review contains spoilers

Literally the most authentic "GeoCities-like" experience transposed into a videogame.

So what do you do in this game? Not the usual "do whatever you want" simulator but a really unique point-and-click adventure where you investigate the internet in order to maintain order. But the internet itself in this game takes place inside our minds. Really.
You are an enforcer, tough, hired by the somewhat friendly Merchantsoft. The game recalls a lot of references from the yet memorable Windows 95-98 era computing but holds a very stylish pixel art mimicking the 1990-2000s aesthetics in a cooler way as you dive deep into a cove of small websites hosted by tons and tons of people around the USA (assuming it's where Hypnospace takes place since Merchantsoft is based on North America).

Gameplay wise, the game starts itself with a very inspired visual guide (with some twists) as you start straight into entering the portal to wacky websites. Among the first you'll visit is the somewhat calm Goodtime Valley, the quirky Teentopia and the very mystical Open Eyed. The whole Hypnospace in the game is where MOST of the plot is driven into and is inspired from the eternally known GeoCities, whose Neighborhoods are Hypnospace's own basis for the 'Zones'. As you explore these quirky sites, you come across people who talk about 'Trennis', people who post images of Gumfish Gooper, a really upbeat kid who likes harassing other kids in Teentopia, a helping assistant, a flying hamster, and so on. And these are only some of the first things you will come across the journey. Wacky isn't it?
Aside from that, being an Enforcer, you have the power of cooperating with Merchantsoft to flag down infringing and suspicious content all over Hypnospace in order to maintain law and order.

BUT, it's NOT always JUST than you expect.

You get to know this game called "Outlaw", which is taken from this game title's second word and is Merchantsoft's own take on their first game made exclusively on the HypnOS. Done in the hands of Dylan Merchant, dark words spur from his employees as you discover the truth behind the company and their sneaky practises against the community's will as you enter into the so-called Freelands. This is where your job as Enforcer kind of drools down into chaos as you eventually figure out that Hypnospace seems destined to become a strictly family friendly device in order to compete against Cyberworldz, a similar computing device as Hypnospace. And so, in the last chapter of the game, you are part of archiving the whole Hypnospace to figure out the last remaining secrets of the whole platform itself.

The amount of quests/cases in this game is kind of enough for the obligatory part, but the lack of an adeguate amount of sidequests is probably necessary due to the fact exploring Hypnospace alone to find other infringing content can be like exploring a unmarked jungle, as later parts of the game is full of hidden shortcuts, so you have to make guesses by searching for keywords.
And when you get to archive the whole Hypnospace, i honestly recommend to get a full list of pages as a guide for when you can't guess properly which missing page leads to. 100%ing pages in this game is kind of easy and when you do it you're expecting a surprise from the creators of the game, but for the achievements it may be quite of a little chore to do (few achievements have obviously something to do with certain side quests, such as that particular one which ends with someone taking a submarine to go at a sea trip.)

This game is a big trip for 1990-2000s web nostalgics due to the fact GeoCities back then had some strange and funny stuff back then. As of now, Jay Tholen is working on a first person shooter spin-off based on ZaneRocks_14 inspired from 90s PC shooters akin to Quake, while there is a successor of Hypnospace known as Dreamsettler, in development under Unity engine. If you are not satisfied enough, there's a official mod support used through 3rd party means, which allows you to add more pages in Hypnospace, alongside more little programs and stuff. However, the amount of mods available aren't as many and currently there is no such awesome mod such as a different story, but keeping in mind most mods are pretty used during the game playthrough and NOT for extending the game for more replayability.

Well then, this review quite took a bit long here because i sure darn loved it. Can't wait for Dreamsettler to come out in the next year.

Reviewed on Aug 06, 2022


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